Cuando uno piensa en George Clooney generalmente uno piensa en actor, sin emabrgo si uno es atento y revisa bien los créditos de las pelis se puede dar uno cuenta que Clooney igualmente es productor, generalmente, de las pelis en las que él actúa y una que otra peli independiente (generalmente son pelis bien entretenidas), es escritor de una (Good Night, and Good Luck) y también es director.

Hoy estuve revisando y resulta ser que me he visto las tres pelis de Clooney y en su orden cronológico. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind de 2002 basada en la novela de Chuck Barris y con el guión de Charlie Kaufman, Good Night, and Good Luck de 2005 que lo llevó incluso a varias nominaciones al Oscar de La Academia y Leatherheads de 2008.

Como actor es garantía de una peli entretenida, a veces con humor fino y otras veces con dramas bastante crudos. Como escritor se toma demasiado serio las cosas y no lo hace naturalmente entonces se siente un poco acartonanado o ladrilludo y como director pues ha sido una loma en bajada. Su primera peli, de la mano de Kaufman me pareció un éxito como producto, su segunda es interesante, es contestataria pero repito un poco muy seria y acartonada. En esta su tercera, vuelve a relajarse un poco, haciendo comedia junto Renée Zellweger, Jonathan Pryce y John Krasinski pero no es una peli que uno vaya a destacar mucho en el futuro.

La banda sonora es impecable, así como el vestuario y los parlamentos que hacen una ambientación de excelente factura. Un detalle de fina coquetería fue usar la marca de Universal Pictures de la época, sin embargo los créditos estuvieron más bien mediocres.

La peli aguanta un domingo pero seguro Clooney es mejor actor y productor ejecutivo que director hasta ahora con lo que ha venido mostrando. No conozco más proyectos en el futuro que no sean actorales. Yo le pongo fé para que ojalá le vuelva a sonar la flauta.

Data
Title: Brazil
Year: 1985
Length: 142 minutes
Director: Terry Gilliam
Writers: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard & Charles McKeown
Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughan, Kim Greist
Music: Michael Kamen
Distinctions: currently #240 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a man in a bureaucratic dystopia obsesses over a woman from his dreams
How I saw it: on video several times (used to have on DVD), most recently (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Bad.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Bad.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). I used to think this movie was great, but I can’t figure out why. Maybe it was just because I loved other Gilliam movies, so I thought I should love it. Or maybe it’s the same reason that every young person who hasn’t read too many books thinks 1984 is the best thing ever. In any case, I was pretty bored watching this yesterday. The visuals are great, but they rarely actually contribute to the storytelling. There are some great scenes, mostly when it’s being silly, and some great acting from Holm and Palin (meanwhile, De Niro is pretty bad), but the story just doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about it too much.
Objective Rating: 7/10 (Pretty good).

Echelon Conspiracy may be a little rough around the edges, but the fighting sequences were very impressive and the main story was quite interesting.

My rating

If you have never heard of Echelon Conspiracy is probably because it was only released for one week in about 400 theaters in late February 2009. The movie only made about $500,000 in the US, it actually made more money abroad where it was released for longer than a week. Believe it or not, that happens a lot with American movies.

Echelon Conspiracy is the story of a young network administrator who unexpectedly receives a cell phone by mail then soon after begins receiving strange text messages instructing him to do seemingly random things. The text messages would advise him on when stock prices would go up, when computerized slot machines would pay out and it would even tell him when to bet big during a blackjack game.

The story revolves around an investigation on trying to find out who is sending the messages. However, when the FBI learns that the messages are coming from Langley the investigation is halted. Instead they begin a different investigation to find out who has broken into Echelon, the NSA’s communication computer. The story becomes a pretty decent action adventure after the kid is finally caught. Although not perfect, the director does a good job at keeping you guessing who the good guys and the bad guys are.

The producers of this movie do an okay job at keeping the suspense through out the movie, however the acting is very week and that leads to a lot of confusion during the film. Regardless, the story is quite entertaining. I am not sure how plausible it is, but who cares, it’s a movie. While this movie wasn’t as good as Eagle Eye or Enemy of the State, it did borrow some elements from both, however they managed to keep it fresh and not appear to have been stolen.

The movie features some pretty cool fighting scenes, some of the best fighting scenes I have seen since the Bourne series. There were some decent car chases and some very cool plot twists. In all it’s not a bad film.

The film does feel a little amateurish, I am not convinced it wasn’t, but that is fine. Greg Marcks, the director of this film only has two other films under his belt. In my opinion Greg is still learning the ropes, however, I do see a good future for him.

NOTA : 7 RECOMANDAT

Download subtitrare G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Trailer G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra :

• If you really like musicals, you’re going to like this film. If you don’t, you won’t. Simple as that. I, however, love musicals, so I loved it.
• Ahh the songs are awesome. After I saw it I downloaded them all onto my iPod.
• I liked Madonna in this role. She can actually act and she has a perfect voice for the part.
• I loved Antonio Banderas, and I loved how he kept turning up in random places.
• Yeah, I enjoyed it, but I’d understand why people who aren’t big on musicals wouldn’t…but I guess you could say that about every film!

The summer of 2009 ought to go down in history for featuring two of the worst blockbusters in recent memory. While 2008 gave us fun superhero flicks like Iron Man and The Dark Knight, 2009’s offerings include a terrible Transformers sequel and this particular clunker, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Yes, it’s based on the toy and yes, it’s as awful as you’d expect.

Directed by Stephen Sommers, G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra seems to want the honour of taking down Michael Bay’s Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen in terms of obnoxiousness and explosions. Unfortunately for Sommers, it’s really difficult to top Bay at anything stupid and he comes up short here. This movie is slightly better than the Transformers sequel, but it doesn’t miss the mark by much.

The movie is produced by Hasbro and is essentially a live-action toy commercial set to a whole lot of weird rap-metal music that shirtless wrestling fans will love. Talking about the plot is almost pointless, but the basic gist of the thing is that some weapons expert (Christopher Eccleston) has created technology that works a little like advanced termites. Called nanotechnology-based weaponry, the idea is to unleash all of these little bug type creatures on structure and have them eat away at it.

