Channing Tatum Has A Big Gun In G.I. JOE: RETALIATION

New G.I. Joe Character Posters Revealed

Channing Tatum has been all over the place lately, and (sadly) not just in crime or crime-related flicks. But we won’t begrudge him that. After he got the hell kicked out of him by former female MMA champion Gina Carano in Steven Soderbergh’s awesome Haywire early this year, and after having them roll in the aisles in 21 Jump Street with Jonah Hill, we can almost completely forget he was in a crappy Nicholas Sparks movie a couple years back. Y’know, like we did with Ryan Gosling.

And aside from the upcoming male-stripper flick Magic Mike, also directed by Soderbergh, Tatum will be reprising his role of First Sergeant Conrad S. “Duke” Hauser in the sequel to 2009′s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, entitled G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

As crime-heads, we might not be as “Yo, Joe!” as, say, fearless leader Jay Tomio. But there is guaranteed to be a lot of explosions and heavy ordinance, which is right up our alley, and speaking personally, I’ve come to really enjoy the big squarehead Tatum. He reminds me of an early Brad Pitt, where nobody thought he was much more than a pretty face, until Se7en and Twelve Monkeys and stuff like that started coming out, and everybody realized he was a pretty face that could actually do some pretty convincing make-believe.

I finally saw 21 Jump Street a couple weeks ago, and it was as good as I’d hoped. Jonah Hill is pretty much a known quality at this point, and I’ll already watch anything with that guy, even stuff like Walk Hard, where he’s easily the best part. But Tatum definitely has the chops to pull off something more than just the hunky leading man role–in fact, one of the points of 21 Jump Street was that grown-ups no longer need to abide by those bullshit social castes we get pinned on us in high school, jocks or nerds. If Tatum can pull off comedy with depth, there’s certainly no reason to think he can’t pull off action with depth. And he already did that in Haywire, as Carano’s lover/adversary. The movie begins with him getting well handled by Carano, but then over the course of the flick, we find that they had been involved, and by the end Tatum’s character has to come to terms with how badly he fucked that up. Again, more depth than most might wanna give him credit for.

Another name that’s perked up our ears as regards this new G.I. Joe flick is none other than Walton Goggins. Goggins is known to us from his work on the already-classic FX show The Shield and, of course, as Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens’ best friend/worst enemy Boyd Crowder on the other already-classic FX show Justified. I get the impression that Goggins’ role will be a minor one, but that’s all I ask, really.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation hits theatres this June 21st. Dig these character posters:

Faran Tahir