Another British movie. It was released in Britain yesterday and will be released in the US and everywhere else on August 18th. The movie is a bit like James Bond but the spy is a kid.
Alex Rider is a 14 year old orphan who has ben unwittingly trained all his life by his uncle with the skills to become a secret agent - scuba diving, mountaineering, martial arts, and so on. When his guardian, an MI6 agent, is killed, Rider learns the truth and finds himself forced against his will to take on a dangerous mission for the British secret service.
Alex discovers that his uncle has been murdered by Yassen Gregorovich, one of the most dangerous assassins in the world. Recruited by Mr Blunt and Mrs Jones of the Special Operations Division of MI6, the schoolboy realises that by encouraging his hobbies, his uncle has thoroughly prepared him for a career in espionage.
Linguist, scuba diver, mountaineer, crack shot and martial arts expert, Alex has all the attributes to make him the perfect teenage superspy. Armed with these and his own set of special gadgets, he embarks on his first mission.
Billionaire Darrius Sayle has offered to donate a free Stormbreaker mega-computer to every school in Britain. Is there more to his generosity than meets the eye? Alex is sent to investigate. Going undercover as the winner of a computer magazine competition, he infiltrates Sayle's heavily guarded lair.
He meets the tycoon's sinister sidekicks Mr Grin and Nadia Vole and is shown the cutting-edge Stormbreaker computer. Sneaking out of his window in the dead of night, he witnesses the delivery of mysterious containers - he is on the trail of something big!
Soon, however, his cover is blown and he has to make a daring escape. Armed with the Stormbreaker information, Alex is suddenly in a race against time. With the help of his housekeeper, Jack Starbright, and girlfriend Sabina Pleasure, it's down to Alex to make sure Sayle's plan does not succeed.
Alex Pettyfer as Alex Rider.
The young spy parachutes out of a plane over London.
With Sarah Bolger as Sabina Pleasure.
Alicia Silverstone plays Jack Starbright.
Andy Serkis as Mr Grin.
Missi Pyle as Nadia Vole, Sayle Enterprises' public relations agent
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The characters
Raised by his uncle and housekeeper after his parents' deaths, at 14, Alex Rider has become a crack shot, black belt in karate, a powerful scuba diver and a mountain climber. When MI6 approach Alex with an offer he can't refuse, he has to leave his old life behind.
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Dapper and charming, but deadly, Darrius Sayle, played by American actor Mickey O'Rourke, is a billionaire entrepreneur and head of the giant Sayle Enterprises conglomerate. Using his intellect to amass a small fortune, Sayle has been quietly plotting revenge on the society that tortured him as a child. (The Americans always make the bad guy an Englishman in their movies, so we've got the bad guy as an American in ours).
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Yassen Gregorovich is Russia's deadliest assassin, a ruthless, cold-eyed killer with the superfit build of a ballet dancer. Agent of a shadowy organisation, Gregorovich efficiently dispatches all those whom his employers find threatening.
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Jack Starbright is Alex's housekeeper, guardian and best friend. She's quirky, glamorous and a little crazy. Born in America and fascinated by Japanese culture, she's picked up some karate moves from an ex-boyfriend.
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Fourteen-year-old Sabina is the prettiest girl in Brooklands School. She's a champion horseback rider and more interested in Alex by the moment. Her expert riding skills prove essential in helping Alex to foil Sayles' deadly plans.
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Sayle Enterprises' public relations agent Nadia Vole is secretly one of Darrius Sayle's most trusted and deadly henchmen - the kind of heartless killer who laughs as her victims are stung to death by a giant jellyfish and takes a souvenir photo.
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Once a circus performer, the sinister Mr Grin earned his nickname the hard way. He used to close his knife-throwing act by catching a blade in his mouth. One day his concentration slipped.
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