G.I. Joe: Spy Troops the Movie

GI Joe is the codename for America's daring, Highly trained special mission force. It purpose...to defend human freedom against "COBRA", a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. He never gives up, he'll stay till the fight's won. GI Joe will dare. GI JOE, a Real American Hero.

If you're like me and grew up with the original GI Joe cartoons and are completely nastalgic about it...Those words probably just gave you chills up and down your spine. Visions of awesome vehicles and weaponry and Big Explosions just filled your head and battle cries of "YO JOE!" and "COBRA!" rang in your ears. This revamped and upgraded GI Joe team won't let you down.

Most of the old favorites are here and some new ones too. Led by Duke, the team made up of Snake Eyes, Scarlet, Wild Bill, Heavy Duty, Beach Head, Shipwreck and Polly, and Dusty test the new MIRC control device helmet created by new Joe, High Tech. Little do they know an enemy has infiltrated their squad with intentions to steal the technology. An enemy in disguise...ZARTAN!

Meanwhile, Cobra Commander has ordered Destro and Baroness to meet up with Zartan to ambush the Joes in order to steal the MIRC helmet so Dr. Mindbender can rig it up to the Battle Android Troopers (BATS) which will be commanded by Cobra ninja StormShadow in hopes they will be more effective warriors in battle. (wheeze, wheeze, deep breath) But to Cobra's surprise they have a spy in their midst as well. GI Joe has recruited their own master of disguise...Agent Faces. Then all the Joes want to play spy games. Shipwreck and Snake Eyes infiltrate Cobra Mountain dressed in Cobra Attire. Shipwreck and Polly get decked out in Cobra Commander's outfit and try to get the code to the shield to let the battalion on in. Snake Eyes fights his ninja brother Storm Shadow in an awesome display of Equality as each shoots the others bullets right out of the air.

Old and new Joe Fans will love this video/DVD. Older fans might have to get use to some of the characters voices changing since the old series and bad attitude Beach Head is now a Surfer Dude. Other than that, it looks great (CGI animated instead of the old cell animation), The action rarely slows and we still have our favorite goodys and baddies. What can I say, action, adventure, explosions, ninjas, and robots...all in a days work for .....GI JOE, A REAL AMERICAN HERO.

This is just awful, it's a disgrace to the name G.I. Joe the voice cast is just bad.

If you can afford to get the original voice actors back to bother doing it at all....

The plot is forgettable believe me I can't even remember what it's about, the voice cast are awful, the CGI is good but that's about all.

Cobra Commander - Ugh I know Chris Latta passed away ten years ago this year, but did they really need to cast the horrible Transformers Armada Starscream's voice actor for him, when you have someone like Don Brown who can do an excellent Cobra Commander/Starscream voice, heck even the guy who does the voice of Shipwreck does a better job at impersonating Cobra Commander than Michael Dobson does...

Duke - Now I think John Payne is a good voice actor, his Mossman and Sy-Klone in Masters Of The Universe as excellent, but simply can't match Michale Bell The Original voice of Duke.

Destro - Rubbish sounds too much like Silverbolt from Beast Wars than Destro, again the voice is bad compared to Arthur Burghardts...

Beach Head - WTF Beach Head in the original was a no nonsense military commando who was easily annoyed at people slacking off and pacifists in G.I. Joe, the one in this movie is more like a goofy airhead, beach bum, surfer dude who doesn't have a clue...

What a waste of time this was, Frank Welker, Michael Bell, William Callaway, Aruther Burghardt Dick Guatier, your voices are truely missed in Transformers and G.I. Joe nowadays, don't let anyone tell you differn't the 80's series that you where the voice cast of where the best.

Yet another series wasted by Hasbro's cheapness to hire decent writers and the best voice actors...

Hey, remember when you were a kid and you liked something, but as you got older you realized its not as great as you remember? Well this is the situation with me. Wow, this really bad. That's all I gotta say. I mean except for Storm Shadow, all the villains were just silly especially Cobra Commander. Yes, even more ridiculous than the 80s cartoon version. The Joes were okay, except for Beachhead. I mean my God he was horrible. In the original cartoon, Beachhead was a tough as nails soldier who was angered very easily, this version sounds like some surfer dude. Overall what can I say that no one else said. Its just bad a bad incarnation of GI JOE.

While not the best G.I. Joe I've ever seen (As someone who grew up on the original 1980's cartoon to eventually meet some of its original stars.) I was pleasantly surprised by how well it does work. I expected it to focus entirely on Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow as too much of Joe has focused on martial arts and ninjas over recent years. Thankfully, that's shelved as a small part of this movie.

They wisely brought back onboard one of the men integral to 1980's G.I. Joe history as the writer. Larry Hama, writer of about 90% of the original Marvel G.I. Joe series, as well as having input on both the toy file cards and into the original cartoon series, brings a lot of the old series back with him. And, while I'd have preferred a more direct old Joe continuation, this new vision of it could have been worse. Hama wisely sticks with one basic element: Cobra's latest world control plot. This time, it's a combination of virtually remote controlled war vehicles and an army of new robot soldiers, updated Battle Android Troopers (B.A.T.s)

CGI could have been better, but, I've seen worse. While the voice cast is sans anyone from the original series, it does provide some past links with G.I. Joe cartoon history. A handful of the actors from the 2nd animated series, released by DIC, and some from the G.I. Joe: Extreme abortion are back. Scott McNeil as Destro, though, is the only one who is back as a character he had previously. Other nice touches are peppered throughout for old Joe fans. B.A.T.s were, either positively or negatively, a constant element in the 2nd season of the old show, and in a few scenes, bars of the original G.I. Joe cartoon theme appear. I think you'll find "he'll fight for freedom, wherever there is trouble" in key points.

All in all, I've spent a worse of my life before, and, was quite surprised by how well it does turn out. "YOUR CRACKERS, COBRA COMMANDER!"

As a fan of the old series I must say that this is at best a parody of a much beloved series. First the old series would at least attempt to follow some military structure. I know in this P.C. world it is not the thing to do but hey don't turn it into the care bears. In the old series Beachead was a hardspoken soldier, now he is a teenage mutant turtle. Another thing is the flying tank, ok it flies out of the cobra base and bounces off the copter and they are both ok???? Lets face it if the next one is not better this could spell the end of G.I.joe.