G-Force (**1/2)

G-Force. 90 mins. PG. Directed by Hoyt Yeatman. Written by the Wibberleys. Starring Zach Galifianakis, Will Arnett, Bill Nighy and the voices of Sam Rockwell, Penelope Cruz, Tracy Morgan, and Nicolas Cage.

As far as kids' films go, parents could do a lot worse than G-Force. Yes, there are numerous fart jokes, and yes, the script is full of bad animal puns, but thanks to uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, there's a lot of action and a slick sheen to it all that makes it, talking guinea pigs excluded, a somewhat bad-ass kids' flick. Heck, it has to be better than Ice Age 3. The voice cast is solid enough: Sam Rockwell, Nicolas Cage, Tracy Morgan, and Penelope Cruz, but nobody is given anything funny to say, and the script is nonsensical and witless, with lines like, "This is off the hizook!", just reeking of faux hipness. The movie is blessedly short, and the end action sequences are impressive in their scope and special effects, but for every thing the movie gets right, it gets about 20 things wrong. The soundtrack is oddly obsessed with the Black Eyed Peas, and incorporates bits and pieces of this summer's hit songs, "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling" into every other scene. It casts brilliant, rising comedic stars Zach Galifianakis (last seen running away with The Hangover) and Will Arnett (Gob, 'nuff said) in live action roles, and then completely wastes them. And then there's that whole talking guinea pig thing, which when you think about it is just dumb. To close this on a personal note, I took my one-year-old son to G-Force for his first movie - he made it through about an hour and then started getting fidgety. Still, not too shabby. The boy's got some Hammervision in his DNA, that's for sure.

-John