Of course, the technology falls into the “wrong hands” after the Baroness (Sienna Miller) and a bunch of other bad guys hijack a transport shipment. This leads two army guys, played by Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans, to want to find out why. It also leads them into the clutches of a group that has been tracking the bad guys for a while. The group is, of course, the G.I. Joe team and they’re led by General Hawk (Dennis Quaid).

One thing leads to another and, over the course of about two hours and a pile of chases and explosions that mean virtually nothing, the Joe team takes on the bad guys and tries to stop their evil plot to…do…something. Loads of the toy characters (?) are present, including Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), and of course the Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) himself.

Expectations for a movie like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ought to be firmly fixed on the ground. This is about blowing stuff up and doing it for various swooping and slowing camera angles. There’s really nothing else to this project of CGI porn than that and, if you’re unfortunate enough to expect some sort of additional entertainment value, you’re out of luck with this one. Sommers has his target audience in mind and delivers the goods.

The problem is that it’s just all so darn lame and, frankly, oddly disturbing. This is a movie that requires something to blow up about every thirty seconds or so. There are fights galore, none of which are very good, and a lot of chasing around through cities and landmark areas. The thing about all of this racket is that Sommers doesn’t have a bloody clue how to direct these sequences and effectively neuters them from providing any sense of danger or suspense.

A key example of this is one of the film’s key chase sequences through Paris. Cars flip and explode left, right and centre, with their innocent and uninvolved occupants presumably chuckling about it (seriously, what’s the innocent person body count estimate on this beast of a movie? 3000 or so?) after the fact. The Joes race through in ridiculous suits that make them almost impervious to, well, anything, and there’s just no risk to it at all. There’s no reason to care, save for just looking at the explosions and the CGI things flying around, and there’s no real reason to get excited unless G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is, in fact, your first time at the movies.

I’m not going to get into the performances because, quite simply, I don’t care. Sienna Miller is an able replacement for the Megan Fox-ish part, of course, and her appearance in a number of dominatrix-style getups isn’t all that bad. As for the rest of it, you don’t need me to tell you what G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is designed for: yeah, there’s a sequel or two coming and, yeah, there will be toys.

0.9/10

Trailer:

Why you should go see Harold Pinter’s ‘The Caretaker” at the Everyman Playhouse, Liverpool:

Because Jonathan Pryce gives an utterly convincing and compelling performance as Davies.
Because the way it is staged gives you you a clear, funny and powerfully unnerving production.
Because it is such a well-crafted play with Pinter’s trademark packed with layers of meaning dialogue.
Because I suspect that the actors playing Aston and Mick will become very familiar faces on stage and screen.

http://www.everymanplayhouse.com

Jonathan Pryce returns to the Liverpool Everyman in Harold Pinter’s ‘The Caretaker’ as Davies the loquacious tramp.  Pryce first arrived at the Everyman forty years ago and soon found himself running the theatre for six months.  Since then, Pryce appeared in The Caretaker in 1981 at the National Theatre playing the Mick, the dangerous young hustler, and now graduates into the role of the ever complicated and equivocal Davies.  As I find almost always with Pinter, you either love it or you loathe it… I personally love it!  This is a fantastically witty and unapologetically courageous piece that is simply enchanting.  Pryce’s character is very natural, not over-thought as can sometimes be detrimental with Pinter’s works.  The play is cleverly complemented by a suitably squalid set and delicate, subdued lighting.  The Everyman is such an beguiling and unpretentious space that succors this type of production perfectly.  The theatre is deservedly receiving redevelopment next year as part of an ambitious 28 million pound capital project across the two venues but Pryce was pleased to return to the venue as he remembers it from those many years ago.

A perfectly delightful evening at the theatre, The Caretaker plays until 31st October at The Liverpool Everyman and from 2nd to 7th November at the Bath Theatre Royal.

theatreJunki © 2009

Last Saturday my Wife and I went to the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. We were off to see The Caretaker by Harold Pinter. The wonderful actor Jonathan Pryce was starring in it.

This is the guy who was Sam Lowry in Gilliam’s Brazil, Mr Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes, Jack in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies, Governor Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean and star of numerous other films, TV shows and stage plays. He was also appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

He is a proper actors actor and has a cool sounding voice.

Okay, for those who know the Everyman Theatre we were downstairs in the bar / restaurant queuing up for some food before the play. I was chatting to my Wife when she suddenly stopped and pointed behind me quite dramatically before turning away. Worried I quickly spun round like a ninja…well maybe more like a man in his mid 30’s with a beard.

It was double take time. There standing in the queue was the aforementioned Jonathan Pryce (turns out he that after he graduated from RADA he joined the Everyman Theatre Liverpool Company, eventually becoming the theatre’s Artistic Director. Plus it is where he met his wife, so he was basically returning to his roots with this play).

He looked very well, bearded like myself (he was playing the tramp Davies in the play) and he was just a bloke standing in the queue waiting for some food.

Now I could have blurted out something like, “Holy Bloody Fracking Cow, Your Jonathan Pryce,” or “Holy Jabba you’re the Dude from Brazil!”, or “Sweet Jumping Jack Flash you were in that film with Whoopi Goldberg whose name I forget.”

I could have said them, but I am cooler than that. So much cooler. Oh yes. You can’t touch this man for coolness.

Thinking fast and not forgetting that I run a film blog (this small fact instantly fled my mind – I need to get business cards made up) I took a deep breath and turned back to Mr Pryce.

“You were the last person I expected to see when I turned around.” I exclaimed with a smile on my face.

“I am everywhere.” He responded with an all knowing grin on his face.

We nodded and returned back to our inner monologues before ordering food and departing henceforthwith.

Definitive proof there that Jonathan Pryce is indeed God.

That makes my tally of people from Pirates of the Caribbean that I have spoken to up to two (I spoke to Johnny Depp at the Public Enemies press conference) and chatting to people who have worked with Terry Gilliam up to three (Depp and screenwriter Tony Grisoni).

The Caretaker was excellent. Funny, chilling and a little disturbing in places. Pryce was fantastic as were Peter MacDonald and Tom Brook. I recommend it and it runs until 31st October at the Everyman.

Also check out this interview with Jonathan Pryce about his return to The Everyman…nope no mention that he met me.

