thank you for your email this morning in response to my inquiry as to what happened to my order.as luck would have it, i received the package from fedex late this afternoon. thanks for your prompt attention to my inquiry.
sincerely, janice west
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G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra
G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra
This article contains indepth information about the summer blockbuster G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a 2009 American live-action film
adaptation of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy franchise. The film
is directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and
co-written by Stuart Beattie, based on a 1998 screenplay by John Paul Kay. G.I.
Joe features an ensemble cast based on the various characters of the franchise.
The story follows two American soldiers, Duke and Ripcord, who join the G.I. Joe
Team after being attacked by Cobra troops. Filming took place in Downey,
California and Prague's Barrandov Studios. The film was released on August 5,
2009, in France and Belgium, August 6 in United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand
and Hong Kong, and August 7 in the United States and other English-speaking
countries. The Rise of Cobra had mostly negative critical reviews, but opened at
the top of the box office.
Plot
In the near future, weapons expert James McCullen
(Christopher Eccleston) has created a nanotechnology-based weapon capable of
destroying an entire city. His company MARS sells four warheads to NATO, and the
U.S. Army is tasked with delivering the warheads. Duke (Channing Tatum) and
Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are delivering the warheads when they are ambushed by
the Baroness (Sienna Miller), who Duke recognized to be his ex-fiancee Ana
Lewis. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes
(Ray Park) and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). They take the warheads to
The Pit, G.I. Joe's command center in North Africa, and upon arriving rendezvous
with General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), the head of the G.I. Joe Team. Hawk takes
command of the war-heads and excuses Duke and Ripcord, only to be convinced to
have them join his group after Duke reveals that he knows the Baroness.
McCullen is revealed to be using the same nanotechnology to build an army of
soldiers with the aid of the Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), planning on using
the warheads to cause panic and bring about a new world order. Using a tracking
device, McCullen locates the G.I. Joe base and sends Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun)
and the Baroness to retrieve the warheads with assistance from Zartan (Arnold
Vosloo), inflicting casualties on several G.I. Joe soldiers. After a fight,
Storm Shadow and the Baroness retrieve the warheads and take them to Baron
DeCobray, the Baroness's husband, for him to weaponize and use them to destroy
the Eiffel Tower to serve as a showing of the warhead's destructive power.
Making their way to Paris, the Joes pursue them through the streets but are
unsuccessful in stopping them from launching the missile. Duke manages to hit
the kill switch, but in doing so he is captured and taken to McCullen's base
under the Arctic.
G.I. Joe locates the secret base and fly there as McCullen loads three missiles
with nano-mite warheads. After Snake Eyes takes out one, Ripcord pursues the
remaining missiles in a prototype Night Raven jet while Scarlett and her group
infiltrate the base. While Scarlett and Snake Eyes attempt to shut down the
Arctic base, with Heavy Duty leading an attack on Cobra's forces, Duke learns
that the Doctor is Rex Lewis, Ana's brother believed to have been killed on a
mission led by Duke four years ago. He was trapped in a bunker with Doctor
Mindbender (Kevin O'Connor), disfigured in the blast which everyone presumed had
killed him. The Baroness tries to free Duke but the Doctor reveals he has
implanted her with nano-mites which has put her under his control for the past
four years, admitting his amazement that she is resisting the programming.
Attempting to kill Duke, McCullen ends up being facially burned as he flees with
Rex to an escape vessel. Duke and the Baroness pursue him while the Joes fall
back when Rex activated the base's self destruct sequence. During this Storm
Shadow and Snake Eyes Face off. Snake Eyes stabs Storm Shadow and presumably
kills him.
Rex then heals McCullen's burned face with nano-mites, encasing it in silver as
he christens McCullen "Destro" and assumes the identity of Cobra Commander
before they are captured by G.I. Joe soon after. On board the supercarrier USS
Flagg, Baroness is placed in protective custody until they can remove the nano-mites
from her body. Meanwhile, Zartan, having been earlier operated on by Rex,
infiltrates the White House during the missile crisis and assumes the identity
of the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce).
