So, since Transformers did so well, I guess the powers-that-be are looking for new fodder ...

G.I. Joe

IMdb doesn't want to play unless I pay though.

That article is the first I've heard that the movie will actually have anything to do with, well, GI Joe at all.

Every other article (interviews directly with the creators included) I've read about it has mentioned that it (1) won't be called GI Joe, because that term is offensive to most of the world, (2) will be primarily about the British super spy Action Man, with Duke (Wahlberg) and he working together, just the pair of them, as a sort of action buddy flick, (3) was supposed to have absolutely no mention of GI Joe as an organization, Cobra ("because they're silly"), or anything else that had anything to do with, y'know...what it's supposed to be based on.

Now, if your article does end up being more true than the other articles, I'm a happy man. I just got home from spending four days at Dragoncon, waltzing around dressed up like a blue-suit Cobra trooper, for pete's sake. I think it's obvious that I want a movie about GI Joe (and all that comes with it), not a movie about Action Man with a token American guy playing sidekick (and no Cobra, no other Joes, and nothing else from the actual franchise of my childhood).

This reminds me of when the makers of the film "The Sum of All Fears" changed the villains from Islamic extremists (in the Clancy novel) to neo nazis (in the movie). Can't have the world thinking that muslims want to blow stuff up, can we?

GI Joe was my thing growing up. My favorite toys, bar none. I was into the comic (long live Hama), the cartoon, the movie, the action figures -- you name it. I'm with the Cobra 21st now not only because my loonie wife's loonie friends started the whole thing, but because I'd probably have found them and joined up by now anydamnedways.

So, yeah. I've been keeping up with rumors/articles/interviews about the movie. And hating it.

You know... coming from where I come from( ), I don't really see GI Joe as anything more than a symbol, just like Coke or MacDonalds or Starbucks.

But I liked Action Man too.

Yeah, that's what I don't get. I've traveled extensively and have lived on five different continents for various amounts of time. Not once have I ever heard "G.I. Joe" being some kind of offensive term, especially to people of non-American countries or cultures. I have no idea where that's coming from. It's about as offensive as "Yankee" or "American" is; all basically contextual synonyms of one another.

For the record, Action Man sucked. His eyes creep me out, man.

Really, there's already been a good G.I. Joe Movie. Charlie Sheen Starred in it. It was called Platoon.

Nothing can really compare to the good G.I. Joe Marvel comics, which actually treated it like a serious war. The beauty of G.I. Joe is that, when it was done right, it allowed a real brutal gripping emotional war story to be told in media that traditionally did not cater to such things. Robotech was generally superior in this regard when it comes to television, due to the fact that the G.I.Joe television series heavily waters down the violence of war, with no one dying but robots in most cases, but there is still the brutal bit of pure psychological torture known as There's No Place Like Springfield to show people just why being a P.O.W of an enemy that never agreed to the Geneva Convention sucks horribly.

Turning it into a live action movie is somewhat counterproductive, since it would be difficult to do it justice without garnering a PG-13 or R rating in today's climate.

I had a lot of GI Joe stuff as a child - but that toy line was actually known as "Action Force" here in Germany (and the rest of Europe, I think).

When I was a little kid my parents never let me watch GI Joe, fearing that it was military propaganda. Both my mom and my dad held extremely negative views towards military service. My dad was a little kid in Japan during World War II so his most formative experience with the military was the Japanese Imperial Army; I've even seen old photos of paternal relatives of mine from that time period with their katana and such. The only thing my mom ever told me about the Vietnam War was how young men she knew from art school came back addicted to heroin and utterly destroyed. They both reacted very emotionally when I had to sign up for that selective service thingie.

So, for a long time, I never understood the awesomeness that is the show GI Joe. Until I read these articles: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/feature-ar...orld-war-an.php

Crit, which one's you in the pic?

The one in the middle, with the mask and hat?

That's pretty sweet.

...so awesome. Now I really wish I could watch the old cartoons.

who says you can't?

Then why haven't you said something about it before now?