En algún momento Terry Gilliam fue un gran héroe para mi. De chiquito me impactó mucho con esta peli llena de fantasía y de humor: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Peli que dirigió en 1988, cuando apenas tenía yo once años y cuando no había escuchado  nada de Monty Python, Time Bandits o incluso Brazil pero seguramente lo investigué de alguna forma porque después cuando dirigió The Fisher King en 1991 y luego Twelve Monkeys en 1995 poco después de haber yo entrado a la u ya sabía quien era. Lo conocía muy bien y lo admiraba hasta el fanatismo.

En algún momento sus pelis empezaron a espaciarse y después de Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas en 1998 hasta el día de hoy ha desarrollado tan sólo tres pelis (The Brothers Grimm y Tideland en 2005 y The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus en 2009 peli que aún no he visto). Muy triste.

Anoche me vi otra vez, Las Aventuras y fue sencillamente maravilloso recordar la ternura con la que aborda Gilliam el tema. Un humor sencillo, una aventura llena de juegos narrativos, dramáticos y actorales. Una fábula de un héroe en decadencia que logra ganarle una vez más la partida a la muerte.

El reparto igual que la peli es fantástico: John Neville como Hieronymus Karl Frederick Baron von Munchausen, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley muy muy chiquita, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman encarnando como ninguna otra la Venus de Botticelli, Jonathan Pryce, Robin Williams y hasta Sting.

No me canso de verla y volver a ser un niño encantado con esta maravillosa peli.

I was delighted to see that the book of poems commemorating Adrian Mitchell, Adrian — Scotland Celebrates Adrian Mitchell, edited by Chrys Salt and John Hudson, which is being published and launched in late October, has made the news. The article in the Times makes play of the book’s claiming Adrian as Scottish – his father was – but also acknowledges Adrian’s view of himself as a blend of many influences – he described himself as “a socialist-anarchist-pacifist-Blakeist-revolutionary”.

I don’t remember Adrian as being anything but Mitchellish – the United States of Mitchell being a utopian headspace anyone who was gentle, angry, joyous and kind-as-often-as-possible could join if they had a mind to.

He was one of a few of my father’s friends whose presence was always welcome in my life. A sometimes stern but always genial avuncular figure, whose approach to poetry most influenced me at an early age, his words were the ones that followed me to and from school and at nearly all points in between.

In my teens I used to go to parties at his house in Hampstead with my father – parties which could have been overwhelming events for a teenager, given that they were stuffed with actors, poets, musicians and any number of other interesting people, but for the fact that Adrian’s generosity, presence and good nature swiftly evaporated all feelings of over-stimulated nausea. I remember one, aged 15 or so, at which I bumped into Jonathan Pryce on the stairs. I’d not long before seen Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and stood there looking like a fish struggling with the angler’s hook, until I was coaxed away by Adrian.

In the early 1990s, just as I was beginning to find my feet as a poet, Adrian became poetry editor at the New Statesman. I nervously sent a few poems to him – so nervously that I neglected to include a stamped addressed envelope. He wrote back, gently telling me that the poems showed promise but weren’t going to be published and that, in future, it would always be looked upon kindly by harassed poetry editors if the submission came accompanied by an SAE. I don’t think I’ve been told off so sweetly and caringly before or since – I wish I could find the letter.

I saw Adrian infrequently in the last ten years or so, but it was always a joy, be it at Glastonbury Festival’s Poetry and Words tent (he was the one calm man in a sea of frenetic bacchanalia that year) or in Stroud, where he came regularly to read and see the poets Dennis Gould and Jeff Cloves. I miss his ebullient fire, though his books and recordings are a fine reminder of it.

I should add at this point that Adrian — Scotland Celebrates Adrian Mitchell – doesn’t just contain Scottish poets. There’s a few of his old non-Scottish friends, including my father, Pete Brown and Paul McCartney. And there’s a poem by me, inspired by the memory of his parties. I can’t claim any Scottish blood or connection (other than I like the country and have red hair – although that comes from the Jewish side of my family). I would, anyway, rather be Mitchellish than English, Scottish, Jewish or whatever.  It’s an honour, though, to be in fine company, in a fine book, commemorating such a very fine man.

To read more about the book, and to order it online, click here.

Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is a work of originality and humour, intelligently telling a tale of the future with the trademark Gilliam quirkiness. As a part of Gilliam’s Trilogy of Imagination films (the other two being Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the movie is a brilliant look at the madness of our society. It is interesting to watch Brazil today, as the themes are staggeringly current.

Brazil is a work of awesome satire. Gilliam soaks in it from the opening scenes, illustrating his totalitarian future with tongue planted firmly in cheek. His world is inventive but not too far removed from our very own. There is rampant consumerism and meaningless considerations of vanity and status, with the filthy rich seeking out plastic surgery to maintain their youth while daily terrorist bombings go largely ignored due to the public’s numbness to violence.

Brazil takes place in a futuristic and somewhat dystopic Britain. Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a government employee assigned the task of fixing a government error committed by a government that “doesn’t make mistakes.” This concept is underlined throughout the movie, with obvious governmental issues (such as an inability to have working elevators in the government building) causing problems throughout the country. The problem is related to a simple typo but quickly blossoms to something entirely different as Lowry discovers just how incompetent and corrupt the system is.

Throughout the tale, Lowry dreams of a beautiful maiden that he must save. One day, he comes face to face with his maiden in the form of Jill (Kim Greist). Jill is considered a terrorist by the government for attempting to clear up a mistake, but Lowry can’t possibly turn her in because she’s the woman of his dreams. He tries to help her but eventually runs into a host of problems that threaten his very existence and sanity.

Gilliam weaves the story between dreams and reality, constantly drawing upon Sam’s issues with his mother (Katherine Helmond) to flesh out the situation. The government’s competency is called into question constantly, as their numerous attempts to handle the citizens using the massively convoluted Ministry prove dazzling in their ineptitude. The movie gets downright hilarious as we are treated to government officials attempting to get the simplest tasks done effectively.

Brazil does well to illustrate that there’s much more to the futuristic vision of Gilliam than a simple us vs. them conception of government takeover. While it could be partially used as a cautionary tale, the future of Gilliam’s imagination is much more than a 1984-esque concept. The future of Gilliam’s imagination is not necessarily evil or even territorial; it is, instead, painstakingly impersonal and indirect. Things are coded, written down and organized meticulously but blindly, leading to countless errors that cost people their lives.