Cast
G.I. Joe
- Channing Tatum as Conrad Hauser /
Duke: The lead soldier. Lorenzo di Bonaventura wanted to cast Mark Wahlberg in
the role when the script was not about the origin story, while the studio met
with Sam Worthington when it was rewritten by Beattie in its final
incarnation. Tatum had played a soldier in Stop-Loss, an anti-war film, and
originally wanted no part in G.I. Joe, which he felt glorified war. Once he
read the script though, he realized the franchise was a fantasy akin to
X-Men, Mission: Impossible and Star Wars rather than a war
film.
- Dennis Quaid as General Clayton
Abernathy / Hawk: The team leader. Quaid described Hawk as "a cross between
Chuck Yeager and Sgt. Rock and maybe a naďve Hugh Hefner". Quaid's son
convinced him to take on the part, and the filmmakers enjoyed working with him
so much that Stuart Beattie wrote "ten to fifteen more scenes" for the
character. He filmed all his scenes within the first two months of production.
Quaid is signed on for two sequels.
- Marlon Wayans as Wallace Weems
/ Ripcord: He has a crush on Scarlett, which she is aware of but, has no
interest in him to begin with. A fan of the franchise, Wayans was cast on the
strength of his performance in Requiem for a Dream. Bonaventura said that film
showed Wayans could be serious as well as funny. In the film, he invites Duke
to join the Air Force with him. He also told Scarlett that he can fly almost
any aircraft. When Ripcord was able to stop the missile launched to hit
Washington DC, Scarlett calls him Ace.
- Rachel Nichols as Shana M. O'Hara /
Scarlett: She graduated college at age twelve and became the team's
intelligence expert. Having left school so early, she does not understand
men's attraction to her. Nichols was the first choice for the role. Nichols
had dyed her blonde hair red – Scarlett's hair color – for her role in Star
Trek, which she filmed before G.I. Joe. She burned herself filming an
action sequence with Sienna Miller.
- Ray Park as Snake Eyes: A
mysterious ninja commando who took a vow of silence. Like his character, Park
is a martial arts expert and specifically practiced wushu for the role, as
well as studying the character's comic book poses. Park had known of
Snake-Eyes having played with the toys as a child, but he knew very little of
the surrounding saga of G.I. Joe versus Cobra, so he read the comics to
further understand the character. He was nervous about wearing the mask, so he
requested to practice wearing it at home. He found the full costume, including
the visor, very heavy to wear and akin to a rubber band; he had to put effort
into moving in it.
- Leo Howard as a 10-year-old
Snake Eyes
- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Hershel
Dalton / Heavy Duty: An ordnance expert. Common was offered the role of Heavy
Duty's cousin Roadblock, although Bonaventura previously indicated Heavy Duty
was being used in that character's stead. Stuart Beattie ultimately chose to
have Heavy Duty instead of Roadblock.
- Saďd Taghmaoui as Abel Shaz /
Breaker: He is the team's communications specialist and hacker. In the film,
he is Moroccan rather than an American but retains his characteristic love of
bubble gum.
- Karolína Kurková as Courtney A.
Kreiger / Cover Girl: Hawk's aide-de-camp.
- Brendan Fraser as Sgt. Stone:
At first, it was reported he was going to play Gung-Ho, but it was later
revealed he plays Sergeant Stone. Fraser is quoted as saying he'd like to
think his character is a descendant of Rick O'Connell, Fraser's character in
Sommers' The Mummy film series.
Cobra
- Christopher Eccleston as James
McCullen / Destro: A weapons designer and founder of the Military Armament
Research Syndicate (MARS) and the main villain of the film. Irish actor
David Murray was cast as Destro, but was forced to drop it when he had
problems with his visa. Murray was later cast as an ancestor of James
McCullen in a flashback scene.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Rex
Lewis / The Doctor / Cobra Commander: The Baroness's brother, a former U.S.
