Review by: Chris Barsanti of Filmcritic.com
Director: Stephen Sommers
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Bob Ducsay, Stephen Sommers
Screenwriters: Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, Paul Lovett
Actors: Dennis Quaid, Christopher Eccleston, Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Sienna Miller, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Said Taghmaoui, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Rachel Nichols, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Arnold Vosloo
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Premiere Date: August 7, 2009
FilmCritic Review Rating = 2.0 out of 5.0 Stars
For better or for worse, what G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra inarguably does is to replicate quite well the experience of watching the militarized toy-advertisement cartoons that enraptured so many youthful males during the Reagan era. The film, as programmed by Stephen Sommers, captures the same gung-ho esprit des corps and the theme of banding together with an internationally diversified team (led by an appropriately rock-jawed American, of course), to do battle with a super-evil terrorist force. Both sides (the G.I. Joe team and their slithery evil enemies Cobra) have more weaponry to draw upon than the entire Wehrmacht, and many grudges to settle — not to mention a propensity for ninja tactics and rappelling into battle, which makes things that much more exciting.
Differences exist, of course, between Sommers’ film and the TV show of old. As this film is billed as Cobra’s “Rise,” the group is not yet a world-dominating threat itself, but rather an enforcer for a particularly nasty arms dealer (Christopher Eccleston, with an accent as broad as all of Scotland), who has plans to unleash vicious nanotech bots on the world as a preliminary action to a full-scale fascist takeover.
Read the full review by Chris Barsanti’s at FilmCritic.com.
You can find excellent and thought-provoking film and DVD reviews from such critics as Bill Gibron, Chris Barsanti, Sean O’Connell, Chris Cabin, Jason McKiernan, and more from our good friends at FilmCritic.com, one of the first places to check out for the best reviews on upcoming films and new-to-DVD.
Copyright © 2009 Filmcritic.com
I don’t know what the critics expected… ‘GI Joe’ was what it should have been a summer action/cool special effects/cheesy one-liners popcorn flick! The plot was the “Rise of Corba”… did I miss something? It was enjoyable!
Can’t believe the total lack of attention to detail given the amount of $$$ that was spent on this film. During the movie, the main character was referred to as “captain”, but did anyone pay attention to his rank insignia during the flashback to the formal dinner scene? Am I mistaken or was he wearing a major’s rank insignia?
You know, the rank insignia didn’t glare at me too much. What really sealed this was the fact that ICE FLOATS!!!!
I used to watch GI Joe animated series wayback in my childhood days. the movie version of GI Joe is definitely the best.