Any real villainy in Brazil is based around the ineptitude and the impersonal relationship the government has with its people more than it is based on government takeover or control. A simple typo leads to a host of problems, for example, that could have easily been remedied by a slight diversion from the status quo. Instead of fixing the problems actively, however, the governmental organizations stick to the script.

Brazil is a science fiction classic. Gilliam’s art design is fantastic, illustrating a future filled with complexity and needless excess. The natural world is about as far from its reality as possible, seemingly existing only in Sam’s dreams. The performances are also good, including one from Robert De Niro as one of the future’s many Tuttles. Gilliam tells a great story and does so with black humour, illustrating that the future we should really be afraid of is one in which we lose one another.

9.2/10

Trailer:

Era pra eu ter assistido a UP – Altas Aventuras. Me lembrem de nunca mais ir ao cinema em dia de feriado. O único cinema da cidade… Aí já viu, né?! Filas gigantescas. Bem… Não posso reclamar muito do filme que eu assisti. O ingresso foi grátis! Compraram e me deram de “presente” ;D

Vi minha infância diante dos meus olhos. Que Max Steel que nada! No meu tempo, os bonecos tinhas armas de verdade… Metralhadoras, pistolas, facas (de plástico)! A grande jogada de G.I. JOE- A Origem de Cobra foi fazer uma ambientação meio futurística, até para poder dar uma “explicada” ao que se refere o tema ‘material bélico’. Ah… Só pra constar, nasci em 1986. Fui ter meu primeiro boneco Falcon (ou Comandos em Ação, como você preferir) lá pelos idos de 1992/93. Em 1995 eles pararam de ser fabricados/importados pela Estrela.

A sinopse do filme é a seguinte: o maior fabricante de armas do mundo tem que entregar um superdesenvolvido armamento à OTAN. Entretanto, durante o translado dessa arma, o comboio militar que faz sua segurança é atacado. Graças aos JOE, a superarma não é roubada. Somente dois sobreviventes restam desse comboio e eles são convidados a integrar a equipe JOE. Em uma segunda investida, essa arma é roubada. Agora os JOE têm que descobrir quem a roubou, tentar capturá-la de volta e pôr os bandidos atrás das grades.

Parece uma simples caça ao bandido, né?! Mas não é. Não é quando se envolve uma organização militar secreta internacional, armas superhipermega futurísticas, artes marciais, paisagens bonitas (montanhas no Quirguistão, Paris, o Ártico e as grandes dunas do Saara egípcio foram as “locações”) e  atores que dão conta do recado. Claro que a história é super previsível, mas não chega a ser algo clichê. Tem até erro de continuidade de cena. Entretanto, o que se vê na tela é puro entretenimento.

A Paramount, juntamente com a fabricante de brinquedos Hasbro, se uniram para lançar uma nova franquia cinematográfica (a primeira foi Transformers, com grade sucesso de público). Elas gastaram cerca de 170 milhões de dólares na produção do filme e outros 150 milhões em publicidade. O que se vê no filme é uma hiperdependência de efeitos especiais. Mas qual filme de Stephen Sommers, criador de ‘A Múmia’ e de ‘O Retorno da Múmia”, não é?

Não há no filme um ator que se destaque como sendo o melhor ou que tenha brilhado mais. Todos estão no mesmo patamar, o que é razoavelmente bom num filme assim, cheio de personagens, pois todos podem mostrar seu trabalho sem pressão. Falo isso até do veterano Danis Quaid. Gosto dele. É sempre bom vê-lo atuando.

No mais, G.I. JOE – A Origem de Cobra é um filme sem pretensões, mas que diverte bastante. Os efeitos especiais não são nada fora do comum, mas intrigam e quase nos hipnotizam, principalmente a cena em que há uma perseguição e dois dos Joe estão usando uma roupa aceleradora… É isso. Classifico-o como uma boa diversão, despretenciosa, com boas cenas de ação em bons planos-sequências e que lhe valerão algumas boas risadas. Resumindo: bom filme!

Trailer:

G.I Joe – A Origem de Cobra (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), distribuído por Paramount Pictures, EUA/2009, um filme de Stephen Sommers, roteiro de Stuart Beattie, David Elliot e Paul Lovett, baseado em estória de Michael Gordon, Stuart Beattie e Stephen Sommers, com Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ray Park, Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Fraser, Rachel Nichols, Jonathan Pryce, Arnold Vosloo, Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje, Ação, 118 min, inadequado para menores de 14 anos.

Titolo originale: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Regia: Stephen Sommers

Cast: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Said Tagmaoui, Dennis Quaid, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Byung-hun Lee, Rachel Nichols, Ray Park,  Brendan Fraser, Jonathan Pryce, Marlon Wayans, Arnold Vosloo, Karolina Kurkova

Distribuzione: Universal Pictures, USA, 2009

Guarda il trailer

La super squadra G. I. Joe è una squadra speciale composta dai migliori soldati del mondo che entra in gioco quando le forze convenzionali falliscono. Per le sue missioni si serve della tecnologia spionistica e militare più avanzata. Quando l’ambiguo industriale McCullen ( Christopher Eccleston) minaccia il mondo con un’arma pericolosissima a base di nanotecnologia, il team entra in azione per fermarlo.

Spettacolare ed esplosiva questa pellicola firmata da Stephen Sommers, (regista dei primi due capitoli de La Mummia), e tratta dalla serie di fumetti, action figures e cartoni animati G.I. Joe, in voga tra gli anni 60 e gli anni 80.  Quello che si preannuncia come il primo capitolo di una saga, come si intuisce dal finale apertissimo e in chiara aria di sequel, si caratterizza per l’azione adrenalinica e per le scene mozzafiato, ambientate nelle location più svariate, dall’Egitto al centro di Parigi fino ai ghiacci polari. Gli effetti digitali sono potentissimi, come dimostra  la scena dello spettacolare inseguimento  per le strade di Parigi.