Soldier who was thought to be killed during an operation - instead, he
became the disfigured Cobra head scientist. USA Today reported that Gordon-Levitt
will play multiple roles. Levitt wore a mask – which was redesigned from the
comics because the crew found it too reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan – and
prosthetic makeup underneath it. Upon seeing concept art of the role he was
being offered, Levitt signed on because; "I was like, 'I get to be that?
You're going to make that [makeup] in real life and stick it on me? Cool.
Let me do it.' That's a once-in-lifetime opportunity." Levitt is a friend of
Tatum and they co-starred in
Stop-Loss and Havoc. His casting provided extra
incentive for Tatum to join the film. Levitt described his vocal performance
as being half reminiscent of Chris Latta's voice for the 1980s cartoon, but
also half his own ideas, because he felt rendering it fully would sound
ridiculous.
- Sienna Miller as Ana Lewis / Anastacia DeCobray / The Baroness: A spy and sister of Cobra Commander.
Years before the film, The Baroness was going to marry Duke, but he left her
at the altar, due to his guilt over the apparent death of her brother Rex
Lewis. Miller auditioned for the part because it did not involve "having a
breakdown or addicted to heroin or dying at the end, something that was just
maybe really great fun and that people went to see and actually just had a
great time seeing". Miller prepared with four months of weight training,
boxing sessions and learned to fire live ammunition, gaining five pounds of
muscle. She sprained her wrist after slipping on a rubber bullet while
filming a fight between the Baroness and Scarlett.
- Lee Byung-hun as Thomas Arashikage /
Storm Shadow: Snake-Eyes' rival, both were close members of the Arashikage
ninja clan. Lee said he did not know G.I. Joe because it is an unknown
series in Korea. Sommers and Bonaventura told him not to watch any of the
cartoons to prepare for the role. Lee was attracted to Storm Shadow's "dual
personality", which he stated has "huge pride and honor".
- Brandon Soo Hoo as 10-year-old Storm
Shadow/Thomas Arashikage
- Arnold Vosloo as Zartan: An expert
in make-up and disguises serving Destro.
Cameos
Brendan Fraser as Sgt. Stone and Jonathan Pryce plays the President of the
United States. There are scenes involving a ten-year-old Snake-Eyes and Storm
Shadow, with Gerald Okamura as their mentor. Cameos include
Larry Hama as a NATO general and Kevin J. O'Connor as Doctor Mindbender in a
flashback scene.
Production
Development
In 2003, Lorenzo di Bonaventura was interested in making a film about advanced
military technology; Hasbro's Brian Goldner called him and suggested to base the
film on the G.I. Joe toy line. Goldner and Bonaventura worked together before,
creating toy lines for films Bonaventura produced as CEO of Warner Bros. Goldner
and Bonaventura spent three months working out a story, and chose Michael B.
Gordon as screenwriter, because they liked his script for 300. Bonaventura
wanted to depict the origin story of certain characters, and introduced the new
character of Rex, to allow an exploration of Duke. Rex's name came from Hasbro.
Beforehand, Don Murphy was interested in filming the property, but when the Iraq
War broke out, he considered the subject matter inappropriate, and chose to
develop Transformers (another Hasbro toy line) instead. Bonaventura felt, "What
the Joes stand for, and what Duke stands for specifically in the movie, is
something that I'd like to think a worldwide audience might connect with."
By February 2005, Paul Lovett and David Elliot, who wrote Bonaventura's Four
Brothers, were rewriting Gordon's draft. In their script, the Rex character is
corrupted and mutated into the Cobra Commander, whom Destro needs to lead an
army of supersoldiers. Skip Woods was rewriting the script by March 2007, and he
added the Alex Mann character from the British Action Man toy line. Bonaventura
explained, "Unfortunately, our president has put us in a position
internationally where it would be very difficult to release a movie called G.I.
