G.I. Joe Retaliation Review

This is Jason Marsden, voice of Duke from G .I.

Joe Renegades. You're listening to the GeekCast

Radio Network. Yo, Joe. Hey, it's Mistress Carrie,

and you are listening to Studio 2009. There's

nothing wrong with your podcast player. Do not

attempt to adjust the volume. And welcome back

into our studio. You're now inside Studio 2009,

only on the GeekCast Radio Network. I'm, of course,

Tf2 and Mike. Joining me once again is Steve

Megatron. Hello, sir. How are you? Good, good.

Today, we're heading back to 2013 to revisit

the John M. Chu directed G .I. Joe retaliation.

Dun, dun, dun. The President says they can't

come out of retirement. They didn't say anything

about re -enlisting. Oh boy, retaliation. You

know, I don't know about this one. So yeah, like

we mentioned last episode, they switched everything

up. From 2009 to 2013 switched up production

companies switched up directors and and and everything

else and You know, you got John M Chu in here

the guy who came from step up step up Well step

up to the streets step up 3d Justin Bieber's

never say never step up revolution this film

then in 2015 he will have directed well he did

not direct Step Up Revolution I'm so sorry he

didn't direct that one like I said Jim of the

Holograms 2016 he directed Now You See Me Too

and more recently he directed Wicked and Wicked

for Good oh boy I like the guys. I mean, the

only, I think the only film of his that I've

actually seen up until retaliation. Cause as

I said in the last episode, I'll say it again

here in 2013, I completely skipped retaliation.

I just didn't have any interest in watching it

at the time. I wasn't that into the old GI Joe

thing in 2013. I was completely out of it. So

whatever but the only film of his I had directorial

film of his that I had seen was gem of the holograms

in 2015 So there's that So, yeah retaliation

what's your history with this one Well, I saw

it when it came out originally and then I saw

it again I've watched this one probably more

than the first one okay, because They fixed a

lot of the characterization issues of costumes

and Cobra Commander, so I paid more attention

to it. Right. Yeah. I'm only a stickler over

it because I like Cobra Commander. Yeah, yeah,

no, I get it. Absolutely, I get it. But it had

other redeeming qualities as well, just from

some of the big name casts that kind of showed

up. Hmm, so I I in particular like this plus

it's got Bruce Willis. So and if you ever wanted

a Bruce Willis action figure You get it from

this movie. Yep, and you have John McClane Yeah,

because he looks like die -hard three like Pretty

much. Yeah. I mean this this was I mean this

wasn't 1995 John McClane, but it's damn close

It could die hard for. Okay. It looks like him.

Yeah. Okay. That'll work. What rips my heart

out about this movie in it at the end of the

movie, they say something about, you know, Oh,

well, I guess I have my orders or I have this

or I have that or whatever, like acting like

there's going to be another movie or another

assignment. And then my thinking goes to, holy

crap, this was 2013. It's now 2025. Look where

Mr. Willis is now. Like that was 12 years ago.

Isn't that crazy? No, I know. But like, Oh, it

just, it ripped my heart out watching that end

scene because knowing where he is now. Cause

we were going to do an episode on it. I hadn't

mentioned this to you yet, but I watched the,

uh, the ABC special with, uh, him and, uh, his

wife. Oh, what's her, um, Emma Willis, whatever

his wife's name is of it was her and him. And

I think Barbara Walters, they did some ABC special

about. him and how his life is now and what he's

going through and what his condition is and All

of that and I was like, oh we should do a podcast

on this just you know to like do a Bruce Willis

not necessarily an actress spotlight, but like

a a person's but I don't know icon spotlight,

whatever you want to call it kind of thing because

the dude is an icon and It just, Oh God. So when

it got to that scene in the movie and I'm, I

know I'm jumping ahead, but it just like, I don't

know. I don't know what they were going to do.

I don't know what plans they had after this second

movie, because honestly, at the end of this,

I'm like, Oh, okay. Cool. I could see a third

movie where, you know, If it wasn't so fiery

in that explosion, I could see Duke waking up

in the middle of nowhere from a coma. I could

see that too. So yeah, we have a whole bunch

of new people in this. So we've got. Roadblock

is here, played by The Rock. We've got General

Joe Colton, who is the namesake for G .I. Joe,

played by Bruce Willis. I like how he just goes,

call me Joe. Call me Joe, yep. We got Duke returning,

played by Channing Tatum. We've got Zartan returning.