Passiamo ora alle note dolenti: la trama è abbastanza scarna, stringata e scontata: i due amici e soldati Duke (Channing Tatum) e Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) vengono arruolati in extremis in questo dream team diretto dal generale Hawk (Dennis Quaid) composto da supermen: il genio dell’informatica e della tecnologia, Breaker ( Said Taghmaoui), il ninja che non parla mai, Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), esperto di armi, e da una superwoman,  Shana “Scarlett” O’Hara ( Rachel Nichols). La trama si basa su dei personaggi antitetici e sui loro rapporti, in primis quello tra Duke e Ana (Sienna Miller), la Baronessa, ex fidanzati ora in schieramenti opposti, e quello tra Snake Eyes e il ninja bianco. Storm Shadow ( Byung-hun Lee) nemici sin da bambini e protagonisti di sequenze di combattimento a dir poco spettacolari. C’è spazio per l’azione, ma c’è anche modo di analizzare i personaggi e le loro storie personali: così si scopre ad esempio come mai è finita la storia tra Duke e Ana, o cosa spinge McCullen, il futuro Destro,  alle sue azioni criminali.

Proseguiamo con il cast, decisamente variegato ma ben scelto, a partire dal protagonista, Duke, interpretato da Channing Tatum, il ballerino ribelle del primo Step Up, perfetto nel ruolo del bravo ragazzo dal cuore spezzato, deciso a tutto pur di portare a termine la missione e magari riconquistare la donna della sua vita; il simpaticissimo Ripcord, migliore amico di Duke, molto ironico e dalla battuta pronta, anche nei momenti più drammatici, interpretato da Marlon Wayans, membro della dinastia Wayans onnipresente nel cinema e nella tv made in USA, visto finora solo in ruoli demenziali come in Scary Movie, ma che qui dimostra di essere anche altro. Dennis Quaid è il perfetto generale Hawk, ma la vera sorpresa è Sienna Miller nei panni di Ana, donna cinica e spietata, combattente instancabile, perfetta action woman. Difficile riconoscerla in questi panni, anche per via della grande somiglianza fisica a causa della capigliatura corvina con le attrici Kate Beckinsale e Rhona Mitra. (Confesso che fino ai titoli di coda non avevo capito che fosse lei l’interprete di Ana…) La Miller appare talmente a proprio agio in questi panni da essere scambiata per un’esperta di ruoli d’azione. Inoltre abbiamo due protagonisti de La Mummia, Arnold Vosloo, nei panni di Zartan, l’uomo in grado di cambiare volto, e c’è un piccolo cameo di Brendan Fraser.

In definitiva un buon prodotto, anche se decisamente da migliorare dal punto di vista della trama. Speriamo che il secondo capitolo, la cui realizzazione appare di fatto scontata, migliori questo aspetto.

Conclusione: Consigliato.

Voto: 6.5

“It’s only a state of mind.”

Though Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985) may be an homage to Fellini and Orwell, and an astute critique of society’s path towards the future; it is, incidentally, also a jarring depiction of how invasive society is in human relationships.

Since Gilliam fought tooth and nail with his producer over the film’s ending, both a ‘depressing’ director’s cut and a Hollywood-finish “Love Conquers All” edition of the film are in circulation. Forever on the side of artistic expression, and since it was predominantly recommended over the other, I watched the director’s cut, asking myself: who doesn’t enjoy some sadism at the end of a film?

Brazil is set “somewhere in the 20th century,” in a retro-futuristic society in which the government is an expansive, convoluted, paper-pushing bureaucracy that is a labyrinth of inefficiency. After a literal bug in the bureaucratic machine mixes up the last name of terrorist/rogue heating technician Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro) with civilian/shoe-repairman Harry Buttle, Buttle is wrongly arrested and killed, much to the dismay of the bureaucrat who finds the source of error and must correct it. That bureaucrat happens to be Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), positioned well in the bureaucracy partly due to merit and partly due to family connections, who finds the Tuttle/Buttle error in the paperwork and takes personal responsibility in correcting it. Likewise, Buttle’s upstairs neighbor Jill Layton (Kim Greist) witnesses Buttle’s unjust abduction and arrest, and seeks to confront the government. But navigating the monstrous bureaucracy is somewhat counterintuitive, the realization unfortunately fueling Sam’s increasing resentment towards reality and aspiration towards a romanticized life.

The surrealist nature that pervades the film stems from Sam Lowry’s affinity for his fantastical dreamworld over his humdrum reality, progressively welding both realms into one. The film opens into a dream sequence as Sam soars through the clouds as an angel decked in face paint and a silver breastplate towards his dream girl: a beautiful woman with flowing blond hair, encased in ethereal white cloth. But as Sam’s reality is engulfed by the government bureaucracy with heightened frustration, conflict invades his dreams; he finds himself battling samurais, golems, and baby-faced monsters that cage his ideal woman and threaten to steal her away forever. This romanticized life as the savior-angel is juxtaposed against his clumsy real-life pursuit of Jill, a stranger who resembles the woman from his dreams. But Jill, the woman of his reality, cannot be of a starker contrast to the one he fantasizes about: she has a butch hair-cut, drives a truck, wears a jumpsuit, smokes cigarettes, and is fiercely independent.

Where the woman of his dreams is hyper-feminine, the woman of his reality is independent, brazen, and somewhat masculine. In his dreams, he portrays himself as hyper-masculine, whereas in reality, he is dependent, cautious, and somewhat effeminate. In both situations Sam and Jill complement each other, thus assuming an Anima/Animus relationship.

In the beginning dream sequences, the gender roles are fairly storybook-esque:  Sam is literally the knight in shining armor and Jill is the damsel in distress. For me, it specifically evoked the image of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss that illustrates the romance yet the inescapable power discrepancy between a male god and a female mortal. Contrastingly in the ending dream sequences, the gender roles swap as dream merges with the grit of reality. As Sam flees from the government, he falls through the black door of death seemingly into Jill’s truck. As they drive through a picturesque landscape away from the city, Sam nuzzles against Jill’s shoulder; she responds protectively and drives both of them towards safety. Sam has finally become the damsel in distress and Jill, the knight in shining armor. Reality seems to have crept in under the guise of a dream: Sam is his diffident self and Jill is brazenly confident as usual. Sure, Sam may still have his dreamland, but it is no longer the sanctuary from reality it once was, no longer the untouched Eden he could recede into; society has irreversibly corrupted his ideal world.

