Movie Review: G-Force Blu-ray

A group of enhanced guinea pigs infiltrates a corporate leader who has been under investigation by the FBI for years to impress the FBI investigators who are closing down their unit.

Film making 18/25
Video 21/25
Audio 21/25
Bonus Features 15/25
Total 75/100

Ben played by Zach Galifianakis leads a special unit of genetically engineered guinea pigs named Darwin voiced by Sam Rockwell, Juarez voiced by Penelope Cruz, Blaster voiced by Tracy Morgan with Speckles the star nosed mole voiced by Nicholas Cage. The group has been training for years as spies with the small but latest in high tech gadgets with help from a fly to provide reconnaissance and cockroaches who provide numbers.

The plot is thin and not very surprising but the cuteness factor outweighs most of the films shortcomings as the group fights to save the world as the bad guy plots behind the scenes. Leonard Saber has imbedded communications devices in household appliances for years and is going to surprise the world as the toasters and blenders start to communicate on a brand new level.

The appliances will communicate and give the homeowners new found freedom as they give useful information to the homeowner like you need more milk. What he doesn't know is someone else has changed his plans and the appliances go berserk and tries to kill people so G-Force has to save the day against this unnamed foe.

The team moves fast when a group of investigators from the head office of the bureau move in to close down Ben's project and they are left without a home base. When they are split up Darwin discovers he has a long lost brother at a pet shop that ends up helping them stop the unnamed foe from ruling the world and destroying humans.

The film has a decent enough plot for a Disney movie and Jerry Bruckheimer did a great job on the CG for the small and cute rodents. G-Force is very much a kid's movie and adults will probably be bored unless they enjoy some fart jokes and cute CG guinea pigs who can drive souped up hamster balls.

The movie does a good job with its plot with a couple of decent surprises but mostly it's a fun kid's spy thriller that is solely for the purpose of a quick entertainment for kids. G-Force is you're typical albeit cute and action filled kid's film from Disney on the fine tradition the company is well known for.

G-Force comes at you in full Blu-ray with a stunningly bright and vibrant transfer and some pretty good skin tones but Jerry Bruckheimer intentionally does this with many action films. The colors for skin tone and some things are a bit muted while some colors like the guinea pigs fur and especially explosions and the night scene with the robot are quite vivid.

Contrast is also a bit higher than films usually are but it only helps to point to the action and CG effects and actually blends to make the film look very good. The transfer is well done for the high definition video and there is little grain to speak of in the movie or other problems with video.

Audio is also well done with some great voice acting by the rodents' human actors and the movie does include the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio in 5.1 surround sound. The audio does well from the quiet sneak in scenes to the noisy rambunctious chase scenes with explosions and cars flipping here and there.

The films audio is well done and surround effects are good with plenty of speaker to speaker surround especially in the car chase scene. Audio sounds great and does pretty well for the kids as well as adults so you can enjoy your film as much as possible.

Fart jokes aside, there are more than one, G-Force also contains other good entertainment and the extra features are also worth a look. The Blu-ray edition contains the Blu-ray film and a standard definition DVD as well as the digital copy and several extras on the Blu-ray disc.

The biggest feature on the Blu-ray is a picture in picture experience that shows behind the scenes footage of shots during the film so you can see how they did things. This is mainly bonus content put through the film so you see what parts of the film the bonus features are about but makes for a particularly frustrating way to watch them.

You can't just click on the feature and watch it; you have to view them when it becomes available during the film so this may not be all that great. Some parts are good though especially for some scenes where actors, the real human ones have to do things without any help as they engage with their fellow G-Force actors who are not there.

Seeing Zach and others talking to small stuffed toys standing in for the soon to come CG characters is great and the scenes like the car chase and the stunts are well explained. This extra is a mixed bag as well as some of the other more standard bonus features that are available through the menu.

There are a few making of features and a quick gag reel that is worth a look as it does the humans talking to stuffed animals place holders or nothing at all. The bonus content is decent but not above average and with the main feature being the picture in picture.

The bonus content is not that great but well worth at least one look just as the film itself is worth a viewing but maybe not a full ownership. Kids will probably get their fill of action and adventure and then move on to the next release of kids targeted action with the Christmas holidays coming up so a rental is probably all that's required for G-Force.