Coming in August: G.I. Joe - Rise of the Cobra

I am not sure how I missed this one. A year in advance those Star Trek boys let everyone know to book some important dates in 2009. So when I saw the trailer for G. I. Joe - Rise of the Cobra I could hardly believe my eyes. Was this a secret? Did others know about it and not inform the Sunflower?

Sunflower is puzzled.

I studied the trailer which is on the official website. Yes, there is an official website. http://www.gijoemovie.com/

(Obviously this is a big budget film. Not every movie gets its own website.) To me, a movie trailer is a delicate beast which should be handled with care. You can't give away too much of the film (well you shouldn't), but you have to tease the audience enough so that they run to the movie theatres to spend their hard earned money to see your work of art. In recent times, studios have been putting out trailers which pretty much showcase the best parts of the film for free. You go to the cinema expecting more, and end up with less as the most exciting bits have been running on TV for about a month prior to the movie's release. So you kinda know them by heart already.

Excuse my rant - back to the trailer.

I think they got the trailer just right. I was shocked, surprised and left wanting. So for the trailer they get an "A". Flashing across my screen I saw Dennis Quaid (good actor), Channing Tatum a.k.a. that dude from the dance flick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt from 3rd Rock from the Sun, and....wait for it....wait for it....Marlon Wayans.

What the bleep!!! Marlon Wayons in a serious role, in an action film not produced by the Wayan Brothers??!! I am shocked (I mentioned this before). So the Wayans baby bro is branching out on his own. Good for him. You go boy!!! In the always relevant words of Jack Sparrow: "I want you to know that I was rooting for you. Know that."

Everyone in the film looks nice and trim and fit. Like they have been working out for the past year and a half with no access to fast food chains and chocolate.

Visit the official site, watch the trailer often and tell me if you are excited to see the film. It comes out August 7, 2009. So save the date.

Here is a good synopsis of the film and its cast. It was created by those gents at http://www.ign.com/ and posted to YouTube in April 2009. (It is not the official movie trailer as stated. You can visit the IGN website for more videos.) So now I know for sure that I have been missing some vitally important entertainment news. (Apparently there was a superbowl trailer too. Talk about being out the loop.)

The cast:

Dennis Quaid - General Hawk
Channing Tatum - Duke Hauser
Sienna Miller - Baroness
Ray Park - Snake Eyes
Rachel Nichols - Scarlett
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje - Heavy Duty
Said Taghmaoui - Breaker
Marlon Wayans - Ripcord
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Cobra Commander
Arnold Vosloo - Zartan
Christopher Eccleston - Destro
Karolina Kurkova - Courtney A. Kreiger
Lee Byeong-heon - Storm Shadow

The picture in this post is from the PicApp website.