G-Force

G-Force is a specially trained team of guinea pigs, a mole and a fly. They must foil the plans of Saber, a millionaire, who wants to take over the world with these home appliances that ultimately transform into Megatron. Or something along those lines.

I watched this one because it was available in 3-D. My first Disney Digital 3-d film. From the aspect, the kids will enjoy the things that pop out at you. This film has a few of those moments, water, debris and glass. Although it just didn't do it for me. The 3-D in this film didn't enhance the film or astonish me. Thus, it ultimately feels like a gimmick and will until a certain film that is planned to be released in the near future apparently plans to change that. I'm not saying it wasn't well done, I just expected more.

The film is mixed animation and live action. The animation is obviously the rodents and insects, while the cast is formed of Hangover star Zach Galifianakis, Will Arnett and Bill Nighy. Galifianakis is really timid here and Nighy does his whole British thing, while Arnett plays the G-Rated version of an A-hole. Nothing memorable, and the kids won't care about these people. They want to see the funny guinea pigs do funny things. Yet, in the theatre I was in, which was full of kids, had hardly any laughs. That's not to say they won't enjoy themselves, because the film is entertaining. It's just not that great a comedy.

The voice acting is great, Sam Rockwell plays Darwin, the lead commando. Tracy Morgan is Blaster, if anyone has seen him on 30 Rock, it's the same here. Penelope Cruz is the female character, who toys with the boys on which one she likes. Nicolas Cage plays Speckles, the mole who is a tech whiz. In this film if you did not know it was Cage playing this character, you would never know it was him. The voice is so different that is makes you scratch your head, well done on all parts.

The child favourite without a doubt is Hurley, the guinea pig that our team meets in a pet shop. He has a bad case of flatulence and is the 'dumb' friendly character. He gets the most laughs, which like I said, wasn't many. Finally Steve Buscemi has a small role as a hamster and he plays it exactly as you would picture Buscemi to play it. The voice work from everyone was top notch, but if I were to hand it to anyone, it wold be cage for his transformation to the unknown.

The animation is well done, the final action sequence does feel like it comes straight out of transformers, but it looks neat. The interaction between human and creature is still noticeably fake, even after all these years they can't seem to perfect this. Since this is a Bruckheimer film, you know there has to be non-stop action. This involves car chases left right and centre, covert-operations and battles with giant creatures. The film is fuel injected to the bone with this. There are moments here and there to slow everything down, yet they are extremely short and don't seem to do much to create conflict for the characters. When the guinea pigs are told they aren't special, they get doubt themselves, this lasts all but one scene because in the next they get a pep talk and are back to the chase sequences.

The plot is one that we've all seen before. Unlikely heroes stopping someone from world domination. So don't expect anything new in the story department. The reveal at the end is lame and predictable, the whole bad guy plan is extremely far fetched and doesn't make sense. Although if you're expecting this film to make sense I guess you're in the wrong theatre. These are talking guinea pigs after all.

The film is entertaining and the kids will most likely enjoy it. It does seem like a typical Hollywood kid flick and it is exactly that. There's no life lessons learned and by the end of the film your kid will want a new pet.

I advise you: get drunk and watch this festival of furry, talking technophilic cuteness.

I barely remember the story which means it didn't suck and I remember a movie that sucks but just go along for the ride with amazing set pieces and impressive animation.

Who doesn't like guinea pigs? I wouldn't be surprised if Cavy sales rise after the impression these CG 3-D specimens create in the PG audience. Their mouths alone are cutely depicted and entertaining in their own right.

I had read a small unflattering local review and didn't want to waste my time. My 8 yr. old Son, however, got his own idea from the trailers, and wondered how a "review" could possibly say it was "no good" as I had reported. So I took he and his 10 yr. old buddy to the matinée.

I'll admit there were a couple of wordy moments where the illusion was broken for me, but on the whole, with the involving 3-D effects, there were enough chuckles and action to leave me wondering why it was trashed. I've seen much worse. I liked it better than Alvin & the Chipmunks, and Up... but I think Monsters VS Aliens was more re-watchable.

As we left the chilly theater to enter the hot afternoon, I asked the boys what they thought. "It was awesome!" Well, not my exact thoughts but it wasn't a bad distraction from more serious current affairs.

