Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-12-07
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 113 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Rise of Cobra is not your grandfather's G.I. Joe. It's more like C.G.I. Joe with explosive special-effects action sequences that provide the film with a surplus of "Boom Boom Pow" (to quote the Black Eyed Peas song that drives the end credits). This blast from the summer past is very much like the metal-munching nano-mite missiles a (literally) mad Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt cashing in some of his indie cred) and McCullen, a Scottish weapons dealer (Christopher Eccleston), threaten to unleash upon the world. It never stops. Ever. The original G.I. Joe action figure was an all-American hero. These Joes are--all together now--"the best of the best," an elite multi-national squad. Two soldiers, Duke (a buff Channing Tatum), an "on the ground, in the fight" kind of guy, and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans), his wisecracking best friend, are rescued by the Joes after they are ambushed while transporting the missiles. These are no ordinary Joes. Snake-Eyes (Ray Park) is a silent ninja, Stella (Rachel Nichols) a bodacious brainiac, Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) the imposing weapons specialist, and Breaker (Said Taghamaoui) the techie. They are led by gruff Gen. Hawk (Dennis Quaid), who barks out lines like, "When all else fails, we don't," with polish. Duke and Ripcord are recruited to join the classified unit after Duke discovers that Ana (Sienna Miller), his former fiancée, is in cahoots with McCullen and now sports the sinister moniker the Baroness, not to mention killer cleavage-enhancing latex outfits. This being the first in a budding franchise, there is much backstory to cover. Flashbacks date back to 1641! But the order of the day is underground military command centers, underwater evil lairs, gleaming high-tech weaponry, breakneck chases, and cool gadgets, such as a speed-accelerating hydraulic suit. It's enough to make you want to dust off your original Hasbro action figures or, the studio no doubt hopes, buy the new ones. --Donald Liebenson

Synopsis
From the Egyptian desert to deep below the polar ice caps, the elite G.I. Joe team uses the latest in next-generation spy and military equipment to fight the corrupt arms dealer Destro and the growing threat of the mysterious Cobra organization to prevent them from plunging the world into chaos.
Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) directs this live-action adventure featuring a huge cast of stars, including Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Sienna Miller. Ray Park, who made his name playing Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, takes on the role of Snake Eyes.

Customer Reviews

Just enjoy it
Let's face it, you're not going to be watching this if period drama and serious issues are your bag but if you want an hour and a half of pointless mindless fun with plenty of explosions and cool gear then get it. Get out the popcorn, switch off the X Factor and enjoy.

If you liked GI JOE growing up, this is pretty faithful...
I'm not going to write too much here.

I watched GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra in the cinema and I loved it. I'm 33 years old and grew up with the cartoon and toys and for a while I collected the comics to. Before this movie came out I didn't expect them to do a good job but was pleasantly suprised. Yes in places the CGI isn't great, it's quite cartoony... but this is based off a cartoon. The characters are over the top and the script IS the kinds of things that they would say in the cartoons/comics. So really I think if you have been a fan of GI Joe in the past you'll enjoy it, yes there are a few changes that I wasn't a great fan of and didn't really see any need for but they weren't so bad that they ruined it for me. I think people that are giving it bad reviews don't know GI Joe from before this movie. It was certainly far, FAR better than Transformers 2 which should have just been called Transformers: Humans with a few robots chucked in.

In closing, if you were/are a fan of GI Joe, then you'll probably enjoy this, if you have no previous interest in GI Joe then just remember it's based off a cartoon expect cheesey lines and lots of explosions and a Saturday morning cartoon plot.

Now you know... and knowing is half the battle! YO JOE!

G.I Joe is pretty awesome... If you're under 13 and addicted to video games

Since I first saw the trailer for G.I Joe, I've been looking forward to going and getting it watched. I wasn't expecting too much, as the film's substance is obviously very weak from the out-set; but I did notice it was from Paramount (the massive studio that's brought us Transformers, Star Trek, War of the Worlds etc...) so I just prepared myself for some light, high-budget, 'effectsy' fun. However, unfortunately I fell victim to one of Hollywood's clever but annoyingly common traps- every single 'good part' in the film, I'd already seen in the trailer.

That said, even if I hadn't seen the trailer before-hand, there would've been no surprises; the film itself is pretty damn predictable. From the following vague example, you'll be able to figure out what kind of film G.I Joe is:

Two large ships suddenly come to confrontation. Good guys vs. Bad guys.
Channing Tatum: 'You're going down, Cobra!'
Cobra: 'Oh yeah? You and what army?'
Channing Tatum: 'Me and this army!'
Dun dun duuun! Suddenly, out of the blue, about 50 other ships full of good guys appear behind Tatum's, including one that is absolutely enormous.

...Get the picture?

Aside from the shockingly untalented Channing Tatum (whom was obviously only cased for the small group of adoring girls that you'll see squashed up in the front row screaming, 'Oh, he's so fit!') there is actually a very good cast on display here. There's the fantastic Joseph Gordon-Levitt, cute Sienna Miller, loveable Dennis Quaid and Marlon Wayans is quite fun. Also, as G.I Joe is directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy), even Brendan Fraiser makes a short appearance.

After a slow start, the film soon picks up and is pretty much constant action for the final hour. There're lots of 'cool' special effects, 'awesome' shoot-outs, 'exhilarating' chases, and 'wicked' kung-fu scenes. Plus, there are lots of pretentious confrontation scenes in lots of tacky, neon-lit space-ship offices (of which everybody loves, and DOESN'T find extremely boring). Chyea, when the credits roll, you'll have a bit of a head-ache. Amongst the action though, what just about keeps you going is the film's ability to made you laugh (unintentionally, of course) ...G.I Joe is home to some of the most amazingly cheesy one-liners in Film history.

Anyway, not much else to say really, apart from I (and the two friends I went to see it with) were quite disappointed. G.I Joe is what parents will take their kids to see if they think that Transformers 2 will be inappropriate. Let's leave it at this: If you miss the cinema release, just watch the trailer instead- it's the film, reduced to about 2 minutes.