G.I. Joe; Retaliation

Ladies & Gentlemen, the Stress-free, Universal Movement of Minorities, Escaping Rigamarole, Mainly Over Visually Interesting and Entertaining Stuff (AKA S.U.M.M.E.R. M.O.V.I.E.S.) has been officially retired. Welcome to the new forum for reviews. Table TalkN Review Board. The TTRB will not be limited to just movies, but books, recipes, art exhibits, and whatever else we get a chance to view & visit. Plus, I caught a lot of flack for a lot of the movies that were reviewed not actually being in “the summer” - (Technicalities... geez!)

So with that being said - the first order of business: G.I. Joe; Retaliation

I know that a lot of people were apprehensive about this movie when the news of a sequel hit the rumor mill. Not only that, it was pushed back from its original release date, back in the summer of 2012 until March of 2013. Even though it was starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, people were questioning whether this would be as corny as the first one was. Let’s be honest, The Rock has starred in his fair share of questionable roles over the past few years; The Game Plan & The Tooth Fairy to mention a couple. But as me and my wife were able to escape to a movie for a night, and we were pleasantly surprised.

While I won’t offer any spoilers here, I will tell you that this movie is much better than the first movie. Now, I’ll admit, I like bad movies. I’ll even admit to thinking the 1st G.I. Joe was pretty watchable on my own personal “Jason Scale”. But it was corny. There’s no getting around it. The directors, actors, producers all found a way to make the original as cheesey as possible by stuffing in as many of the classic cartoon lines as they could. “Kung Fu grip”, “A Real American Hero”, and “Yo Joe” were just a few of the one line zingers that were painfully adapted. Flash back to 2013. This was a whole other move.

Yes this movie had some information that helped if you did see the 1st part, but it wasn’t necessary. One of the things that I always look for in a sequel is to see if the movie can be a stand alone or you really needed to see the prior parts before you understood it. I can honestly say that for those of you that didn’t see the 1st G.I. Joe, you need not worry. Go out, grab some popcorn and enjoy. The action was fast paced. The story was believable and the acting was good - not great, not oscar worthy, but definitely good.

This movie did everything that a cartoon adaptation should be expected to do. Take some current big names, utilize the report that people have with the brand name and make an enjoyable movie. It wasn’t overloaded with cussing, but at the same time, it wasn’t a G rated movie. So parents, please keep this in mind when considering taking your children.

So in conclusion, I would rate this movie as a solid B -. It’s not a bad way to spend a free afternoon or evening.