g-force Tagged Articles at Cinematical

So here we have it, the summer movie season finally winding down, and maybe it's just us, but a couple of peculiar trends have cropped up since May that we thought were worth bringing to light. For starters, we've only further elaborated on Eric's early indicator that puking was 'in' this year (seriously, it's gotten to be a pretty considerable theme), and as for the rest, you can check them out after the jump. Some spoilers follow. And if there are any corrections or additions to be made, please pipe up in the comments, and do so gently.

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game I've heard turns into a little paper heart when you blow on it and whisper sweet nothings into its ear. Last week we asked you to churn out some caption love for that guinea pig action flick (I never thought I'd use those words to describe a movie, but here we are), G-Force. Though most of you came out in full force for this, unfortunately we could only choose one winner. So congrats go out to Michael S. for a caption that was so on-the-nose we couldn't help but crack up.



1. "These new parachutes haven't been field tested yet, so I need a volunteer, someone who can be a ... guinea pig." -- Michael S.


See full image and all captions





This week we're taking a step away from the wacky guinea pigs and moving more towards a sweet, endearing indie about the trials and tribulations of falling in love. In Paper Heart, comedian Charlyne Yi travels the country in an attempt to figure out the true meaning of love -- all while dealing with a pushy, opinionated camera crew and the ups and downs of a potential real-life relationship with actor Michael Cera. Should you feel up to the caption-ing task, one lucky grand prize winner will walk away with one 16GB iPod touch, one Paper Heart soundtrack, one Paper Heart mini poster and one Paper Heart journal. Paper Heart hits theaters on August 7. Go see it ... and sound off below ...



Read the official rules of this contest

We live in a marvelous age, one where technological advancements have made it relatively easy to produce a film in which computer-generated guinea pigs interact seamlessly with flesh-and-blood humans. What's extraordinary is that a film can have all that and still be boring. Eighty years ago, people were delighted just to see movies talk. In 2009, you can watch animated rodents save the world and still think, "Meh. What else you got?"

G-Force is the subject, a harmless and good-natured family flick that unfortunately relies so much on its central conceit -- small animals have been trained as government spies!! -- that it forgets to do anything else. Take the animals out of the equation and you're left with an exceedingly generic secret-agent adventure -- which may be no surprise, given that the screenplay is by the husband-and-wife team of Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, who also wrote the National Treasure movies, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and Bad Boys II. If anyone knows by-the-numbers action movies, it's those two. (The first-time director is Hoyt Yeatman, an Oscar-winning special-effects wizard with a long Hollywood résumé.)

The G-Force is a squad of three guinea pigs and a mole that have been fitted with devices that translate their squeakings into human speech, and then trained as spies by a low-level government scientist named Ben (Zach Galifianakis). Ben can also train insects to carry tiny cameras into small spaces, though it doesn't seem to be a matter of "training" them so much as just telling them what to do and they do it. Ben is almost literally the lord of the flies.

As expected, Harry Potter cast an effective spell over moviegoers taking the top spot at the box office and out grossing the series' last installment. Here's the top five:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $77.8 million ($158 million for Wednesday through Sunday)
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: $17.6 million
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: $13.7 million
4. Bruno: $8.3 million
5. The Proposal: $8.3 million

This is the first time since the beginning of June that we've had three major releases in a single weekend.

G-Force
What's It All About: Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Oscar-winning effects artist Hoyt Yeatman, G-Force is a 3-D family comedy about talking guinea pigs working in the field of high tech espionage.
Why It Might Do Well: No doubt this was greenlit after Alvin and the Chipmunks started raking in the dough. If CGI chipmunks can pull in $360 million worldwide then why not guinea pigs? The impressive voice cast, which includes Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Penelope Cruz, and Tracy Morgan, can only help matters.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Have you ever actually smelled a guinea pig?
Number of Theaters: 3,200
Prediction: $29 million

Orphan
What's It All About: Thriller about a couple who adopt a young girl whose sweet and innocent demeanor is covering up much darker tendencies.
Why It Might Do Well: The creepy little kid horror sub-genre has a long history as I mentioned here.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The notion of a homicidal rug rat may be too disturbing for some.
Number of Theaters: 2,600
Prediction: $14 million

G-Force
Here's the new trailer for Disney's 3-D talking guinea pig movie (and I have to say that's a phrase I never thought I'd find myself using). Yeah, it looks cute and with voice talent like Tracy Morgan and Steve Buscemi there may be something here. Still I worry that, like most of the 3-D films I've seen in the last few years, G-Force will concentrate on the cool 3-D to the detriment of the film's other aspects. This one scurries into theaters on July 24.