We've got... Technically Zartan didn't return.

Okay, but... The character, yes, but the actor

did not. It stayed the president. Right. But

they still, but they, but when he dies, it turns

back into the actor. Yeah. They still credit

the actor. The actor still gets a Arnold Voslow,

Voslue. He still gets a credit because he's still,

his face is still shown. Yeah, Jajo retaliation

Zartan it doesn't give a Like it doesn't have

any no notes on his filmography here as to whether

it was just a Whatever, so he's still here anyway

What I forgot and didn't realize? That the president

Can't believe this I can't believe I get to do

this President is Jonathan Price. Jonathan Price

was the media mogul Elliot Carver who faced off

against James Bond in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies

against Pierce Brosnan. I completely, I didn't

miss it. Like I, this is why I said I liked the

guy. Because I recognized him and then I was

looking at the cast list. I'm like Johnson price.

Where am I? Oh My god, it's freaking Elliott

Carver from tomorrow never dry. Oh god But yeah,

he's been in a bunch of stuff Well, he was in

the Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes. He was cursed

the black pearl. Yep. He was in all three Okay,

well that was cursed of the black pearl was just

the first one I got to at the time in the scrolling

here But yeah. I want to see them try and do

figures like updated of these for the G .I. Joe

declassifieds. Yeah, that's a series version

of them for these films. Yeah, that would be

cool. Yeah. So you got Jonathan Price as the

president again. So wait, no, they changed actors.

Storm Shadow changed actors Lee Byung -hun is

in this as Storm Shadow. It says here Brandon

Suhoo was the original actor because it says

through archive footage from the rise of Cobra.

Wait a minute. Hold on. We just got to make sure

I get the fact. Oh, never mind. Young Storm Shadow.

That's why. You're right. I hate when they make...

I recognize faces. That's what I... Yeah, I know.

Me too. And I thought it was, yeah. But yeah,

so, and then I could not believe, I mean, he's

been gone a couple of years now, but I didn't

realize Ray Stevenson was in this as Firefly

at the time, but he passed and passed away two

years ago, died in 2023. That was cool of him

in here as Firefly. I don't like, like. How old

is like she is or she was She's 42 How old is

the kid that plays oops, that's the girl that

plays jinx. How old was the kid played? Flint

he is oh Okay, 45. Oh, ah, he's older flint in

this looks young. Oh, yeah, he looks he looks

like 20s Yeah, but like okay, so this is 2013

Flit and Lady J right now are 45 and 42 respect

respect whatever He's 45 she's 42 currently as

of current day So you go back 12 years or whatever

it is to whatever that is There are only three

years apart from each other, but in this movie

Flint looks, she looks older than he does in

this movie. He looks like a kid in this. She

looks like she could be his mom. Like, I mean,

because to me with G .I. Joe lore, G .I. Joe

history, whatever, the couples in Joe always

were Flint and Lady J, Duke and Scarlet. That's

always what the couples were. That's just what

I always remember. What do we think of the voice

of Cobra Commander this time around? Better.

Better? Okay. I mean, I don't love it either

way, but I at least love the logo of the GI Joes.

I love the stuff there. I love that Cobra Commander

finally gets his actual uniform. The actual mask

and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Like he he takes off all

the garbage from the beginning of the movie.

Yeah. Yeah. And and finally puts the faceplate

on and then wears, you know, has the full military

get up after that. And I'm like, OK, that we're

we're good. We're good. Yep. Yeah, very cool.

Very cool. Yeah, it's just going through this

and just. And I guess I was trying to remember

The voice like I know the voice but I was trying

to remember the guy that did the voice I was

like Robert Baker and I'm looking through his

stuff and I'm like Okay outside of retaliation

I've never Seen anything like I've seen stuff

he's done, but I don't worry. He's one of these

actors who does Like TV, he's done one episode,

one episode, two episodes, three episodes. He's

one of those types of actors who gets the...

Like he doesn't get whole series, sadly, which

sucks. And he only has one video game credit

from 2016 for Call of Duty Infinite Warfare.