Though the last dream sequence seems a little too finite, in no way does it spoil the ending. Honestly the last ten minutes will blow your mind, for if this movie teaches you anything, it’s that you can’t anticipate what comes next; this film is wholly unpredictable. Brazil definitely goes down in my top ten films of all time. So, watch it! Please? Pryce gives a sympathetic portrayal as a man losing his innocent perception of his government and consequently the innocence of his dreams. De Niro ninjas his way on and off screen as the ‘terrorist’ or, better yet, the heating technician who went rogue to avoid paperwork. And Michael Palin wonderfully adds to the film’s dark humor as Sam’s best friend Jack Lint, the bureaucracy’s morally amibiguous interrogator. Brazil is visually beautiful and intellectually haunting, its theme song sure to gnaw at your brain until watched again.

Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raymond Douglas “Ray” Bradbury (August 22, 1920) is an American mainstream, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century. Ray Bradbury’s popularity has been increased by more than 20 television shows and films using his writings.

From 1951 to 1954, 27 of Bradbury’s stories were adapted by Al Feldstein for EC Comics, and 16 of these were collected in the paperbacks, The Autumn People (1965) and Tomorrow Midnight (1966). Cover art for both books was done by famed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. The reprints were published by Ballantine Books.

Also in the early 1950s, adaptations of Bradbury’s stories were televised on a variety of shows including Tales of Tomorrow, Lights Out, Out There, Suspense, CBS Television Workshop, Jane Wyman’s Fireside Theatre, Star Tonight, Windows, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “The Merry-Go-Round,” a half-hour film adaptation of Bradbury’s “The Black Ferris,” praised by Variety, was shown on Starlight Summer Theater in 1954 and NBC’s Sneak Preview in 1956.

It Came From Outer Space (1953)

Director Jack Arnold first brought Bradbury to movie theaters in 1953 with It Came from Outer Space, a Harry Essex screenplay developed from Bradbury’s screen treatment, “The Meteor”. Three weeks later, Eugène Lourié’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), based on Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn,” about a sea monster mistaking the sound of a fog horn for the mating cry of a female, was released. Bradbury’s close friend Ray Harryhausen produced the stop-motion animation of the creature. Bradbury would later return the favor by writing a short story, “Tyrannosaurus Rex”, about a stop-motion animator who strongly resembled Harryhausen. Over the next 50 years, more than 35 features, shorts, and TV movies were based on Bradbury’s stories or screenplays.

Double Feature DVD

Oskar Werner and Julie Christie starred in Fahrenheit 451 (1966), an adaptation of Bradbury’s novel directed by François Truffaut.

In 1969, The Illustrated Man was brought to the big screen, starring Oscar winner Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, & Robert Drivas. Containing the prologue, and three short stories from the book, the film received mediocre reviews.

The Martian Chronicles became a three-part TV miniseries starring Rock Hudson which was first broadcast by NBC in 1980.

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The 1983 horror film Something Wicked This Way Comes, starring Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce, is based on the Bradbury novel of the same name.

In 1984, Michael McDonough of Brigham Young University produced “Bradbury 13,” a series of thirteen audio adaptations of famous Ray Bradbury stories, in conjunction with National Public Radio. The full-cast dramatizations featured adaptations of “The Man,” “The Ravine,” “Night Call, Collect,” “The Veldt,” “Kaleidoscope,” “There Was an Old Woman,” “Here There Be Tygers,” “Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed,” “The Wind,” “The Fox and the Forest,” “The Happiness Machine,” “The Screaming Woman”, and “A Sound of Thunder”. Voiceover actor Paul Frees provided narration, while Bradbury himself was responsible for the opening voiceover; Greg Hansen and Roger Hoffman scored the episodes. The series won a Peabody Award as well as two Gold Cindy awards. The series has not yet been released on CD but is heavily traded by fans of “old time radio”.

From 1985 to 1992 Bradbury hosted a syndicated anthology television series, The Ray Bradbury Theater, for which he adapted 65 of his stories. Each episode would begin with a shot of Bradbury in his office, gazing over mementoes of his life, which he states (in narrative) are used to spark ideas for stories.

Five episodes of the USSR science fiction TV series This Fantastic World adapted Ray Bradbury’s stories I Sing The Body Electric, Fahrenheit 451, A Piece of Wood, To the Chicago Abyss, and Forever and the Earth.   A Soviet adaptation of “The Veldt” was filmed in 1987.

The 1998 film The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, released by Touchstone Pictures, was written by Ray Bradbury. It was based on his story “The Magic White Suit” originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1957. The story had also previously been adapted as a play, a musical, and a 1958 television version.

In 2002, Bradbury’s own Pandemonium Theatre Company production of Fahrenheit 451 at Burbank’s Falcon Theatre combined live acting with projected digital animation by the Pixel Pups. In 1984 Telarium released a video game for Commodore 64 based on Fahrenheit 451.   Bradbury and director Charles Rome Smith co-founded Pandemonium in 1964, staging the New York production of The World of Ray Bradbury (1964), adaptations of “The Pedestrian,” “The Veldt”, and “To the Chicago Abyss.”

In 2005, the film A Sound of Thunder was released, loosely based upon the short story of the same name.  Short film adaptations of A Piece of Wood and The Small Assassin were released in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

In 2008, the film Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis was produced by Roger Lay Jr for Urban Archipelago Films, based upon the short story of the same name. The film went on to win the best feature award at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in Phoenix. The film has been picked up for international distribution by Arsenal Pictures and for domestic distribution by Lightning Entertainment.

A new film version of Fahrenheit 451 is being planned by director Frank Darabont.

Trivia:

Father of 4 daughters: Susan, Ramona, Bettina and Alexandra.

Son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, linesman with the Waukegan Bureau of Power and Light, and of Esther Marie Moberg.

He wrote the original manuscript of “Fahrenheit 451″ on a rented typewriter in a public library, from handwritten notes and outlines. It first appeared in print in a shortened form (of about 25,000 words) in Galaxy magazine and later in its present length but in serial format in the just starting out Playboy magazine.

Though considered by many to be the greatest science-fiction writer of the of the 20th century, he suffers from a fear of flying and driving. He has never learned to drive, and did not fly in an airplane until October, 1982.

National Public Radio’s “Bradbury 13″ (1984) was a 13-episode program based on many of his stories.

Recipient of a 2004 National Medal of Arts, awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts (USA).

There is a noted irony in the names of two characters in his novel “Fahrenheit 451″: “Montag” is also the name of a paper mill and “Faber” is a manufacturer of pencils. Ray Bradbury insists that this was unintentional.

