G-Force

Compared to Disney's last live action-talking CG animal movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, G-Force is certainly a step up. It's inoffensive, it doesn't wear out its welcome, and the cast is spirited and game. Well, at least the cast voicing the animals are. There's a disconnect between them and the live action cast, who seem to know that their talents are being wasted in this movie. The film exists as an excuse to show off the special effects work, which is impressive at times, and sometimes seems like an out of control video game. At the very least, it should entertain kids in the single digit area.

The premise is at least kind of cute. Four rodents have been trained to be special spy agents for the FBI. Their human handler and trainer is Ben (Zach Galifianakis, a long way from The Hangover here), who believes his G-Force team can be an invaluable help to humankind. He's taught them to be stealthful, smart, and cool under pressure when they're infiltrating the base of the villain, Saber (Bill Nighy), a former weapons dealer turned billionaire electronics manufacturer, whom Ben believes still has global domination plans. The team itself is mostly made up of guinea pigs including group leader Darwin (voice by Sam Rockwell), Juarez (Penelope Cruz), Blaster (Tracy Morgan), and a mole named Speckles (Nicolas Cage). In the film's opening scene, they successfully break into and steal some top secret computer info from Saber's mansion. Unfortunately, the FBI itself is not impressed, and sends one of their agents (Will Arnett) to shut the animal spy program down. The rodents are shipped off to a pet store, escape with the help of another guinea pig named Hurley (Jon Favreau), and must find their way back to Ben before Saber's plan can be executed.

Despite the presence of five different writers at the screenplay level, G-Force is pretty thin in the plot department. A majority of the movie is divided between over the top action sequences where the G-Force team dodge government agents and giant killer robots made out of common household appliances (Which bear a striking and not-too subtle resemblance to certain giant robots starring in another summer blockbuster that has grossed over $300 million so far...), and preachy "message" scenes where the rodents lecture each other about the importance of family and sticking together. The movie is nice to look at, but not so much to listen to. The strong visuals are not surprising when you consider the director, Hoyt Yeatman, is a special effects veteran who's been working in the business for over 30 years. The effects work on the animals is convincing, which is important, since they're the real stars of the movie. They have a surprising amount of personality, and the voice actors (especially Cruz, Rockwell, Favreau, Cage, and Steve Buscemi as a bitter little hamster they're forced to share a cage with at the pet store) all give lively line readings, and seem to be having fun.

The problem lies not with the production values or the animals themselves, but what is coming out of their mouths, and the mouths of their human co-stars. Kids probably won't mind so much, but adults might tire of the fact that the animals say nothing but one-liners and catch phrases like "This is off the hook!" for the entirety of the film. Given the actors at the microphone, I wish the filmmakers at let them improvise and let them use their comic gifts a little bit more. Still, at least the animals make some sort of impression. The entire human cast is disposable. Poor Bill Nighy gets about four scenes tops, and doesn't even get to do anything all that evil to the little creatures pestering him. As G-Force's lead human, Galifianakis seems to have his mind on other things, as does Kelli Garner, who plays his assistant Marcie. She has so little dialogue in the film, I sometimes forgot she was there. I have to wonder what most of the cast did to pass the time when they were shooting their scenes, since they spend most of their screen time standing in the background, looking at things that aren't really there.

G-Force was produced by action movie-mogul, Jerry Bruckheimer, and it really does feel like a more family friendly version of one of his adult films. It's wall-to-wall action and special effects, and total in-one-ear and out-the-other entertainment. I understand that I'm not quite the target audience for the film, but I found it tolerable. I probably wouldn't want to sit through it again, but at least it's paced well and doesn't drag on. If you have kids, take them and have fun. If you don't, this movie has nothing to offer you.

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