 Alex Rider has become a hero among teenager readers after first appearing in Anthony Horowitz's books. Damon Smith takes a look at the first Rider film, Stormbreaker, and reviews the week's other new releases. Anthony Horowitz's books about 14-year-old special agent Alex Rider have been translated into 28 languages and sold nine million copies. No wonder Geoffrey Sax's film version of the first book in the series has been eagerly awaited. It pitches itself as a teen Bond movie with gadgets, guns, pretty girls and a deranged megalomaniac. Unfortunately, Stormbreaker isn't a patch on the other pint-sized pretender, Spy Kids. The myriad action sequences are well choreographed and infused with energy but they are nudged to implausible extremes. There is never any chance that Alex (Alex Pettyfer) will be hurt and his ability to escape from the jaws of death without a scratch beggars belief. During a bicycle chase through London, Alex elects to ride kamikaze down the middle of a busy street into oncoming traffic rather than keep on the empty pavement a few feet away. And a subsequent quad bike chase sees the teenage secret agent riding on two wheels for no other reason than that it looks cool. When his uncle, bank manager Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor), dies in mysterious circumstances, schoolboy Alex stumbles into a world of intrigue. He discovers Ian was a top spy for the Special Operations Division of MI6, working under the aegis of Mr Blunt (Bill Nighy) and Mrs Jones (Sophie Okonedo). They recruit Alex into the fold so he can infiltrate the lair of billionaire Darrius Sayle (Mickey Rourke), who has offered to install the new Stormbreaker computer system free of charge in every school across the United Kingdom. Mr Blunt smells trouble. "We don't trust him," he tells Alex. "Why?" replies the schoolboy. "We don't trust anybody," responds Mr Blunt. Sure enough, Darrius and his sidekicks are concocting a hare-brained scheme to strike fear at the heart of the country and it's up to Alex to stop them. Screenwriter Horowitz, working from his own book, maintains a jaunty pace and ensures some gentle comedy. Pettyfer is photographed like a poster boy pin-up with lots of close-ups of his blond locks fluttering as he pouts with intent. He doesn't have the acting muscle yet - the delivery of certain lines is stilted - and the use of stunt doubles is obvious. Supporting cast don't so much deliver performances as master-classes in exaggerated facial movement: Nighy rolls his eyebrows with abandon and Silverstone contorts her mouth into curious shapes without warning. | 
Movie double-acts come in all shapes and sizes ...and with varying degrees of success.
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