His original title for one of his novels was ‘the Fireman’. He called his local fire department and asked them what the temperature at which paper burns at – and was told “451 Fahrenheit”. He reversed it to make it the title of his novel ‘Fahrenheit 451′.

He is the great-great-great grandson of Mary Bradbury, a woman who was tried in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, but saved herself from being hanged for witchcraft.

He had a series of short stories which his publisher said would never sell, so he linked the stories together, while living at a local YMCA, and created the novel, “The Martian Chronicles.” He was paid just $500 for the story.

He voiced his displeasure at documentary filmmaker Michael Moore for appropriating the title of his book “Fahrenheit 451″ for the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). However, Bradbury himself is the author of “Beyond 1984″ (title appropriated from George Orwell’s “1984″) and “Another Tale of Two Cities” (title appropriated from Charles Dickens  ”A Tale of Two Cities”).

As a bedtime story for each of his daughters, he read (in nightly installments) “Hound of the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle.

As a young boy, a friend once ridiculed his collection of science fiction and comic books, and heckled him into throwing them away. A day later, Bradbury was heartbroken, feeling that he had trashed his best friends. He immediately rebuilt his collection!.

Says that he remembers being born.

He and famed animator Chuck Jones have been close friends for more than 50 years.

In Chaplin’s Goliath (1996), a documentary about silent film star Eric Campbell, the Rosedale Cemetary spokeswoman mistakenly claims Ray Bradbury is interred there.

A hero of his was the Italian director Federico Fellini. When they first met, as Bradbury claims, Fellini ran up to Bradbury, embraced him, and said ‘My twin! My Twin’ They became great friends but never collaborated on any projects.

Programmierbare Nanotechnologie.

Die Jungs bei Paramount sind echte Witzbolde. Weil das Ungleichgewicht zwischen Kritiker- und Zuschauerreaktion im Fall von „Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen“ kaum größer hätte ausfallen können, hat man sich in den USA die überflüssige und im Grunde auch ziemlich lästige Antiwerbung, die negative Presse mit sich bringen kann, für die ähnlich gelagerte Spielzeugverfilmung um harte Kämpfer in schicken Uniformen einfach mal gespart und die Parasiten von der Schreibfront außen vor gelassen („Sollen die sich doch ihre Tickets selber kaufen“, wird man sich gesagt haben, „kostenlose Pre-Screenings fallen diesmal jedenfalls aus“). Für die großen Studios ist die Filmkritik eben nur noch ein verlängerter Arm der Marketingabteilung, und wenn der Effekt ohnehin gleich Null ist, warum dann noch Aufwand betreiben? Ökonomisch betrachtet hat ein solches Vorgehen durchaus seinen guten Sinn, und für geringer budgetierte Schlachtplatten aus dem Slasher-Umfeld ist Derartiges schon lange gängige Praxis, bei einem Blockbuster wie „G.I. Joe – Geheimauftrag Cobra / Rise of the Cobra“ jedoch ein Novum, das vermutlich Schule machen wird. Das anvisierte Publikum liest ohnehin keine Kritiken und sucht sich seine Empfehlungen lieber in den einschlägigen sozialen Netzwerken und Blogs. Dem gemäß gab es dann doch ein paar Privilegierte, die vorab einen Blick auf den Film werfen durften. Dabei achtete man allerdings peinlich genau darauf, wer hier nützlich sein könnte (also mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit positiv schreiben würde), und wer eben nicht. Multiplikatoren wurden gesucht, keine Kritiker. Über die Qualität des Films sagt das zunächst einmal rein gar nichts aus, wohl aber eine Menge über diejenige Bedeutung, die Kulturkritik aus Sicht der US-Studios für ein Blockbuster-Publikum hat: Keine nämlich. Schnell ist man versucht, die Schuld ganz auf die Verantwortlichen abzuwälzen, aber vielleicht liegt das Problem auch zu einem nicht unbedeutenden Teil auf Seiten der Filmkritik selber. Bevor die Welle auch hierzulande ankommt, ist für so manche Feuilleton-Redaktion jedenfalls derzeit noch genügend Zeit, den Gedanken bestenfalls nicht einfach so von sich zu weisen.

Zu denjenigen, die kein Stück interessiert, was die Kritiker zu sagen haben, gehört neben dem Studio und dem Zielpublikum vor allem auch Spielzeughersteller Hasbro, der offenbar ganz gehörig Blut geleckt hat. Man mag sich lieber nicht vorstellen, wie groß die Stückzahl an Transformern ist, die seit dem ersten Film, und nun erst recht nach dem zweiten zusätzlich über die Ladentheke gegangen sind – von Lizenzgeldern für allerhand weiteres Merchandising ganz abgesehen. Nicht anders wird es im Fall von „G.I. Joe“ aussehen, und eine spezielle Movie-Edition der Elitetruppe ist selbstverständlich längst erhältlich. Nun hat man sich wohl gedacht, was mit Actionfiguren gut funktioniert, kann mit anderem Spielgut aus dem Unternehmensbestand wohl kaum schlechter laufen – zum Beispiel Brettspielen. Wer es nicht glaubt: Ridley Scott arbeitet bereits an einer Filmversion von (bitte festhalten) „Monopoly“. Und wem bei dem Gedanken gerade der Zauberwürfel (Hersteller – na wer wohl?) aus der Hand gefallen ist, sollte sich darüber im Klaren sein, dass Hasbro auch die Rechte an „Scrabble“ hält. Außerdem „Trivial Pursuit“ (ideal für ein US-Remake von „Slumdog Millionaire“), „Taboo“ (Zotenhumor mit Adam Sandler) und „Play-Doh“ („The Blob“ für das neue Jahrtausend). Also bitte.

Hasbro gehört neben Marvel ganz klar zu den Gewinnern unter den Seiteneinsteigern im Blockbusterkino. Was seitens der Computerspieleindustrie bisher nur sehr eingeschränkt funktioniert hat, nämlich den eigenen Produkten eine passende filmische Form zu verpassen, führt hier zu ganz beachtlichen Erfolgen. Marvel war es irgendwann leid, an den Leinwandversionen ihrer Hausmarken nur marginal mitzuverdienen, und so entschloss man sich 2007, einfach selber als Studio aufzutreten. Wenig später belegte „Iron Man“ in aller Deutlichkeit, dass diese Entscheidung goldrichtig war – selbst wenn seitdem keine der sonstigen Eigenproduktionen („The Incredible Hulk“ oder gar „Punisher: War Zone“) an den Siegeszug des Mannes im Stahlkostüm anschließen konnte.

