G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Amazing Crazy Fun

Well, I hit the theater today to see G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. It was amazing crazy fun. It was a blast! A roller coaster ride of larger than life heroes and villains. Just some brief thoughts...

The Baroness - Hot Hot Hot! Very much the villainess! Not thrilled with the nanomite explanation for her turn to evil, overall very good portrayal.

Stormshadow - excellent portrayal - visually exciting, well played, very cool.

Snake Eyes - not totally thrilled - very cool portrayal, but something not quite right. Didn't like the mouth on the costume. Vow of silence vs. injury - not so much.

Delta 6 suits - exciting sequence, lot's of fun!

James McCullen - very cool! Over the top bad guy!

The Doctor - interesting, creepy, well portrayed

Dr. Mindbender - briefly seen, but very creepy cool. Hope he's around for sequels!

Lt. Stone - Brendan Fraser's character - Cool! I like the guy - decent actor, suits being part of this team of heroes.

The Commander and Destro - not enough of them - I would have preferred that they had gotten away like in the novelization. They'll figure out a way to get free for the sequel(s).

Scarlett - looked awesome, didn't like the non-emotional aspect. The Snake Eyes/Scarlett relationship was downplayed - needed to be more a part of the two characters.

The Vipers - neo's, elites, whatever - not impressed at first, but I learned to like them much more very quickly. First thoughts were that they were basically mindless automatons. Maybe the neo-vipers were, but once other vipers were involved in conversations, they seemed more relevant to the story, not just targets for the Joe team.

The Pitt - amazing, amazing, amazing - too much to see in one showing. Going to have to slo-mo the DVD when it comes out!

Zartan - Arnold Vosloo - very creepy, minor role, but well done - and now he's the... wow!

Still too much spinning in my head - more thoughts later.

I hope it makes a ton of money this opening weekend and sequels are in the future! What a great way to head toward the 50th anniversary of G.I. Joe!

40 years in the making...

I've been a G.I. Joe fan for a long time. I have no idea when this picture was taken, but I'm guessing that I was around 7 or 8, sometime around 1969-70. I'm the one on the left, by the way. That's my cousin, Randy, behind the G.I. Joe building.

My cousin lived in Massachusetts and his mom used to go to the Hasbro company store and buy him the coolest G.I. Joe stuff. He always had some awesome stuff. I wonder if he still does?

I played with Joe for many years after that, but as I got older, my Joe toys were very worn out and wound up in the trash. My poor yellow AT helicopter was probably more glue than plastic before it was finally "retired."

Years went by, the Real American Heroes line came out in 1982 and the infection was full on. From then on, I've been collecting G.I. Joe pretty regularly. Big guys and small guys.

And now, here I am, seven days away from the release of "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra." G.I. Joe finally makes it to the big screen.

It looks like it's going to be a helluva' lot of fun and I'm sure I'll have a big goofy smile on my face during the entire movie.


Watching "The Mummy" tonight on TV, only because it was directed by Stephen Sommers and he's directing "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and there will probably be movie trailers. And there were trailers - looks great!