After G-Force, a team of highly trained guinea pigs, discovers a plan to destroy the world they are shut down by the FBI.  However, Darwin (Sam Rockwell) and his team refuse to let this stop them and hatch a plot to stop the bad guys and rescue the world.

CRITIQUE

If you have ever seen any film that Jerry Bruckheimer has produced, then you know exactly what you will get with G-Force. The only difference is that the film follows the exploits of a team of CGI guinea pigs.  And if you are a 10-year-old kid, this is probably the coolest thing ever.  If you are an adult, well, probably not.

G-Force is a watchable film, don’t get me wrong, and it works just fine as family entertainment.  However, as a film itself, it has some serious problems.  For starters, the G-Force team never fit in with their environment.  And since the film follows these pint-sized spies throughout the real world, is proves to be a bigger problem than it should. The problem is that the characters are far too cartoony for their own good. These are not lovable pets. These are bizarre monstrosities that no one would be able to mistake for cute, cuddly critters. Now, I do also realize that in making these guinea pigs photorealistic, it would be much more difficult to get away with having them perform all the action sequences in the film.  Still, I found it hard to watch these creatures interact (thankfully briefly) with the human cast. 

And speaking of the human cast (Bill Nighy, Zach Galifianakis, Will Arnet, etc) they have no real place in this film.  And it’s not the fault of the actors; they do what they can with what little screen time they are given. But considering just how unimportant the humans are in this film, it’s a shame that this film wasn’t just made fully animated (which would have erased my issues with the CG characters being too cartoony.)

Still, the voice cast is fun as their animal counterparts.  Darwin is the leader of the team, Juarez (Penelope Cruz) is the femme fatale, Blaster (Tracy Morgan) is…there to do stuff, and Speckles (and almost unrecognizable Nicholas Cage) is the tech guy.  Along the way, they team up with Hurley (John Favreau,) a flatulent pet store guinea pig who wants to sign up with G-Force and take part of their adventures.  Steve Buscemi also appears as a hamster with severe territorial issues.

But like all action films, the plot is pretty thin. There is a mad scheme by a rich industrialist (Nighy) to take over the world using an army of weaponized household appliances. As I said, if you’re 10, this is awesome. And there’s still a 10-year-old inside your soul, I think that some adults just might dig it as well.

THE VIDEO

G-Force is presented in 2.40:1/1080p on a 50GB disc, and it looks really good. However, because this film was also presented in 3-D, I do find it a shame that is no 3-D version included. Especially considering how many moments of the film are designed around it, it seems like a serious misstep to not include that version here.

THE AUDIO

G-Force is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Surround and as a very good mix.  However, it doesn’t have the intensity that one would find in other Bruckheimer films (the Blu-ray of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film is a perfect example of this.)

THE EXTRAS

Cine-Explore with Director Hoyt H. Yeatman Jr., and the cast: A picture-in-a-picture commentary track that also includes various behind the scenes featurettes. A nice way to combine everything into one easy to swallow package. Plus the available members of G-Force make a few audio cameos.

Deleted Scenes: A few deleted bits.

Bruckheimer Animated: A discussion with Jerry Bruckheimer about why he wanted to take on this project.

Access Granted: A look at the animation process.

G-Force Mastermind: A look at where the idea for G-Force came from.

Blaster’s Boot Camp: A “training” video to become a member of G-Force.

G-Farce: Bloopers.

Music Videos rounds out the bonus material.

Disc 2: Bonus DVD of the film.

Disc 3: Digital Copy of the film.

FINAL THOUGHT