Well, it has guns ... that's less tenuous than some other connections we've both seen.

@ Crit - awesome man. GI Joe and general gaming connections? Get hyzmarca or WOunded Ronin started on it. I'd love to see Cobra Commander stats.

And code names. And ninjas!

Sucks!

The DIC episodes sucked horribly compared to the Sunbow episodes. The best was There's No Place Like Springfield, the two-part season 1 finale of which about 80% was dedicated to the sadistic, brutal, and elaborate psychological torture of a P.O.W. by Cobra, using painful mind-probe machines and an entire town full of Synthoids pretending to be his friends and family while occasionally trying to kill him and melting into puddles of goo and then going back to normal as if nothing has happened.



I'd love to see a perfectly exact live-action rendition of the original movie opening. It would be particularly good for the new film since it would require them to sign on Sergent Slaughter.

Jesus, I remember that one. It freaked me the hell out as a kid.

Cool pictures Critias, I had no idea there was such a loyal following out there. (Even after talking with Bull on several occasions.) I'd love to get to one of these Cons one of these days-damnedable jorb and it's damned rotating days, and mandatory overtime.

I just picked up most of the GI Joe books done by DDP the other day, and I am looking forward to reading them-being a fan of the original Marvel series, and of course growing up with the toys and the cartoons! I'd like to hope they'll make a good play at a GI Joe movie, but it just doesn't seem ready to happen yet.

If you look around there is a partial cast list that includes Scarlette, Road Block, Cobra Commander, the Baroness and a few others

Well, I don't know if this movie is going to be any good or not but at the very least Snake-Eyes LOOKS like Snake-Eyes: http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/03/20/first-...es-from-gi-joe/

OMG me too. I was disturbed for YEARS. Ahh the 80s.

A lot of the early reports immediately following the greenlighting of the movie was... Terrible. Fortunately, everything in the last few months has given me a lot of hope.

Ray Park as Snake Eyes. Kick Ass Martial Artist and doesn't need to speak? This is the role that Park was born to play

I'm fine with Ray Park as Snake Eyes (perfect casting, IMO, and the first costumed shots I've seen of him look badass). I'm fine with Quaid as General Hawk. He's among my favorite actors (in the "reliably gives a solid performance but not often remarkable" category), he's the right age, and I could buy him as a grizzled but still kick-ass old officer. I was thrilled when I heard Larry Hama was on board. He's The Master, hands down. Those comics shaped me in likely unhealthy ways, instilling in me a profound respect for our men and women in uniform, an insane fear of ninjas, and an uncanny sense of small unit tactics for my age at the time I read them.

But.

I'm...just not feelin' it. Baroness is a blonde (and in the first screenshots, she IS a blonde, right there at a serviceman's funeral). The kid playing Duke looks like an extra on Dawson's Creek, not one of America's finest NCO's. It just looks bad.

I imagine I'll like Ray Park and Dennis Quaid's screen time, out of the...what? Twelve, fifteen, character that are likely to share the movie with them significantly? So, uhh, yeah. About one sixth of the time, I guess I'll be happy.

Though I am thinking of showing up at the theatre in my bluesuit.

If you do, you totally need to get pics and post them

Dammit. This is making me want to buy more toys. I've been avoiding the 25th anniversary stuff like the plague cause I have NO more freaking room for Joe stuff, but... Grrr.

One of my buddies (also in the 21st) has been making "custom 25th anniversary" figures of a bunch of us. He's way into the modeling/painting side of wargaming, and has been buying extras of certain figurines and then modding them up (with goatees, cigarettes, alternate paint schemes, whatever) to make 'em match us. It's been pretty cool stuff, and I've been impressed with the quality of figurine (even before he got his paws on 'em).

So far, though, I've also been able to resist the sweet siren's call of buying anything. Largely because I just don't know where I'd put them.

*cries softly*

Cool dragoncon pics, heh it's bad that I recognized y'all were eating at the Vortex before I saw the picture of the front door. Man, that brings back memories of that place, it's been years since I've eaten there. Maybe I'll go to dragoncon again one of these days.