I put G-Force on the same way you might approach a medical appointment or a DMV trip: Okay, this has to happen, let's get it over with. But for some reason — and trust me, no one is more surprised by this than I — I actually found myself kind of, sort of, mostly enjoying it. Or, at the very least, respecting it as a well-crafted movie with enough silly, wacky and constant stuff going on that it would probably work as a piece of kid entertainment, and one with a ridiculously strong cast who gave their all to, yes, a semi-animated film about a group of guinea pigs who work for the U.S. Government.
And I will repeat that, because if it isn't the strangest possible premise for a $150-million dollar movie in 2009, it's at least in the top three. Animal trainer, scientist and patriot Ben (the bearded Zach Galifianakis, from The Hangover) is running a secret program to use specially-trained guinea pigs outfitted with high-tech gear (including devices that let them speak) to infiltrate, investigate and run covert operations in the name of national security. There's Darwin (Sam Rockwell), the plucky leader ("I'm only 9 inches tall; I always see the up side."), hotheaded Blaster (Tracy Morgan), femme fatale Juarez (Penelope Cruz) and techspert mole Speckles (Nicolas Cage, with just enough distortion that I had to look up who it was doing such a good job of voicing the mole).
Sent to infiltrate the home of ex-arms dealer Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy, being a very good sport), the team gets information about a secret extermination plan — but back at the base, the file is gone, leading FBI disbeliever Kip Killian (Will Arnett; again, the cast is ridiculously strong here) to shut down the project and take the G-Force in to custody; sure they know the real story's being hidden, they go on the run out into the world to discover the truth about not only Saber's plot but also about themselves. …
In theaters, G-Force was 3D, which was probably a little much of a good thing; at home the film scales quite nicely to the smaller screen, and the sub-plot about Darwin being reunited with his long-lost brother Hurley (Jon Favreau; again, it's nuts how good this voice cast is) plays out a little more warmly than it might have in 3D. The effects and action are also both far better done than you'd expect from a movie about talking rodents. The screenplay is by the duo of Cormac and Marianne Wibberly, who have a nice sideline in acceptably lame action films — National Treasure, I Spy, Charlies Angels: Full Throttle and others — and the film's understanding of the structure and the expected nature of spy films comes through on every page.
Director Hoyt Yeatman was previously a visual-effects supervisor for many films that came out of the Jerry Bruckheimer producing empire –The Rock, Con Air, Armageddon — and yes, he knows how to shoot an action scene. Produced by Bruckheimer, G-Force wants to lightly mock action films and also be an action film, and the resources of the Bruckheimer empire come in handy when film's climax includes a robot colossus made out of appliance kitchen appliances; you can probably just pull the software from Transformers off the shelf and put together something lickety-split when Jerry Bruckheimer is guiding the project. …
The DVD includes only one extra — a full commentary from director Hoyt Yeatman that serves as a great guideline to the technical and artistic hurdled in making a film like this where actors have to work with commuter-animated characters and the computer-generated characters have to work with the actors. It's not a lot of fun, but if your kids are interested in film making, it's actually more interesting than dry. G-Force isn't especially consistently good — the film seems to think that nothing is more funny than any kind of warm-blooded mammal passing gas — but I was pleasantly surprised by how much care and craft went into it, and how a dedicated cast of stars turned light, silly stuff into real fun family entertainment.
Posted on December 16, 2009 at 3:54 pm
My family will probably be renting this once we get a chance to since we’ve seen a lot\a ton of films in the theatre itself.
This filmm G-Force seems stupid and lame, but the animal in it is like another Bugsy from Bedtime Stories.
Although, this one is better for kids-I love the movie Julie & Julia!
Does Redbox have this one up for rent yet?