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DVD Corner: 'G.I. Joe' is fun, but over the top

Mac Olsen
for Spotlight

Rated PG-13 by the MPAA: One hour, 58 minutes: $26.99 for single-disc DVD edition and $30.99 for single-disc Blu-ray (reviewed) at www.amazon.ca; other editions available

Another 1980’s Hasbro toy line and animated TV series has been turned into a modern live action flick, ‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra’, which is a good piece of entertainment for the most part.

The casting sheet is long for director Stephen Sommer’s visually stunning masterpiece, but the main cast for the Joe forces consists of Channing Tatum as Duke, Marlon Wayans as Ripcord and Ray Park as Snake Eyes and Rachel Nichols. The lead actors for Cobra are Christopher Eccleston as James McCullen/Destro, Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow and Sienna Miller as Anastasia ‘Ana’ de Cobray/Baroness.

The story opens with Duke and Ripcord escorting a potentially lethal weapon, nanomites, under heavy armed guard. McCullen, a military weapons producer, is the creator and predicts utter devastation for the human race if it becomes weaponized. Soon, the Baroness and Storm Shadow attempt to steal four of inert weapons and it’s only the arrival of G.I. Joe which thwarts them.

Duke, Ripcord and the device are transported to G.I. Joe’s secret operations and training base. Duke and Ripcord are stunned at what they find and soon engage in a rigorous training program.

Their testing results show they have the potential and are invited to the team.

Meanwhile, McCullen, Storm Shadow and the Baroness devise another plan to steal the devices. They succeed and go to Paris to weaponize the devices.

The Joe team discovers their intentions and they follow.

To stop them, Duke and Ripcord run through the streets in futuristic, high-tech weapons suits, causing a lot of damage in the process. But it’s to no avail, as Storm Shadow launches one of the weapons at the Eiffel Tower, causing the nanomites to eat its metal and bring it down.

However, Duke manages to trigger a shutdown with a device the Baroness is carrying, but he’s also captured and taken to Cobra’s secret base. Suffice it to say, the ensuing battle is intense and lethal, and it’s also the moment where many secrets are revealed and transformations take place.

Character development plays second fiddle to the action.

The most interesting is between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, which traces their conflict from childhood when they were being trained by the same martial arts master.

This is an action movie, which means lots of CGI, stunts and explosions. The movie does pretty well in this regard, with the exception of the Duke-Ripcord chase through Paris. They perform jumps and stunts which really push the boundary of believability, not to mention their suits look and act very similar to the suit in ‘Iron Man’.

Nonetheless, ‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra’ is fairly good entertainment, deserving 3½ stars out of five for great special effects, stunts and the Snake Eyes-Storm Shadow martial arts sequences.