It’s time to sit back, relax and let your high-tech accelerator suit do the driving, because G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra<.I> hits DVD and Blu-ray on November 3rd. “When all else fails, we don’t” might be exaggerating, but if you put your brain on auto-pilot for two hours, The Rise of Cobra will take you on one heck of a ride.
When pre-Joe Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are assigned to transport deadly nanotechnology warheads, their unit is ambushed by the Baroness (Sienna Miller) and her team of Viper soldiers. Just before she can take off with the weapons, Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Breaker (Said Taghmaoui), and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) are there to stop her. Duke and Ripcord accompany their mysterious saviors back to G.I. Joe’s command center where General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) assumes control of the warheads, relieving Duke and Ripcord from their protective duty. Knowing the Baroness won’t give up that easily, Hawk recruits Duke and Ripcord, and the team must do whatever it takes to keep the nanotechnology out of the wrong hands -- namely Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and the Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
The single-disc DVD costs just $19.99 and comes with commentary by director Stephen Sommers and producer Bob Ducsay. For just $24.99 or $29.99 you can upgrade and go for the two-disc DVD or the BD respectively, which give you the film commentary on one disc and a digital copy of the film, “The Big Bang Theory: The Making of G.I. Joe,” and “Next-Gen Action: The Amazing Visual FX and Design of G.I. Joe” on the second. It’s a short bonus-material list, but both featurettes should be good. The first covers the experience of bringing the action figures to life and the other what it took to create all of the visual effects. Lastly, and most notably, both the BD and the two-disc DVD come with a 3D holographic combat game you can play using your webcam.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is far from perfect, but it is fun. It’s basically the CGI version of all of the imaginary adventures your action figures went on when you were a kid.
