G.I. Joe Classified - News & Updates

canprime said:
My only concern with the pitch by Danny McBride is that the scope may be a bit too small scale for GI Joe.
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I get this, and kinda had the same thought, but the show and comic tended to focus on a few characters at a time for one particular mission. The one with Dusty and Footloose, I think those two were the only Joes in the episode. But at the same time,if this ends up getting no sequels etc, then yeah... I hope it's not just a Duke and Ripcord romp with a cameo by a version of Snake Eyes I don't like.
 
To me GI Joe works if the team is solid. Guardians crafted a brilliant team/family. There has to be a real threat which seems unbeatable. I don’t think it has to be killer satellite in orbit or mater eating nano bots. Maybe it’s the discovery of something building that will give light to a plot of world domination. That’s the 80s boogie man. Dictator who will come and take our freedom. Is Cobra Commander a Palpatine? Is he using the current governing/controlling structures to twist into his own mechanism he controls? I know they tried the “rise of Cobra” thing. Maybe it’s that again only the players aren’t so much Clue characters on a board for the audience to watch the mystery unfold before them. I think humor comes naturally when you craft a great ensemble. I want to see a great team in GI Joe. More than just Ethan Hunt and his supporting cast.

Here’s hoping a good story comes from following a great team in action.

Thwipp!
 
You know, fuck it, just do a gently updated, live action adaptation of the MASS Device miniseries. Same cast of characters.

I dunno, but whatever they do, whether it's everything I ever wanted in a Joe movie or it is so horrendous that it makes me think ROC is enjoyable, I'll be shocked if the audience shows up for it in the theater, so I assume we'll only get one McBride Joe movie.
 
Ru1977 said:
You know, fuck it, just do a gently updated, live action adaptation of the MASS Device miniseries. Same cast of characters.

I dunno, but whatever they do, whether it's everything I ever wanted in a Joe movie or it is so horrendous that it makes me think ROC is enjoyable, I'll be shocked if the audience shows up for it in the theater, so I assume we'll only get one McBride Joe movie.
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Honestly, they have several mini-series that would adapt well for a fun and respectful live action film.

But I also think you're right. Even if McBride does a film everyone on this board universally loves, I don't think the audience is showing up for it. I'd rather see a new animated series, honestly.
 
docsilence said:
Honestly, they have several mini-series that would adapt well for a fun and respectful live action film.
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My thought as well. Revenge of Cobra would be a natural sequel, then Pyramid of Darkness, and a fourth movie maybe adapting and including bits from the main series, fifth movie is Arise Serpentor Arise, and you'll never guess who they cast as Sergeant Slaughter! And Hector Ramirez!!! Then go for it with the movie.

Maybe get Amazon on this since they somehow seem to produce things that make no profit.
 
And for the record, my ideal Joe movie would be a love letter to the first 120 or so Hama comics, and a show would probably be better. But something based on the cartoon instead is definitely something I'd still enjoy
 
Damien said:
Given Joe came out at the same time as some of the cheesiest action movies ever made.... I dunno about that.
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Different type of cheese.

Like The Neverending Story is cheesy.
So is Commando.

But only one of those presents a cheese template for Joe.

(not that I think Joe should be R rated, but I think you get my point here)
 
I think that's why we settled on "Joe has to be set in 80s style retro-futuristic" or whatever, because if Joe is set in today, then yeah Rise of Cobra is what you get. Some Bond, some MI, and plenty of cheese. But something that embraces what made GI Joe GI Joe feels like a better way to go, otherwise.. just make another Bond or MI.
 
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Damien said:
But it's still cheesy. So it's not a refutation that a Joe movie -shouldn't- or -can't- embrace being cheesy.
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I was referencing the *type* of cheese:
There’s “layer of rollicking improbability” cheese, and then there is “goofy fun that’s more or less fine for kids” cheese. The former is fine for a live-action Joe movie: the latter, I would argue, is not.

Die Hard (the original, that is) is the best template: still full of humor and “fun”, but a serious story, the stakes of which aren’t played for laughs, and also not wrapped around some character’s “personal growth” the same way MotU was.
 