Downloading Nancy
Rufus Sewell plays a man who comes to realize his wife (Maria Bello) is not just away visiting friends as she claimed but pursuing a torrid and often perverse relationship with a man she has met online (Jason Patric). Looks dark and fascinating. This one goes into limited release on June 5.

Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl
Two words: arterial spray. After watching this trailer I have really no idea what this Japanese flick is about other than it's got the gore going on. Practical and digital blood join forces here in an over the top hemoglobin-fueled splatter fest that defies description. I'm interested in finding out more, especially since this is directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura who gave us Tokyo Gore Police. This is not for the faint of heart and probably should be viewed only under the clinical supervision of a doctor.

Normally, I wouldn't care that Sony pushed back its release of the seemingly unremarkable rom-com The Ugly Truth almost four months, except that the new date -- July 24th -- lands just a week before Judd Apatow's demographic-sharing Funny People opens.

Despite all evidence to the contrary in the only available trailer, it seems that this Katherine Heigl-Gerard Butler R-rated battle of the sexes might just have what it takes to succeed in the late-summer bawdy-comedy domain made popular by Step Brothers last year, Clerks II in 2006 and Wedding Crashers in 2005, instead of the relative safe bet that is the first week in April.

Now it's only a matter of time before the studio drops a red-band trailer that may or may not have me thinking this might actually be funny, and if ever there was a studio that knew how to embrace restricted promotional materials, it's this one.

What say you guys (and girls)? Has this looked appealing to you to begin with? Are either Heigl or Butler effective draws alone, let alone together? And will this movie have what it takes to sway you from simply buying a ticket to G-Force instead?

G-Force
Guinea pigs in the employ of the FBI? Well, why the hell not? This is a live action film with digital rodents voiced by Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Steve Buscemi, and Tracy Morgan. I have to imagine this one got green lit after Alvin and the Chipmunks started pulling in the bucks. The concept has a certain goofy charm, but the trailer has surprisingly few laughs. Judge for yourself on July 24.

Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
When I hear "Streetfighter" I think more of the Sonny Chiba film The Street Fighter and its sequels, but that's a different franchise entirely. This film is of course based on the long running series of video games (the first of which was released in 1987 as an arcade game) and stars the lovely Kristin Kreuk of Smallville fame. The trailer is a little hard to follow since the narration is in Japanese. What we've got is basically high kicking martial arts action with a sort of comic booky mysticism. Watch for this on February 27.

From Paris With Love
I've got to admit John Travolta with a shaved head and a bazooka makes for an eye catching image. He's a cop, things blow up. No U.S. release info yet.

Two Lovers
Joaquin Phoenix stars as a man torn between the woman his parents have fixed him up with (Vinessa Shaw) and his unpredictable neighbor (Gwyneth Paltrow ) who is dating a married man. Feel the love on February 13.

Crank 2: High Voltage
This adults only trailer is easily the most foul-mouthed trailer I've ever seen and it's also entertaining as hell. Jason Statham is back and this time he's had his heart swapped out for an artificial model that requires periodic jolts of electricity. This one hits on April 17.

New trailers on AOL Moviefone:

• X Men Origins: Wolverine - The X-Men's adamantium clawed mutant strikes out on his own in this tale of Wolverine's origin. Check it out right here:
  
  
  
• Night at the Museum 2 - Ben Stiller returns in this sequel in which some of the living museum displays from the first film have been shipped to the Smithsonian Institute.
• I Love You Man - Paul Rudd plays a man about to wed who is seeking a new guy friend to be his best man. Here's the trailer:
  
  
• Echelon Conspiracy - A man receives a package containing a cell phone that can provide him with unlimited wealth.
• The Pink Panther 2 - Second trailer for the sequel starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau.
• Knowing - Nicholas Cage plays a teacher who discovers a decades old code that predicts major calamities.

Most guys probably prefer to look at Penélope Cruz. I think I would rather listen to her. Really, who could resist that cute Spanish-accented voice? I especially like in Vanilla Sky when she says, "I'll tell you in another life, when we are both cats." Well, according to The Hollywood Reporter, I'll get to listen to her voice without seeing her body in the upcoming live-action/animated combo film G-Force. But instead of her being a cat, Cruz is playing a guinea pig named Juarez.

