When I heard that they were remaking the Thunderbirds as a live action film, I have to admit I was quite excited about seeing the results.

My earliest memories of my childhood are being stuck on the sofa with tonsillitis and watching Terrahawks, Thunderbirds, UFO, Stingray and Captain Scarlet on a Saturday afternoon.

The original Thunderbirds show somehow always managed to maintain an air of serious respectability… The film however is total cheese!

But then to some degree that added to it’s charm.

As cheesy as the film is, I’ve already watched it twice

The acting is totally over the top in most places, but the film manages to capture pretty much all of the excitement of the original series.

Where the original show was always sombre and serious as far as I remember, the film is camp, funny and outright entertaining.

Or at least I thought so!

I’m certain the film will appeal to the younger audience that it is predominantly aimed at, but I think fans of the original will still find it enjoyable if they can get past the over-acted, goody-goody, campy feeling.

I recall something similar being done for the remake of “The Avengers” which just didn’t seem to work at all, but Thunderbirds seemed to pull it together quite nicely.

I’ll be the first to admit it’s not going to be to everyone’s tastes, and it will probably irritate more fans of the original than it converts, but it’s good for a few hours of entertainment, and for some reason Bill Pullman was the only member of the cast who I had any urge to beat senseless after pretty much every line he had.

All in all, if you’ve got kids, they’ll probably love it, if you’re still a big kid at heart, you’ll probably find it reasonably entertaining, if not you may want to give it a wide birth and relive your younger days by watching re-runs of the original series.