Date watched: 6/21/11
Director: Stephen Sommers
To begin with, I apologize for this choice of film.
I was planning on reviewing Le Samouraï, but I have had a really crappy day and did not feel I could take my personal misgivings towards everything and separate them from my opinion of the movie. So I picked something stupid.
Stupid fun bears a role in cinema. Almost everything I was raised upon has no seating in the roles I have come to appreciate in my years as a filmgoer. I am not saying that this movie is 'good' stupid fun, but it is harmless stupid fun.
One of the first defenses I had for this film is that its intended audience was children. This begged the question, "Why the boobs in skin-tight leotards then?" I thought back to what it was like to be 10-12 years old and playing with dolls action figures at this time. They were generously proportioned. Did you read comics at this time? Even something intended for 80's "tweens" like New Mutants? The females had gigantic naughty bits, but the comic was still intended for the pre-, post- and neo-pubescents. The pre-adulterating of action and zeitgeist is nothing new.
This is not a good movie. But it is harmless. Sure it makes an appeal to the original G.I. Joe generation. The lines, "Kung Fu grip"; "Knowing Is Half The Battle"; and "Real American Hero" should have copyright symbols flash on screen when spoken.
Yet this movie still highlights the problem with modern action-cinema. I could blame The Matrix... that is an easy wagon to hop on. If Vanishing Point had been made after The Matrix, the final scene would have Kowalski plowing into the bulldozer with the film switching to super-slo-mo and a fireball playing out over a minute of viewing. But really, The Matrix isn't at fault. The albatross truly hangs about the neck of Spielberg.
When Spielberg made Jaws he (albeit) unintentionally put technical extravaganza before the telling of a story. American film was experiencing a Renaissance at this point, we were approaching world cinema. And then the first "summer blockbuster" was released to the world. Things changed from there. Film became a seasonal event, studios planned entertainment as a civil servant would plan a Saint Patrick's Day parade.
I love Jaws. I have seen it (no joke, it was a challenge) over 200 times. I have seen Jaws in a swimming pool with 60 others and while flying over an Atlantic thunderstorm. It is one of my favorite movies.
The train of thought is being derailed here. G.I Joe... Garbage? Yes... Harmful? No... Wrong?
That is more difficult to decide than a 1 out of 10 rating...
Rating: 3.3/10
Favorite bit: The "cameo" by Brandon Fraser.
Reminds me of:
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