If you remember back to my post from last November, Juarez isn't the only guinea pig in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie. There's also Blaster, a Cavia porcellus (aka guinea pig) voiced by Tracy Morgan. Other animals and their respective voices include a mole named Speckles (Nicolas Cage), a hamster named Bucky (Steve Buscemi) and some humans (Will Arnett, Bill Nighy, Kelli Garner and others).

The humans are, of course, live-action and played by real-life actors. The animals, on the other hand, are computer-generated toons (like Alvin and the Chipmunks, I guess). And they're super-smart commandos that work for the government. And they're out to stop a evil billionaire from taking over the world (isn't it enough to be a billionaire?). As we've told you before, the script for the family-friendly action pic was written by National Treasure team Cormac and Marianne Wibberley (aka The Wibberleys) and it will be helmed by first-time director Hoyt Yeatman, who has two Academy Awards -- one for his visual effects work on The Abyss and one Technical Achievement Award "for the identification and diagnosis leading to the elimination of the 'red fringe' artifact in traveling matte composite photography." We'll have to see if the guy can score another Oscar someday for directing, though I doubt he'll manage that goal with G-Force.

I love talking animals as much as the next guy, but does Steve Buscemi always have to play some kind of toothy rodent? Actually, it's possible he only did that once, for Charlotte's Web (I'm not sure what kind of animal he is in Home on the Range). But wasn't that enough? Sure, he kinda looks rodent-like, but I'm sure he has the range when we're not looking at his mug. Anyway, according to The Hollywood Reporter, this time around it's a hamster named Bucky, who Buscemi will provide his voice for in the Disney movie G-Force. As we told you a few months back, G-Force is a Jerry Bruckheimer production that mixes live-action and computer animation and is about a group of genetically enhanced commando guinea pigs who have to stop an evil billionaire with world-domination dreams. Other voices will be provided by Nicolas Cage, as a mole named Speckles, and Tracy Morgan, as a guinea pig named Blaster.

As for the live-action roles, new to the cast are Bill Nighy, as an industrialist, and Will Arnett, as an FBI agent. And thank goodness for them, because the actors previously brought on to appear in the movie were too obscure for me to handle. They included Gabriel Casseus (Black Hawk Down) , Zach Galifianakis (Into the Wild), Kelli Garner (The Aviator) and Jack Conley (Fun With Dick and Jane). I know in a movie like this it's all about the talking animals, but with Nighy we've got ourselves a real movie. And with Arnett we have a funnier movie. Bruckheimer told THR that this will be another movie to be enjoyed by everyone "from the smallest kid to the oldest grandparent." He also pointed out that the movie's director, Oscar-winning visual effects master Hoyt Yeatman, came up with the idea with his son. From there it was apparently passed on to National Treasure screenwriters Cormac and Marianne Wibberley (aka The Wibberleys). G-Force is currently in production and expects a May 2009 release (Just a hint to Bruckheimer: it might make sense to add an extra dimension to this movie, since I think everything else animated coming out that month is going to be in 3D).

If it wasn't for those Shiny Happy Fabio followers, comedian Zach Galifianakis would've stopped Bubble Boy before his journey even began. (He was the ankle-weight-wearing bus dude who wouldn't give the kid a nice, cheap discount.) Since then, he's been a hacker, a homeless man, Santa, a friend of time-traveling Tru, and taught a certain kid about hunting Into the Wild -- just to name a few. Now he's got two more roles on the way, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

One of the roles will be in Tom Vaughn's What Happens in Vegas. He's going to play "Dave the Bear," Jack's (Ashton Kutcher) anti-marriage best friend who is less than happy when Jack marries Joy (Cameron Diaz) during a drunken night in Vegas. As I told you when news broke on the project, the pair get hitched and then undermine each other to get the big payout they win in Vegas. I imagine the Bear will plot against the aptly-named Joy, as THR says he's playing her nemesis.

For role number two, Galifianakis is going to get scientific by starring in the Disney/Bruckheimer flick, G-Force. His role is that of "the lead government scientist in charge of a guinea pig commando program, helping [to] send the highly trained elite agents on a dangerous mission." Elite animal agents, that is. Sounds like appropriate wacky-scientist casting to me. But for now, we've got Largo, Visioneers, and Little Fish, Strange Pond on the way -- all of which are in post-production.