Featurettes, PIP commentary with the director, music video, deleted/extended scenes

It’s difficult to review a kids movie without adding in something of the jaded adult. “G-Force” is a perfect example of such a movie. I personally thought the movie sucked. It was clichéd and used the 3-D gimmick to lure most moviegoers into theaters (via their kids). I really expect better from Disney. This is the type of film that I would have expected from Disney in the 70’s or 80’s (oh alright, they never stopped making these stinky type of films). What works well in “G-Force” are the visual effects and the 3-D effects. Sadly, that doesn’t translate to home video so part of the novelty is missing here. ***

Darwin (Sam Rockwell), Blaster (Tracy Morgan) and Juarez (Penelope Cruz) were genetically altered by a scientist named Ben (Zach Galifianakis) as part of a government spy program. They’re all intelligent little guinea pigs who can spy, steal sensitive material and get into tight places with the best of them. G-Force as they are called is disbanded by FBI agent Kip Killian (Will Arnett) forcing the trio to flee along with their other G-Force members including Mooch (Dee Bradley Baker) and a mole named Speckles (Nicholas Cage). They discover a plan by an evil electronics genius (Bill Nighy) to take over the world with his devices via a satellite (sort of like what happens to home appliances in “Transformers” when it is exposed to the Great Spark). ***

Far from original or even humorous, “G-Force” will keep the average 6 year old engaged while you secretly wrap Christmas presents. That’s it folks. If you expect something about as engaging and original as a Three Stooges short with big rats using futuristic devices, then you’ll enjoy “G-Force’. There are some films where the filmmakers aim high and try to entertain adults with well written and directed works that can appeal to multiple audiences all at the same time (the best type of family entertainment I might add). This isn’t one of them. Clearly the actors were slumming and either needed the money or were bored how else to explain such as a good cast in such a poorly thought out and developed movie. ---

Image & Sound:

“G-Force” looks solid in its Blu-ray 2-D presentation. Depth, detail and clarity are all superior compared to the DVD version and while it doesn’t quite equal the quality of seeing it projected in a theater with a good projector, it looks about as good as most digital presentations. The main flaw here are skin tones that make the human actors look as if they either applied can sun tan or someone forgot to turn off the tanning beds in time. ***

Audio sounds better than the film looks with a nice 5.1 DTS-HD mix that comes to life during the action scenes but doesn’t overwhelm the audience.

“C-Explore Mode” allows director Hoyt Yateman to give us a picture-in-picture commentary track/guide to the film. The C-Explore Mode also allows us to see plenty of pre-viz and pre-effects footage of the film as well as a break down of the CGI footage integrated into the film. ***

“Inside the Animation Lab” gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creation of the visual effects footage. Hosted by director Yateman and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (who honestly after all this time should know better than to produce junk like this…he actually started to get respectable to me with stuff like “CSI”) we get an idea as to how much wasted effort went into creating this film. *** We also get deleted scenes, “Blaster’s Boot Camp” where the character from the film discusses what it takes to be a member of G-Force. ***

“G-Farce” features some amusing outtakes and they are actually more entertaining than the movie itself. ***

Finally we get a “Bruckheimer Animated” which looks at the use of CGI in Bruckheimer’s films over the years and “G-Force Mastermind” where the five year old son of the director discusses how he created the concept of the film that his dad brought to the screen. Only in Hollywood would a five year old come up with a concept for a multi-million dollar movie. This explains everything that's wrong with Hollywood and this film.

Final Words: