If you’re a child of the 80’s, chances are you played with or were aware of M.A.S.K – Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand (a bit of reverse engineering on the name there methinks). The toys were essentially a mash-up of GI Joe (aka Action Force in the UK) and Transformers; everyday vehicles that transformed into other weaponised vehicles, each with their own figures/characters – who wore masks for the action, naturally. Like the other two toy brands, it also had its own tie in cartoon.The only things I remember about the cartoon was it’s kick ass theme tune and 80’s obligatory public service announcements.
As we all know, Hollywood ran out of original ideas a while ago, so it’s to my complete lack of surprise that a film remake has been announced by Paramount Studios (owners of GI Joe and Transformers franchises). F Gary Gray is attached as director and since he gave us Fast And Furious 8 – I would honestly say it’s a pretty sound choice!
As a child I spent many an hour playing with the toys and watching the cartoon so the news of a film fills me with an equal mix of dread and excitement. Yay! I get to see my childhood hero Matt Trakker on-screen! Boo! It’s from the same people who gave us the GI Joe and Transformers franchises! Paramount are promising “a contemporary subculture movie with a youth empowerment angle” whatever that means, along with the recurring threat of building a “shared universe”. Just imagine Transformers, GI Joe and M.A.S.K all in the same film – that’s going to be…. well noisy for one thing.
Gray’s next project is the reboot no one asked for: Men In Black, so no date is set yet for M.A.S.K. Plenty of time then to persuade The Rock to sign on then….
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