Joe. To add one character to the mix is sort of a fun thing to do." The script
was leaked online by El Mayimbe of Latino Review, who revealed Woods had dropped
the Cobra Organization in favor of the Naja / Ryan, a crooked CIA agent. In this
draft, Scarlett is married to Action Man but still has feelings for Duke, and is
killed by the Baroness. Snake-Eyes speaks, but his vocal cords are slashed
during the story, rendering him mute. Mayimbe suggested Stuart Beattie rewrite
the script. Fan response to the film following the script review was negative.
Bonaventura promised with subsequent rewrites, "I'm hoping we're going to get it
right this time." He admitted he had problems with Cobra, concurring with an
interviewer "they were probably the stupidest evil organization out there [as
depicted in the cartoon]". Hasbro promised they would write Cobra back into the
script.
In August 2007, Paramount Pictures hired Stephen Sommers to direct the film
after his presentation to CEO Brad Grey and production prexy Brad Weston was
well-received. Sommers had been inspired to explore the G.I. Joe universe after
visiting Hasbro's headquarters in Rhode Island. The project had found the
momentum based on the success of Transformers, which Bonaventura produced with
Murphy. Sommers partly signed on to direct because the concept reminded him of
James Bond, and he described an underwater battle in the story as a tribute to
Thunderball. Stuart Beattie was hired to write a new script for Sommers's film,
and G.I. Joe creator Larry Hama was hired as creative consultant. Hama helped
them change story elements that fans would have disliked and made it closer to
the comics, ultimately deciding fans would enjoy the script. He persuaded them
to drop a comic scene at the film's end, where Snake-Eyes speaks. To speed up
production before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, John Lee
Hancock, Brian Koppelman and David Levien also assisted in writing various
scenes. Goldner said their inspiration was generally Hama's comics and not the
cartoon. Sommers said had it not been for the rich backstory in the franchise,
the film would have fallen behind schedule because of the strike.
Filming and design
Filming began on February 11, 2008, in Los Angeles, California. The Downey
soundstage was chosen as Paramount needed a large stage to get production
underway as soon as possible. The first two levels of the the Pit were built
there, to complement the rest of the building which would be done with special
effects. Downey also housed Destro's MARS base in the Arctic, his legitimate
weapons factory in an ex-Soviet state, as well as various submarines interiors,
including a SHARC (Submersible High-speed Attack and Reconnaissance Craft)
manned by two G.I. Joes.
Filming in the Czech Republic's Barrandov Studios began in May. The crew took
over sections of the Old Town in Prague. While filming in the city on April 26,
people were injured when a bus and several cars collided with a four-wheel-drive
vehicle that appeared to have braking problems. The emergency services confirmed
those taken to hospital had minor injuries. Filming wrapped after a month in
Prague. Additional second unit filming took place in Paris itself, Egypt, Tokyo,
the Arctic and underwater.
Sommers felt "almost 100 percent" of the technology in the film would be
available within 10 to 20 years, citing the various books and magazines about
developing weapons that he loved reading. For example, Sommers said he believed
invisibility was impossible, but the virtual invisibility provided by camouflage
camera that projects what is behind a soldier on their front allowed him to
include it. The production designers modelled the interior of Destro's private
submarine on a Handley Page Jetstream. Sommers said the bulky immobile
"accelerator suits" (which Beattie said had enabled them to write "a car chase
where one guy's not even in a car") had been tough on the actors and were likely
to have their roles reduced in potential sequels. Critics have compared the
suits to that of NFL Superpro, a comic book character jointly licensed by the
NFL and Marvel Comics, and resembling an armored football player.
Bonaventura predicted the United States armed forces' aid of the film would be
limited since much of the hardware is fictional. The filmmakers were denied use
of MRAP vehicles at the start of filming because it was ordered many MRAPs had
to be sent to the Middle East as soon as possible, though later they permitted
filming at Fort Irwin Military Reservation. Some commentators reviewing previews
and promotional art from the film have noted superficial resemblances between it
and the action film parody Team America: World Police.
