Coming from the writers of Zombieland, one would have expected G.I. Joe: Retaliation to be filled with smart lines and sardonic wit. Or maybe not, considering the sequel to 2009 G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra , like the Transformer movies, is based on a toy. So there is wall to wall action, adrenalin and testosterone, hunks galore, enough weaponry to blow up the world many times over and also a kind of strip tease slyly thrown in.
In Olympus has Fallen , the President of the United States is in all kinds of trouble. In Retaliation , the President is an impostor and has some bizarre ways of bringing about nuclear disarmament. At some important summit meeting, there is the Indian head of state looking spiffy in an achkan barking orders in Hindi — how cool is that?
The movie seems Hasbro’s answer to The Expendables so there is Bruce Willis looking very cool as General Joseph Colton, who apparently set up the G.I. Joes. Dwayne Johnson looks more like a mountain than Rock as tough soldier Flint. There is Jonathan Pryce having the most fun as the President of the United States. Channing Tatum reprises his role as Duke from the earlier film. Adrianne Palicki is Lady Jaye, the only woman on the team; she wiggles her eyebrows prettily to show how tough she is.
Arnold Vosloo appears briefly as shape-shifting Zartan, but looks like he had more fun as the Mummy with the lovely Rachel Weisz for company. The film is in 3D and the action while being hectic is not particularly inventive and gets tiresome rather quickly.
The entire film is tiresome and practically the only reason to sit in a theatre could be the AC to escape the hideous heat.
