G-Force was released in the United States on July 24, 2009. It grossed $292.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $150 million.[1] It received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics.
Plot
A special government program, training and deploying highly intelligent rodents as secret agents, is facing abolition from the FBI. To save the department, Dr. Ben Kendall, the head of the program, orders an unauthorized mission for the primary field team known as G-Force, consisting three guinea pigs named Darwin, Blaster, Juarez, respectively, a mole named Speckles, and a fly named Mooch. The mission is to infiltrate the residence of home electronics magnate Leonard Saber, and acquiring information about a new microchip he has developed. Darwin finds a classified file titled Clusterstorm on Saber's personal computer, containing plans for global extermination, and downloads it to his PDA. However, the next day during a briefing with the FBI, the file turns out to be false, which angers Ben's superior, Agent Kip Killian, who shuts down the program. He orders the animals' capture, forcing Darwin, Blaster, Juarez, and Speckles to escape and hide in a delivery truck.
The truck goes to a pet store where they are mistaken for ordinary rodents and are locked up in a cage. There, they meet Hurley, another guinea pig, Bucky, a cocky hamster, and three mice. Determined to finish their mission, each of them forms an escaping plan. Blaster and Juarez get themselves sold to a family, while Speckles pretends to be dead to get buried, but is thrown into a garbage truck instead, seemingly crushed to death. Darwin escapes with Hurley's help, who becomes convinced that Darwin is his long-lost brother due to their birthmark. While Blaster and Juarez escape their new owners, Ben and his assistant, Marcie retrieve Darwin's PDA from the FBI, and discover that it is infected with an exterminaton virus. Saber holds a meeting with his associates, including his prime engineer, the mysterious "Mr. Yanshu", and reports that Clusterstorm will launch in less than 48 hours.
On their way to Ben's house, Darwin and Hurley see a Saberling coffee machine and Darwin decides to investigate it. Upon trying to remove its microchip, the coffee machine turns into a violent robot, but they manage to destroy it. G-Force reunites at Ben's, but after hearing of what happened to Speckles, Ben reveals to the team that neither of them were genetically engineered as they believed to. They were rescued from various places, and Darwin himself was bought from a pet shop just like Hurley told him earlier. Despite learning their true origins, the team still has their faith in themselves. Deciding to use the infected PDA to shut down the microchips, they go to Saber's mansion in their hamster ball-shaped vehicles, during which they escape from the FBI agents sent by Killian to capture them.
At Saber's mansion, the team tries to reach the mainframe, but Hurley accidentally steps on a bomb-trap, resulting in an explosion which separates Blaster and Juarez from Darwin. Clusterstorm activates, turning all Saberling products into killing machines around the world. When an FBI field team led by Killian arrives at Saber's mansion to arrest him, he claims that he simply wanted to use the microchips for electronic communication. Darwin finds Speckles alive in Saber's basement, who reveals himself to be Mr. Yanshu, the mastermind behind Clusterstorm (Yanshu means "mole" in Chinese). He explains his plan to use the Saberling products for a bombardment of space debris to make Earth's surface uninhabitable, therefore destroying humanity as revenge for killing his family. He amalgamates the various appliances into a giant robot, which overpowers the police. Darwin falls from above, losing the PDA in the process, but Hurley saves him and uses his weight to lift Darwin up to the robot.
Darwin tries to convince Speckles to change his ways, reminding him of how Ben took them in and made them a real family. Realizing his plan will cost him that only family he has left, Speckles tries but fails to shut down the system. Mooch recovers the PDA and Darwin uploads the virus to the main server, destroying the robot, while Blaster and Juarez save them form falling. They later find Hurley under the ruins, injured and unconscious. Darwin states that Hurley's actions were truly heroic, and finally acknowledges him as his brother. Hurley regains consciousness and becomes a member of the team.
G-Force receives personal recognition from the FBI Director, who tells them that Saber had been assigned to recall all his products, while Speckles is given the duty of removing the microchips before rejoining the team. Killian is relocated to an FBI base on the South Pole as a punishment for trying to arrest G-Force. The FBI gives full support to Ben's program, with Bucky and the mice joining it, and Darwin, Blaster, Juarez, and Hurley become official FBI Special Agents.
Tracy Morgan as Blaster (FBI Special Agent), a bombastic and excitable fox guinea pig, the weapons expert of G-Force. He is also Juarez's love interest.
Penélope Cruz as Juarez (FBI Special Agent), a Spanish-accented and tomboyish female agouti guinea pig, the muscle of G-Force. She is also Blaster's love interest.
Jon Favreau as Hurley (FBI Rookie), a laid-back and absent-minded Abyssinian guinea pig and Darwin's long lost brother though not really confirmed to be true.
Nicolas Cage as Speckles / Mr. Yanshu, the cyber intelligent star-nosed mole, the brains of G-Force with a secret agenda of his own.
Steve Buscemi as Bucky, a territorial and aggressive golden hamster, mistakenly called a ferret, who is friends with a trio of sycophantic mice.
G-Force grossed $119,436,770 in North America and $173,381,071 internationally for a worldwide total of $292,817,841, against a budget of $150 million.[1]
North America
In its opening weekend, the film earned $31.7 million, ranking at No. 1, and replacing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.[4] The film declined −44.8% on its second week behind Funny People and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 22% based on 126 reviews, with an average rating of 4.43/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "G-Force features manic action, but fails to come up with interesting characters or an inspired plot."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5 stars out of four and called it "a pleasant, inoffensive 3-D animated farce".[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[8]
Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Benjamin Cinelli (senior character animator), Peter Tieryas (character set-up technical director), Dustin Wicke (lead cloth and hair) and Ryan Yee (animator) For Bucky.
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