At least I think McBride might actually like the franchise enough to not inject testosterone in its ass and make it full-on post-Bush Administration propaganda. Though I don't know how any American movie studio makes a movie with toy soldiers in it without a bunch of gunsterbation. I don't know if that era exists anymore.
 
docsilence said:
At least I think McBride might actually like the franchise enough to not inject testosterone in its ass and make it full-on post-Bush Administration propaganda.
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I hope so. The “success” of the Transformers franchise makes me nervous in that regard. It may not be up to McBride whether or not the studio forcibly inserts foul military-industrial complex propaganda.

That’s a big reason I worry about how “cheesiness” is handled. Because it would be VERY easy to veer into “guns are cool, the military is badass, combat TOTALLY ROCKS, BRO!” territory, with cartoonish violence and “yes but they were all bad” casual murder without any weight or consequence. Which, when dealing with even a fantasy version of the military, is not a good look AT ALL.

docsilence said:
Though I don't know how any American movie studio makes a movie with toy soldiers in it without a bunch of gunsterbation. I don't know if that era exists anymore.
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This is what concerns me.

The “fun fighting” of MotU does not translate here. Even the ninjas are, or at least should be, engaging in serious fighting with life-ending consequences.
 
AceofKnaves said:
This is what concerns me.

The “fun fighting” of MotU does not translate here. Even the ninjas are, or at least should be, engaging in serious fighting with life-ending consequences.
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Been watching a lot of old movies from the 80s and 90s and man, I'd love, I'd LOVE an 80s franchise to stop training their actors with Navy Seals and just let them be ridiculous. Harrison Ford running around holding a pistol like a kid with a squirt gun at a barbecue. Mark Hamill kicking Klaatu in the face and missing by a foot and a half. Foley'd in sound effects that sound like "duussshhh" instead of medically accurate bones breaking. On-camera trigger discipline's for people with no soul. We have enough real war in the news, bring back the PEW PEW PEW aesthetic!
 
docsilence said:
On-camera trigger discipline's for people with no soul.
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Insert obligatory “well I *am* an undead abomination” joke here.


docsilence said:
bring back the PEW PEW PEW aesthetic!
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I dunno.

That’s fine for laser-fantasy like MotU. I feel *very* uncomfortable with that aesthetic applied to “real” guns in the “real” world.

As someone who was training to fight in the 80s and 90s, I had “these movies don’t take violence seriously and they glamorize it and that is NOT and NEVER a good thing” absolutely drilled into me.
 
AceofKnaves said:
I was referencing the *type* of cheese:
There’s “layer of rollicking improbability” cheese, and then there is “goofy fun that’s more or less fine for kids” cheese. The former is fine for a live-action Joe movie: the latter, I would argue, is not.

Die Hard (the original, that is) is the best template: still full of humor and “fun”, but a serious story, the stakes of which aren’t played for laughs, and also not wrapped around some character’s “personal growth” the same way MotU was.
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To be clear, I wasn't saying a Joe movie should be like MOTU. I was saying the MOTU movie convinced me you can do a Joe movie that takes beats and cheese from the Joe cartoon. One example of that would be tone - just generally being a bit more light-hearted than ultra-serious and grim.

Like, do I want Cobra Commander to have a weird voice or a weird cadence to his voice and be massively arrogant despite also possibly being slightly incompetent? Sure. He can still be -dangerous- in such a case. Do I want him to employ the services of a fucking WHACK-JOB biker gang that sit around drinking grape soda? Sure... why not? They can still be dangerous.
Can Cobra soldiers be shooting guns with the intent to kill Joes and still be wearing bright blue uniforms? I certainly think so.

Can all the characters make quips and bad jokes and still be put into life-and-death situations? Of course they can.

To me, violence is violence. I don't think there's any substance to 'this violence has to be taken seriously, but this violence doesn't have to be taken seriously.' No substance beyond it being a matter of taste, I mean. G.I. Joe is -inherently- extremely silly. Taking it seriously got us three fucking awful movies with one very excellent Firefly.

A Firefly that jumped off a speeding motorcycle that then turned into a bunch of explosives. Which is objectively fucking ridiculous.
 
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