'G-Force' review

"G-FORCE" (Credit: Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Inc.)

Photos:

With the world facing apparent domination at the hands of a diabolical entrepreneur (Bill Nighy), humans’ only hope is, of course, athletic and super-intelligent talking guinea pigs. A pleasant surprise, considering I had plenty of problems when I was younger and my pet turtle didn’t do a damn thing about them.

The buzz: You are not hallucinating. There really is a 3-D, non-animated spy movie starring small, smelly pets and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (“National Treasure,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”). Featuring Zach Galifianakis, Will Arnett and the effective voices of Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan, Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz, “G-Force” even has the endorsement of people whose endorsement sometimes means something. (Cruz also earns the proud distinction of being the first actor to follow an Oscar-winning performance with a role as a sexy rodent.)

The verdict: Both enjoyably absurd and pretty stupid, “G-Force” trips over its plot and spends lots of time unloading bad pop culture references like, “Don’t you wish your blowtorch was hot like mine." (Nodding to the Pussycat Dolls is never stale, right?) Yet it isn’t boring. There's at least half a laugh every scene or two and enough adventure to make “G-Force” a better action movie than “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” but that’s like raving that sandwiches taste better than the bottom of your shoe.

Did you know? Ben (Galifianakis) says that guinea pigs and humans share 98.7 percent of the same DNA. Rather than going to look that up, best to just thank your parents for keeping that 1.3 percent intact.

Add a comment