Übrigens Stahlkostüm: Stark Industries scheinen offensichtlich auch die Eliteeinheit auszustatten, die unter dem Decknamen „G.I. Joe“ operiert. Beweis: Eine mechanische Rüstung mit dem ebenso beliebigen wie nichtssagenden Namen Delta-6 erlaubt seinem Träger, mal schnell mit 100 km/h voranzuspurten oder in kugelsicheren Siebenmeilenstiefeln größere Schritte zu machen als King Kong und der Marshmellowman zusammen. Dass der „flexible, aus einer metallischen Mehrkomponentenlegierung bestehende Anzug“ (O-Ton deutsches Presseheft, das angesichts derartiger Anpreisungen eher wie ein Bestellkatalog für die US-Army anmutet) zudem mit allerlei Schusswaffen ausgestattet ist, versteht sich von selbst.

Aber auch sonst bedient sich die erwartungsgemäß äußerst CGI-lastige Actionfantasie von Stephen Sommers („Die Mumie“ und „Van Helsing“) ungeniert hier und dort. Eine zerstörerische neue Superwaffe, die in der Lage ist, ganze Städte dem Erdboden gleichzumachen, und in gewissem Sinn als MacGuffin der Geschichte fungiert, verkauft sich zwar als „programmierbare Nanotechnologie“, bei der „[j]eder Sprengkopf … sieben Millionen Nanomilben (enthält), mikroskopisch kleine Roboter, die gemeinsam ihre Aufgabe auf molekularer Ebene ausführen“ (so jedenfalls erklären es erneut die Quantenmechaniker aus der PR-Abteilung von Paramount), in Wahrheit haben die Waffenexperten von MARS Industries (Military Armaments Research Syndicate) jedoch einen Pakt mit Klaatu, dem außerirdischen Besucher aus „The Day the Earth stood still“ geschlossen und ihm die Baupläne für dessen Erdzerstörungstechnologie abgekauft – oder vermutlich eher abgeluchst, denn hinter MARS verbirgt sich – das weiß der Zuschauer, sobald er das erste Mal in die grimmigen Augen des Konzernvorstandes James McCullen blickt (Christopher Eccleston mit forciertem schottischen Akzent) – eine ziemlich größenwahnsinnige Terrororganisation.

Deren eigentliches Mastermind ist jedoch ein anderer, und der geht möglicherweise mit dem Gedanken schwanger, sich langfristig seinen eigenen Todesstern zu bauen. Jedenfalls hat es „The Doctor“ etwas arg ernst genommen mit seiner Bewunderung für einen anderen Allmachtsfantasten der Filmgeschichte. Von Verbrennungen vollkommen entstellt, trägt er beständig eine Atemmaske, welche die untere Hälfte seines Gesichtes gänzlich verdeckt, und ihn deshalb nicht nur aussehen, sondern auch noch röcheln lässt wie – tja, wer wohl?

Ansonsten ist „G.I. Joe – Rise of the Cobra“ vor allem eine Art Ensemble-Bond im Umfeld von „Moonraker“ und anderen 007-Spektakeln aus der Pre-Craig-Ära, bei denen der Gegenspieler für gewöhnlich in riesigen unterirdischen Kampfstationen daran arbeitete, die Welt wahlweise zu beherrschen oder zu zerstören. Bei MARS ist es wohl eine Mischung aus beidem, und an die Stelle des Lieblingsspions seiner Mäjestät tritt eine vergleichsweise disparate Gruppe von Elitekämpfern, die von einer geheimen, ultramodern ausgestatteten Gefechtsstation aus operieren. Q bleibt hier zwar gesichtslos, entwickelt aber äußerst fleißig ein absurdes Kriegsspielzeug nach dem anderen: Eine Armbrust, die Laserpfeile schießt, flüssige Rüstungen, unsichtbarmachende Tarnanzüge und anderes mehr – Spielzeuge, an denen angeblich längst auch reale US-Militärexperten herumbasteln. Denn schließlich ist die Geschichte in der nahen Zukunft angesiedelt, und da soll aus Sicht der Macher alles eben möglichst realistisch aussehen.

Realistisch ist ansonsten allerdings so ziemlich das letzte Attribut, das man diesem Film zuordnen würde. Aber wozu auch? In erster Linie bietet „G.I. Joe“ rasantes, explosionslastiges, buntes und niemals ideenloses Entertainment, das sich auf der großen Leinwand gut macht. Die einzelnen Figuren bringen ihre Historie aus den Comics mit, die seit 1982 auch den Gegner „Cobra“ kennen, und einer TV-Serie aus den 80ern. Immerhin verhilft diese Tatsache einigen Charakteren zu einer gemeinsamen Vergangenheit, die sich in Form von Rückblenden immer wieder in die rastlose Action der Haupthandlung einfügen und der ganzen Sache so doch zumindest eine gewisse Ration Identifikationsfutter unterjubeln.

Schauspielerisch ist dieser Film selbstverständlich eher eine Dehnübung. Die meisten Darsteller fallen nicht wirklich sonderlich auf. Sienna Miller ist bereits damit ausgelastet, sich in ihrem hautengen Ganzkörperkostüm möglichst geschmeidig zu bewegen, Dennis Quaid chargiert, als gäbe es kein Morgen, und Channing Tatum entscheidet sich geradewegs für die entgegengesetzte Richtung: Er spielt einfach gar nicht. Dass der US-Präsident in diesem Film übrigens das Klischee des weißen (nicht unbedingt weisen, aber vor allem halt nicht farbigen) elder Statesman bedient (Jonathan Pryce, war sowohl schon mal Bond-Gegner als auch Regierungschef – wenn auch von Argentinien), hat seinen guten Grund und liefert eine durchaus sehenswerte Pointe. Aber für die muss man schon bis zum Ende durchhalten.

Artikel © 2009 Thomas Lenz. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Filmplakat: Paramount Pictures Germany GmbH

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