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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra (Film)

by Hernan Alcerreca | August 06, 2009 10:55 | Edited August 06, 2009 10:56

In its simplest form as pure popcorn fun, G.I Joe doesn’t fail to deliver an exciting adventure. Just leave your brain at the door.

You could easily explain the longevity of the G.I. Joe action figure in the market (over forty years) by pointing out humanity's deplorable obsession with war. But trying to accuse director Stephen Sommers' G.I. Joe: Rise Of Cobra of glorifying violence would be nothing more than a pointless exercise in futility -  the flick dwells so far away from the realms of reality, that to condemn its cartoonish violence would be just foolish.

 

What Sommers does with G.I Joe: Rise Of Cobra is to put himself in the shoes of a ten-year-old boy with an overactive imagination. Except that instead of action figures, he has actors, and instead of a living room as the battle field, he has millions of dollars to spend on exotic locations and CGI. Now tell us, what kid in his right mind would say no to that?

 

There's no way to take this movie seriously, and that's exactly what makes it so much fun. Suspending disbelief from the film's very start is a must, but Sommers leaves you with no other choice but to sit, enjoy and try to keep your jaw from dropping at the impressive visual effects. It also helps that, regardless of how many bullets and explosions fill the screen, his approach to violence is so charmingly naive. Just like J. J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot, even though G.I. Joe: Rise Of Cobra is neophyte-friendly, there's enough meat in the plot for the hardcore fans to sink their teeth into.

 

There's a fine line between an inoffensively silly and fun action-packed blockbuster and a masturbatory exercise in self-indulgence - perfectly exemplified by Michael Bay's brain-dead Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. An extra shot of butter from Sommers, who left on the cutting floor any pretences of grandeur in favour of pure (and very gratifying) popcorn escapism.