He was Maynard Gryff -Gryffin in that game. and

the last time he did any movies was 2014 let's

okay says he's 40 46 so still with us i don't

know uh but yeah retaliation i don't know like

i said this is the first time i watched the movie

so i just got like my first note was I'm 30 minutes

and 10 seconds into this film and damn so much.

Like I liked it. I thought it was fun. I thought

it was interesting. I thought it was cool. I

liked them sneaking around. I liked how the team

worked together. I liked how this is why I think

that Because you know you have the rock there

you have roadblock base even though duke is the

commander roadblock is kinda like the he's kinda

like the sergeant at arms kind of guy even though

duke is the commander he's the one kind of telling

all the younglings cuz let's face it i mean flint

and mouse there that they're pretty much younglings.

Kind of in Flint. Oh, my God. Flint's like, I

don't care what the plan is. I'm just going to

go over here and do whatever the hell I want.

I'm like, what do they do to Flint? Well, I was

almost waiting if they would have done a third

film. They probably would have brought in Sergeant

Slaughter. Oh, don't even tease me like that.

Because I mean, I mean, think about it. We had

General Hawk. Yeah, I know. Yeah, we had Duke

and Joe Colton, you know, and then. had the possibilities

of being awesome. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Hawk

was in this, wasn't he? No. Did he get a cameo?

Oh, he wasn't even in it. No. Really? Yeah, sadly.

Freaking Rock. Well, I think, I think between

everything, I think they just didn't. Like, I

don't know, I'm kind of, I'm kind of bummed.

Yeah, me too. I missed like I was like come on

man killing Duke off. Yeah, like I was happy

We got Lady J was happy we got Flynn. I was happy

we got you know Jinx firefly storm shadow roadblock

They had a different actor playing Cobra commander

this time yeah, that's fine Yeah, but which didn't

really matter his face was covered up Yeah But

yeah Yeah, but like I don't know Like when we

did the the rise of Cobra episode We didn't really

go through a lot of the cast and the reason why

I asked if Hawk was still in this is because

Dennis Quaid man That dude he was oh my god He

was good as Hawk, but man just his I'm not gonna

go through all of it i'm just gonna list of some

presents. He has some presents in that movie

but the other movies he's been in your memory

it was a year after you were born i don't know

if you've ever seen it have you ever seen inner

space. Time's familiar. It was with him Martin

short. He plays lieutenant tuck Pendleton. It's

with Meg Ryan. He gets shrunken down In this

spaceship and he gets Put into Martin shorts

body. It's a whole Comedy of errors type of thing.

It's a it's a really great great film from 87.

Anyway, he was in that he was in Dragonheart,

which I know, you know, we're gonna cover that

at some point Uh, he was bowing in that. I mean,

Dennis Quaid, just great, great actor. I absolutely

love that guy. So good. All right, folks back

to retaliation. Yeah. Like again, you take the

two casts, you mash them together. Like team

one, team two, like Yes, Duke is kind of the

linchpin for the two because you have Channing

Tatum in both films. And that's awesome. And

that's great. And that's cool. But you take the

team members from it, from Ryza Cobra, the team

members from retaliation, and you basically have

the entirety of real American hero. Well, like,

oh, man is just so fun. So this second film is

all about. Nuclear disarmament. It kind of feels

like Superman 3? Superman 4? I forget which one

was nuclear. No, Superman 4 was the nuclear disarmament.

Superman 3 was office space. Those damn computers.

Those ones and zeros. I want a million bucks.

Well, that's what it was. You get the numbers

wrong. Pennies on the dollar man pennies on the

dollar but Superman 4 was Lex Luthor and nuclear

man because nuclear man had a piece of Superman's

DNA and that's what the second film this is the

plot kind of was was They wanted to the president

and Zartan and everybody was like, oh well, we're

all you know, we're the United States and screw

the world we're gonna launch our nukes and we're

gonna do this and No more nukes for everybody

and we're gonna remote we're gonna remote deactivate

them or whatever and you should do the same and

Bob on oh Wait now that we've done all that we've

gotten rid of nukes now We're gonna have this

new weapon that can just drop it a pin drill

look folks It's AT &T. You can hear it from a

pin drop or whatever the AT &T MCI phone pin

drop commercials were back in the 80s and god

this movie this movie I don't know it was funny

either way no it was I was this whole movie I

was wondering what the hell happened to snake

eyes where'd he go he just disappeared he just

disappeared like that elephant He disappeared

But then we We do eventually see him that that

mountain scene. Oh, man. Oh, I love that. That

was so cool. Yeah, it was so good And then jinx

thinking that he died and no No, yeah, no, I

liked this. I don't know if I liked it more Then

the first movie, I think the story for the plot

of what the, Oh my God, the world ending thing

is. I think that was better here, but I think

the character stuff in Rise of Cobra was better.

