Grade: C+

Verdict: Thunderbirds are more show than go.

By BOB TOWNSEND
Cox News Service

A big budget, live-action makeover of the '60s cult TV series of the same name, "Thunderbirds" is another movie that feeds the notion that Hollywood knows how to take the oddest and oldest of material and make it look spectacular -- even if the final product is as empty as a dummy's head.

The original "Thunderbirds" was created by British television producer Gerry Anderson, known for stylized, action-packed puppet shows ("Supercar," "Fireball XL5, "Stingray") with "supermarionation." That bit of hype simply meant that the marionette stars had mechanisms that controlled their eyes and mouths.

But the often visible wires couldn't make them walk in a realistic manner, so they usually just sat, piloting fantastic vehicles and engaging in jerky, soap opera dialogue. Of course, that's what made Anderson's work beloved as classic kitsch and spawned nostalgic retrospectives such as the new DVD set, "The Best of Thunderbirds" (A&E/NewVideo).

Taking several pages from Anderson's stories, the movie finds billionaire former astronaut Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton) leading International Rescue, a secret group headquartered on a remote tropical island in a sexy, high-tech structure that looks like a cross between the Playboy mansion and a NASA control center. Rescue is manned by Tracy's stoically handsome and heroic sons, who are ever ready, willing and able to save anyone, anywhere using the gee-whiz gadgetry of their rockets-gone-wild, known as Thunderbirds.

When the family's archenemy, The Hood (Ben Kingsley), hatches a plot to strand them all on a space station in order to hijack the Thunderbirds for his evil deeds, only the youngest Tracy, Alan (Brady Corbet), and his pals Tin-Tin (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) and Fermat (Soren Fulton) are left on the island to save the day.

The kids call on haute pink British secret agent Lady Penelope (Sophia Myles) and her pugilistic butler Parker (Ron Cook) for help. And when Lady P and Parker go after The Hood and his two kooky thugs, nerdy Transom (Rose Keegan) and crazy Mullion (Deobia Oparei), things get going for a while. Brains (Anthony Edwards), the scientist who invents all the Thunderbird stuff, also adds a bit of fun.

But the rest of the cast, most notably Paxton, acts as if they've been told to play their parts like human marionettes.