Rodent's Revenge: G-Force Reviewed

You know the drill: Not screened by WW press deadlines, but too culturally significant to be ignored.

G-Force

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What would happen if Jerry Bruckheimer obtained Disney's permission to produce his own remake of Toy Story? I don't know who asked this question. Maybe Jerry Bruckheimer. The answer is G-Force, a Bruckheimer-Disney coproduction about talking guinea pigs saving the world, in 3-D! As family entertainment, it's a joke, albeit a joke told with sly self-awareness. Team America already told this joke, without PG-rated pandering to the kiddies, but I'll give G-Force its due: The movie knows it's pet food, and runs with it. Zach Galifianakis grimly advises the animated rodents on their mission, like a bearded Q briefing James Bond. Will Arnett shows up as the skeptical FBI brass, and the two comedians deadpan their way through the next blockbuster cliché. Bill Nighy plays the power-mad villain, and allows the camera to follow an animated housefly into his left nostril. In brotherly deference to Michael Bay, there are household appliances which TRANSFORM into killer robots. The chase scenes from Toy Story are restaged, to hilarious effect, with G-men crashing black SUVs amid patriotic fireworks. It's all sharply directed and photographed in Bruckheimer's trademark blues and oranges, with a sprinkling of his trademark racial stereotypes. You like irony? G-Force asks children to sympathize with guinea pigs, rewards teenagers with references to The Pussycat Dolls and Paris Hilton, then takes its name from the thousands of merchandising dollars extracted in kind. Bravo, Jerry, encore! PG. ALISTAIR ROCKOFF.

G-Force opens today. It screens in 3-D at Century 16 Cedar Hills Crossing, Century Eastport 16, Cinemas Bridgeport Village Stadium 18 IMAX, Cinetopia, Cornelius 9 Cinemas, Evergreen Parkway Stadium 13, Lloyd Center Stadium 10 Cinema and Sandy Cinemas. It screens in 2-D at Century 16 Cedar Hills Crossing, Century Eastport 16, Cinema 99 Stadium 11, Cinemas Bridgeport Village Stadium 18 IMAX, City Center Stadium 12, Cornelius 9 Cinemas, Division Street Stadium 13, Evergreen Parkway Stadium 13, Hilltop 9 Cinema, Lloyd Center Stadium 10 Cinema, Movies On TV Stadium 16, Oak Grove 8 Cinemas, Pioneer Place Stadium 6, Sherwood Stadium 10, Tigard 11 Cinemas and Wilsonville Stadium 9 Cinema.

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