G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra [Blu-ray]

Director: Stephen Sommers Stephen Sommers

Overview

Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) adapts the beloved Hasbro G.I. Joe toy line with this Paramount Pictures production that pits the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity against the evil forces of the organization known as Cobra. Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum star as General Hawk and Duke Hauser, respectively, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marlon Wayans leading the rest of the cast, including Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Sa?d Taghmaoui, and Asian film star Lee Byung-hun.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/19/2010
UPC:	0097361166346
Original Release:	2009
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	1:57:00
Sales rank:	24,933

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	Heavy Duty
Christopher Eccleston	McCullen / Destro
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	The Doctor / Rex
Lee Byung-Hun	Storm Shadow
Sienna Miller	Ana Lewis / Baroness
Jonathan Pryce	U.S. President
Rachel Nichols	Scarlet
Saïd Taghmaoui	Breaker
Channing Tatum	Duke
Ray Park	Snake Eyes
Arnold Vosloo	Zartan
Marlon Wayans	Ripcord
Dennis Quaid	General Hawk
Karolina Kurkova	Actor
Grégory Fitoussi	Baron de Cobray
Brendan Fraser	Actor
Gerald Okamura	Hard Master
Leo Howard	Young Snake Eyes
Brandon Soo Hoo	Young Storm Shadow
Karolína Kurková	Cover Girl
David Murray	James McCullen - 1641
Kevin J. O'Connor	Doctor Mindbender
Michael Benyaer	Flight Control Technician
Peter Breitmayer	Dr. Hundtkinder
Christopher Akers	G.I. Joe Security Tech
Elena Evangelo	White House Staff
Fabrice Baral	CNN Reporter
Mark Hames	White House Staff
Jacques Frantz	Bastille Prison Warden
Michael Broderick	Screaming Man
Wayne Lopez	G.I. Joe Security Tech
Kellie Matteson	G.I. Joe Control Room Technician
Burton Perez	Bravo Soldier
Bob Rumnock	M.A.R.S. Lab Worker
Michael Sommers	Neo Viper Secret Service,Little Girl
Gunner Wright	Secret Service Agent
Duncan Bravo	Foreign General
Robert Russell	Bastille Prison Priest
Charles Howerton	Foreign General
Robert Almodovar	Foreign General
David Jean Thomas	Foreign General,Apache Navigator
Frederic Doss	Apache Navigator
Larry Hama	NATO General (uncredited)
Buzz Covington	Apache Helicopter Pilot
Ron Thompson	Apache Helicopter Pilot
Alan Silvestri	Composer

Technical Credits

Stuart Beattie

Paul Lovett

David Elliot

Stephen Sommers	Director,Executive Producer
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura	Producer
Bob Ducsay	Producer
Brian Goldner	Producer
JoAnn Perritano	Producer
Roger Birnbaum	Executive Producer
David Womark	Executive Producer
Erik Howsam	Executive Producer
Gary Barber	Executive Producer
Stuart Beattie	Screenwriter
Paul Lovett	Screenwriter
David Elliot	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Fans of the '80s cartoon series G.I. Joe were aghast when they read the cast list for the 2009 film adaptation of their beloved franchise. Full of teen heartthrobs and tabloid darlings, and with an oddly demure young lad playing the badass Cobra Commander (that kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun?), the usually relishable dream-casting stage of the project fizzled out pretty fast. But even with a weird mix of actors and the use of silly costumes, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra definitely pays homage to the animated series -- so much so, that if your inner 11-year-old isn't ready to come out and play, you can probably just stop reading now and cross this movie off your list. It's sort of an origin story, explaining how top-of-their-class soldiers Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) came to be enlisted into the ranks of the titular black-ops military branch, and how the baddies who'd later be known as Destro and Cobra Commander ended up creating the ultra-evil Cobra organization -- all through a plot about some kind of super-weapon falling into the wrong hands and an obligatory lost-love-who-turned-evil (The Baroness, played by Sienna Miller). But you don't really need a reviewer to tell you that the plot isn't really what's important in a movie based on a toy franchise. (Though, in fairness, the story's fine. No overly complex, two-and-a-half hour Michael Bay stuff here.) It's about crazy bionic weapons and explosions and girls in black rubber catsuits with guns strapped to their thighs. It's about guys riding a clear elevator to the main floor of the team headquarters to find people sparring and repelling off walls and testing invisibility suits, all in the same room. It's about a guilt-ridden soldier who can't forgive himself for letting his comrade die rolling up to the funeral on a Harley V-twin chopper and staring pensively from a distance. You see, in spite of the technical changes -- some of which are not worthy of defending -- and the usual choice to base lots of stuff on the comics rather than the cartoon (who the hell is Breaker?), the overall feeling of the movie is actually pretty faithful to the animated series that most people are familiar with. It was that odd mix of straight-faced earnestness and bananas action that made the cartoon so much fun, and that's what the movie delivers. When it's exciting, it's exciting, and when it's campy, nobody has to wink at you to tell you that it's okay to laugh. Some of the CGI is pretty sad (there's a polar bear that looks crappier than those Coke commercials from 1993) and they probably didn't hire a fact checker for the script, but thankfully none of that detracts from making it just what it should be: a great popcorn flick.