Y’know… it’s almost impossible to defend a movie like this, so I’m not really gonna try - but I had a good time with G.I. Joe. Yes, it’s ridiculous. Yes, the acting is cartoonish at best and downright awful in some cases. Yes, it’s basically a giant advertisement for toys.
But unlike certain other films that are giant ads for toys (cough cough… Transformers…), the action in G.I. Joe is comprehensible, which scores a lot of points with me. And unlike director Stephen Sommers’ previous abomination, Van Helsing, G.I. Joe doesn’t feel like an assault on the senses. Instead, it’s a colorful, fast-paced, well-crafted action film filled with manly men, hot babes in leather and / or body armor, helicopters, tanks, ninjas, accelerator suits, submarines and an underwater city hidden beneath a polar ice cap. What’s not to like about that? Throw a bombastic Alan Silvestri score into the mix and you’ve got a fairly decent recipe for mindless entertainment. If you run across it on cable someday, give it a few minutes of your time. You might be pleasantly surprised.