G.I. Joe "movies"

There's been lot's of discussions across the internet about this new G.I. Joe movie. The fans who grew up with these particular characters, at times, seemed disappointed that the 80's storyline was not used as a basis for the film.

I hate to be one to spoil the surprise, but it is 2009! Twenty-seven years have passed since the 3 3/4" line first appeared in toy stores. Surprise - things have changed! Life goes on, kids, grow up! I don't think that the storyline of the 80's line would be relevant today. But the concepts behind the overall storyline and the characters still works and will always work. It can be picked up out of it's original time period and dropped into any place in history, tweaking the story and updating the characters to reflect current events.

A lot of the Joes were originally Viet-Nam vets - no offense to those vets, but they'd be pretty old by now.

Other G.I. Joe collectors were upset that the original line of G.I. Joes was ignored in the new film. G.I. Joe, at that time, wasn't a specific character. He was an every-man, he became whoever the kid playing wanted them to be. Besides, there have been several films that, for me, brought about what G.I. Joe was all about - being heroes whether they wanted to be or not, being soldiers and fighting for the defense of liberty.

Here's just a short list of my favorite "G.I. Joe" movies -

1. Saving Private Ryan - my absolute favorite war film - it's extremely tough to watch, but a very powerful film.
   


2. We were Soldiers - another excellent war film - I need to watch it again
   


3. Blackhawk Down - soldiers as heroes - even against overwhelming odds and facing their ultimate fate
   


4. Bravo Two Zero - a little known movie with Sean Bean, British SAS go into Iraq on a covert mission and things go bad, very powerful
   


5. Run Silent, Run Deep - classic goodness, submarine warfare in WW2 and the conflicts of command
   


6. The Beast of War - a Soviet tank crew gets lost in Afghanistan and face a tyrannical commander and angry Afghans.
   


7. Hamburger Hill - powerful Viet-Nam era film, need to see it again, been too long
   


8. The Longest Day - more classic goodness, an epic war flim from the glory days of Hollywood
   


9. Patton - you can't beat George C Scott's portrayal - epic story, epic battles
   


10. Aliens - okay, it's Sci-Fi, but the colonial marines are just awesome - too bad they had to get trashed so badly by the bugs

I'm sure that there are many more worthy films to add to the list, but that's enough for now.