Music
The score to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was composed by Alan Silvestri,
who reunited with director Stephen Sommers to recorded his score with a 90-piece
ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the scoring stages at Sony and Fox.
A soundtrack album of the score is available from Varese Sarabande Records on
August 4, 2009.
Marketing
The film's actors were scanned for Hasbro's toy line, which began in July 2009
with the release of 3 3/4-inch tall action figures. The Rise of Cobra toy
line also includes 12-inch figures, and vehicles, including the first play set
based on the Pit in the franchise's history. Electronic Arts developed a video
game sequel to the film, also titled G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
IDW Publishing released a four-issue prequel written by Chuck Dixon. Each issue
focuses on Duke, Destro, the Baroness and Snake-Eyes respectively. It begins
publication in March 2009. The weekly film adaptation is written by Denton J.
Tipton and drawn by Casey Maloney. The film's universe will be continued by a
limited series about Snake-Eyes later in 2009; Ray Park enjoyed playing the
character and approached writer Kevin VanHook and artist S. L. Gallant with the
idea of a comic further exploring his incarnation of the character.
The film was premiered in the US at the base for Air Force One. Paramount's vice
chairman Rob Moore claimed the movie was prioritized for mid-Americans. In
Europe, the marketing was focused on action sequences set in Paris, Egypt and
Tokyo, and emphasizes that G.I. Joe is an international team of crack operatives
and not some Yankee soldier. Director Stephen Sommers said 'this is not a George
Bush movie -- it's an Obama world. Right from the writing stage we said to
ourselves, this can't be about beefy guys on steroids who all met each other in
the Vietnam War, but an elite organization that's made up of the best of the
best from around the world.'
Reception
Reviews
Paramount decided to not screen the film for print critics before its release
and wanted to focus on internet critics. The film has received mostly negative
reviews from critics. Based on 133 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, G.I.
Joe: The Rise of Cobra has a 'rotten' 38% approval rating from critics, with
an average score of 4.7/10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists
of notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio
programs, the film holds a 27% rating, with an average score of 3.9/10. By
comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews
from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 32, based on
25 reviews.
Matthew Leyland from Total Film called it "a throwaway blast of solid, stupid
fun" and gave it three out of five stars, particularly praising Joseph Gordon-Levitt's
performance as the treacherous Cobra Commander. Sister publication SFX called
the film "dumb and dopey, with plenty of bumpy bits" and that "GI Joe has a
genuine cliffhanger charm, especially when the last act becomes a whole string
of pulp plot twists. The ending screams “To Be Continued”; we could do worse.",
finally awarding the score of three stars out of five. Reviewers also criticized
the film for the scientific impossibility of sinking ocean ice.
Christopher Monfette of IGN also gave the film a positive review, saying "This
is an adult's interpretation of a childhood phenomenon, and if you're willing to
give it a shot, one suspects that you'll find yourself entertained enough to
give your best, "Yo, Joe!" He gave the film three and a half out of five stars.
Dan Jolin of Empire magazine commented that it was "Bond without the style and
Team America without the bellylaughs". The Daily Telegraph reviewer said, "The
taint of cruddiness extends everywhere in this joyless stinker." James
Berardinelli said the characters were "as plastic as the toys that inspired
them" and considered Tatum "wooden" and that his character was "more animated in
sequences when he is rendered by special effects than when being portrayed by
Tatum". Roger Ebert described that "there is never any clear sense in the action
of where anything is in relation to anything else", but stated that he
considered The Rise of Cobra better than
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Box office
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra opened at number one in North America on its
opening weekend, grossing $54.7 million, and earning about $44 million in the
rest of the world. As of August 16, 2009, the movie currently grossed $98.7
million at the domestic box office with $66.1 million from other countries with
a total of $164.9 million worldwide.
Sequel
A sequel has been announced and will soon be put into production. Most of the
first film's stars are contractually obligated to return. However, Stephen
Sommers is not contractually obligated to return.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia
article "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License.
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