I would agree with you here. It's, it's feeling

like it's very much. They should have already

been established. So I feel like in that regard,

like you, you should have already been ready

to just, you know, rip, rip, ready, go like there

shouldn't have been any, you know, kind of questioning

of what's, what's going to happen. Yeah. Especially

you said like, again, I didn't even, okay. So

this is a sequel. This is not a reboot. This

is not a remake. It's a sequel to the previous

film. Along the lines of, Hey, we are going to

continue make supposedly continue making these

films. So you would assume that even though you

change up the entire cast with the exception

of maybe one or two cast members, you would assume

that they're keeping the same continuity, which

they did for the most part. They even mentioned

the Nanite wars or whatever Nanite, whatever

the hell it was that they said at the beginning

of the film. But it just I don't know halfway

through I felt like Okay, what it it's not what

is this movie trying to be it was more of Okay,

so you pull off all your even though they didn't

kill off all the old characters, but like I don't

know I don't dislike this movie. I just think

that this movie and the first movie are two very

different movies that have Cobra plots in them.

That two very different Joe teams have to face

the Cobra plots and we don't get like, what's

the, okay. Did you set up this scene with roadblock

and Duke and Duke gets basically maimed by his

kids at his house. They're playing video. They're

playing video games and roadblocks kids come

up and they're, they're all over Duke and they're

doing all this fun stuff and they're being all

horse play and whatever. After that, they go

out, they go on this mission, Duke dies. They

come back later after the success of the whatever

and the kids and whatever. And you just kind

of see this flash of, and there's no explanation.

Like where's uncle Duke or where's whatever.

Like really? Like no, this is why I say like.

The first one is kind of short on the story as

far as the certain parts of the story in it,

but it had better character development for the

characters. This one has the story, but it lacks

the characters as far as the development for

it. Just, I don't know. It's a mixed bag. Like

I said, I didn't just, I didn't turn it off.

I didn't stop it. I didn't have to do a bathroom

break or anything. I watched the movie all the

way through. I enjoyed what I saw. But thinking

about it and trying to analyze it and put it

into words to record the show. It's like. At

the end of the day, I'm not going back and re

-watching either one of these films, but I'm

glad I watched the first one again, even though

I remembered it. I'm glad I watched this second

one, but I don't feel like their legacy enough.

They didn't knock my socks off. They don't. I

don't know. Go ahead. I was going to say none

of these movies are perfect. But I almost would

rather watch these over a lot of the Transformers

films. Because at least through and through,

this is a GI Joe movie. Yeah, absolutely. Both

of them. Whereas the Transformers films, I feel

like they don't know what they're doing with

them. They just are like, yeah, let's put a bunch

of mangled robot crap together and see what happens.

These are G .I. Joe movies with good humans in

them, even though some of the humans don't get

good character development as far as the writing

goes. Whereas the Transformers movies are here,

let's throw this stupid human in because the

the humans who are going to see this movie want

to see humans in a robot movie. No, we don't.

We want to see the fucking robots, man. I agree.

Oh, boy. So, yeah, that's that's where we are,

folks. Usual questions. Did the film keep our

interest throughout? Yeah, it did. I liked it.

I thought it was really good overall. I just

wish there were. I just wish it was written a

little bit better when it came to the characters.

That's my only quibble with it. holding my, my

interest was that you set up certain things with

characters and then you immediately kill off

said character. Agreed. Are we itching to watch

the next film now? Who knows what the next film

now is going to be because there was no third

film. They're going to reboot it. I know. Well,

I know we've got the whole energon universe things

supposedly happening. That's going to happen

at some point next year or whenever they're going

to do it. Yeah. I know they're going to reboot

it. And honestly, from what I've read in the

energon universe, GI Joe comics, if they're going

to adapt that stuff, it's going to be interesting.

