Monday, 2 August 2010

Film Review: G-FORCE (2009)


Director: Hoyt Yeatman
Running time: 85 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): PG

UK release date: 31st July 2009

Watched on Sky+ Monday 2nd August 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Maybe it’s because I’m male and still connected with the child inside, I don’t know, but I just like movies made for children. There’s something about a simple plot, uncomplicated characters and a happy ending that just appeals to me for some reason. But I digress; we’re here to talk about a bunch of CGI rodents.

A crack team of specially trained guinea pigs, Darwin, Juarez and Blaster, along with their tech guy, a mole called Speckles are on a mission. They have to infiltrate the home of electronics magnate Leonard Saber and steal secret files from his computer. The files reveal that there is a real threat to national security and the clock is ticking. When they go to show the information to the FBI, things go wrong and it all culminates in the withdrawal of funding for the program. This leaves the head of the program, Ben, a human, trying to persuade the FBI about the treat as the animals escape. They make it to a pet shop where they meet another guinea pig called Hurley and a hamster with an attitude called Bucky. Can the animals escape capture and make it back to Ben in time to save the day? Well, you guessed it; I’m not going to tell you right now.

Quite a well made film with some nice CGI creatures. I find that giving human attributes to animals never really works, but it’s something Disney has been persisting with for many years. Honourable mentions to the voice talents of Sam Rockwell as Darwin, Jon Favreau as Hurley, Nicolas Cage as Speckles, Penélope Cruz as Juarez, Steve Buscemi as Bucky and Tracy Morgan as Blaster. And the humans, Bill Nighy as Leonard Slater, Will Arnett as Kip Killian, Zach Galifianakis as Ben and Kelli Garner as Marcie.

There were one or two good jokes, but not a great deal to make the adult audience laugh. I thought the best scenes were in the pet shop. It’s one of those kind of OK films that you could quite happily have on in the background to keep the kids entertained, but not one I’d go out of my way to see again. Over all, not really recommended, but maybe a bargain bin DVD purchase to entertain the youngsters.

My score: 5.3/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0436339/
Official Site: http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/g-force.html
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3233022489/

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