G-Force is a clandestine team within the FBI consisting of enhanced talking consisting of leader crested guinea pig Darwin (Sam Rockwell), tech expert star-nosed mole Speckles (Nicolas Cage), agouti guinea pig Juarez (Penelope Cruz), and fox guinea pig Blaster (Tracy Morgan). When G-Force's agency handler, Dr. Ben Kendall (Zach Galifianakis) sends G-force on an unsanctioned mission to the home of former weapons dealer turned home appliance magnate, Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy), to investigate possible intel on an imminent threat, the team discover a plan called Clusterstorm which is due to take effect in 48 hours. When the team present their findings to Agent Killian (Will Arnett) the evidence of Clusterstorm has seemingly vanished and with the unsanctioned op on Saber's home Killian makes clear his intentions to shutter G-Force and have the guinea pigs repurposed for experiments. After learning of this, Darwin and the others go rogue to try and prove Saber's connection to Custerstorm without their agency resources and equipment and must do so in 48 hours.

Released in 2009, G-Force is certainly an oddity when you look at it. Directed by visual effects artist Hoyt Yeatman, a frequent of many Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay productions, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer with a $150 million budget comparable to a Transformers movie, and featuring a plot that seems like one of those many direct-to-video children's films lining Wal-Mart bargain bins featuring the likes of Dean Cain and Kevin Sorbo, G-Force is one of those films that's just head scratching in its existence. While movies with talking animals can have decent sized budgets with the likes of Cats & Dogs, Garfield, Scooby-Doo, or the Stuart Little movies, in the case of Cats & Dogs that was $60 million, while the other three were based on established properties with Scooby-Doo near continuously in the popular consciousness since 1969, Garfield a mainstay of the Sunday comics, and Stuart Little a mainstay of elementary school reading lists. With G-Force, they've basically taken the framework seen in most of the Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible films (save the 2nd one) except the leads are guinea pigs. I can't say it works, but I also can't completely write it off either.

The opening 20 minutes are probably the best part of the movie because when we open with Zach Galifianakis approaching Darwin about the mission involving Leonard Saber, there is NO build up to it whatsoever and throughout this opening sequence which is filmed staged and presented exactly how you'd expect a PG-13 spy based action movie to open, it's pretty much played with a straight face with G-Force doing all the standard spy shenanigans. Pretty much every member of G-Force falls under a "type" you've seen in this type of formula action pic (leader, tech geek, etc.) and I will say there is a level of charm that comes through from seeing this stock action plot played out with guinea pigs as the action leads that did somewhat endear itself to me. Of course once the movie sidelines itself with much of the spy stuff put on the backburner until the climax, we watch G-Force putter around until the "plot" can catch up with a lengthy sequence involving G-Force stuck in a pet store or in Juarez and Blaster's case adopted by kids who are basically Sid and Hannah Phillips from Toy Story except with different names (though the "sid" ishness never goes as far as Toy Story because it would probably play much crueler on "actual" animals).

The middle section is where we also get the most grating character with Jon Favereau's Hurley who is massively obnoxious as Darwin's supposed "long lost brother" who anchors himself to the rest of the plot for no real reason, is a massive liability to both himself and Darwin, and is the source the film's worst jokes and most eyerolling moments, and while I understand this is a family film and comic relief is expected, we already had a comic relief character well prepared with Tracy Morgan's Blaster who is actually fairly humorous and endearing, so that just makes Hurley's inclusion all the more pointless. The rest of the cast are fine all things considered with Sam Rockwell selling the no-nonsense leader and Penelope Cruz fitting well as the team's live-wire, and then we have Nicolas Cage as Speckles whose voice seems...off, I don't know if it's been run through a synthesizer or if Cage is modifying his delivery, but it's weird to get a name actor like Cage to voice your movie and hide his very recognizable voice. The movie's special effects are fine all things considered with the Guinea Pigs never really looking like they're "there", but they are expressive with lots of movement, and the action sequences in the final act involving household appliances does lend itself to some creative moments.

G-Force is inoffensive family entertainment that will appeal to its target audience. There's really not much here that differentiates the nuts & bolts of the standard for this kind of movie, but the novelty of seeing it on a much larger budget than similar fare like Spymate does admittedly make it more engaging of a sit than the direct-to-video fare attempting this same thing with 1/15th the resources.

This is the most enticing film I have ever watched. A true master piece displaying the true artistic integrity of film. The underlying themes of a monotheistic society exploring the themes of Christianity and the teachings of the lord. A true masterpiece that really is a work of art and one of the most fabulous film I have ever witnessed. Nicholas Cage has a Masterful performance as Speckles and should have won best supporting actor. This film is ground breaking in the way of unconventional story telling. I love this movie, it cured my depression. Thank you Hoyt Yeatman, beautiful film, 10/10