I think if they're going to adapt that those

stories, it's going to come down to casting.

And how much of those stories they decide to

pick and choose to write from to fit it to film.

So that's what that's going to come down to.

Agree. Would we recommend this film to people?

I would. I almost enjoyed it more than the first

one as far as like a G .I. Joe film. Yeah. I

don't like that they wiped out most of the cast.

Yeah. But I I feel like this was more of a GI

Joe Movie than the first one I would recommend

it But I still say the first one does the characters

better justice No, I agree, but this feels more

like a GI Joe movie than the first one If you

mix the two you would have a great film Yeah,

that's true Like if you would have taken all

the good elements out of this Plot wise. Yep,

and put them in the first film. Yep, and then

the costumes of this film Yeah, you would have

had a spectacular first film and then I feel

like they would have been able to milk this,

you know Keeping your core cast of GI Joe and

Cobra and then swapping out occasionally depending

on you know Who is available, you know having

the rock and one heaven Bruce Willis and one

heaven, you know, but you can Duke and like some

of your core cast Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Okay.

All right. Zertify with half points. What are

we giving retaliation? I'll probably still give

it a 3 .5 because it's not perfect. Like I said,

it's missing a lot of characters, missing a lot

of the characterizations. It's assuming you already

know everything about these people. Yep. And

but again, the plot and the costumes. Are on

point and then the action is you know more more

realistic or more like die -hard element in some

areas so Very true. It's more fun overall. I

would much rather watch This as far as like a

GI Joe film Then the first one in that regard

the storyline again is better in the first one

then As far as the characterizations not the

story itself. Yeah, so Yep Yeah, I mean absolutely

and so I wanted to bring this up before we kind

of get out of here really quickly just to look

at this person's career and This honestly is

kind of sad So Ray Park who played snake eyes

Is Pretty much a. Silent actor. I mean, there's

nothing terrible about that. No, I know, but

like. So he did play to Mortimer, taught Toynbee

slash Toad and X -Men in 2000. I'm assuming he

talks in 2002's Ballistic X vs Sever as DIA agent

AJ Ross. In Rise of Cobra, Snake Eyes doesn't

talk. Retaliation doesn't talk. Solo A Star Wars

story. So any Darth Maul stuff, he doesn't talk.

It's just him. The voice stuff is all either

Sam Witwer or Peter Serafinowicz. So that's the

Star Wars stuff. It's never Ray Park's voice,

which is kind of sad. Well, Snake Eyes also does

not talk. Well, no, I know. So they honestly

almost got me with that in this movie. They almost

got me. I was like, hey, and then they're like,

oh, Storm Shadow dressing up as Snake Eyes, I

see. Yeah, almost. They almost got, almost got

me with that. I was like, Hey, wait a minute.

Hey, that's the other guy. Don't do that. But

yeah, that's, um, Jojo retaliation folks. That's

the 162nd episode of studio 2009. We're going

to send it to a quick ad break three and a half

all around from both of us. You're going to hear

some ads and some other stuff. We'll come back

to close the show right after this. Check out

block, but I get it man. I'm taking rounds back

in danger. I need you now Wait, how do you do?

How do you call an airstrike? What if can I bring

you? What about one of those like package things?

I'm bleeding out and I need you to spray. Can

you use a package thingy? I can bring you one

pack. Who is shooting? What is what? I'm bleeding

out right there and you Are you crawling? I'm

gonna crawl to victory. That's what I'm gonna

do. How could you be so good at combat? Hello

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We talk TV. We talk. Hello Julie, what the heck

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the show on iTunes or if simplistic reviews dot

blog spot dot com I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't I think you need to relax. I believe I

outrank you last time. Not in my house No, no,

enemy fire. Enemy contact. Uncle Duke, you have

big ears. You got a big head. Come here. You

can't scream your way out of this one. Oh yeah,

requesting assistance, brother. Pin down, brother

Duke, pin down. That's all right. I got my boy

here. Demon dog. Alright folks, that's gonna

do it for us here inside studio 2009. This has

been episode 162 jejo retaliation So thank you

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