So fetishistic about high-powered weapons that it qualifies as an NRA wet dream, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" pretty accurately reflects the franchise's comic book and cartoon origins, which is both a good and a bad thing: good if you're a 12- to 15-year-old boy, bad if you're just about anyone else. Still, Hasbro's concept about elite macho soldiers fighting weird, elusive villains has hit the mark with target audiences over the decades, and Dwayne Johnson's presence atop this sequel to the 2009 action nonclassic likely will propel it past its predecessor's $302 million worldwide box-office take.

Jaimie Trueblood / AP

Channing Tatum and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in a scene from "G.I. Joe: Retaliation."

After spiriting a defector out of -- where else? -- North Korea, Duke (a returning Channing Tatum) and Roadblock (Johnson) relax by -- what else? -- playing a video game. However, there's more trouble afoot. When last seen, the president of the United States had been displaced by a look-alike imposter installed by the sinister world domination-seeking organization Cobra, and now it's time to cash in on the charade. Sending the G.I. Joes into Pakistan to remove some nukes, the faux president then betrays America's best fighters by attacking their base, leaving just four survivors: Duke, Roadblock, Flint (D.J. Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki).

PHOTOS: Senior Superheroes: 19 Action Stars Kicking Butt Past 50

While the president calls for global disarmament, the better to victimize those who might comply, more bad guys materialize, including Snake Eyes (Ray Park, of Darth Maul fame) and the ferocious Firefly (the imposing Ray Stevenson from HBO's "Rome"). A whole Japanese subplot involving ninjas and a strange guru (RZA of Wu-Tang Clan) seems like filler to allow the Joes time to lick their wounds and figure out how to get to the alleged president. But no matter what, director Jon M. Chu (the last two "Step Up" films, the Justin Bieber concert film "Never Say Never"), never forgets that his primary obligations are to whip together some sort of action sequence every 10 or 15 minutes and to make sure to provide close-ups and, if possible, practical demonstrations of as many fancy pieces of artillery as possible to make the heavy-ammo crowd drool.

PHOTOS: 26 of Hollywood's Most Popular Athletes-Turned-Actors

So in the midst of cartoonishly scripted and indifferently presented scenes devoted to good-guy intelligence work and bad-guy thuggery are two big scenes that are eye-popping for different reasons. The first, nearly an hour in, is one that makes the whole Japanese side story pay off; opposing teams of fearsome ninja fighters treat sheer rock mountainsides almost as parkour athletes use walls, jumping down into voids, throwing zip-line cords across great distances in order to slide from one cliff to another, many of them plummeting to their doom. It's like "Spider-Man" times 10 in a dazzling sequence in which conceptual novelty is strongly served by visual compositions and action choreography well beyond anything else in the film.

The other scene is equally arresting but in a rather more dubious way. Having agreed to help the G.I. Joe squad get to the evil president, retired Joe founder Gen. Joe Colton (Bruce Willis) invites the warriors to his home to offer them access to his personal arsenal. In every drawer, cabinet, closet and desk is a hidden trove of ever-more awesome weapons, a veritable candy store of firepower that's photographed in the lethal-hardware equivalent of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The sequence climaxes and epitomizes the film's extreme idolatry at the altar of the gun, a posture that will be a massive turn-on for the target audience but might give pause to those who still care to remember that the "Dark Knight Rises" shooting happened less than a year ago.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' Featurette Digs Into the Explosive 3D

Chu and screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (Zombieland) clearly know their intended audience and what it wants: a less mechanized, more human-based younger brother to Hasbro's other cash-cow franchise "Transformers." Injecting the ever-personable Johnson into the proceedings helps a good deal, the returning Tatum and Byung-hun Lee (as Storm Shadow) are easy on the eyes and, for nonfans, it's by some distance easier to take any of the "Transformers" entries.

"G.I. Joe: Retaliation" was held back from its original 2012 release date so it could be converted to 3-D. Perhaps the bean counters know best as to whether this was worth the effort, but aesthetically the effect is negligible and sometimes, especially when the framing of action is tight, quite awkward and off-putting. This is 3-D that does not enhance a film that was not originally intended for it. The visual effects and CGI are highly variable, with one brief sequence toward the end of a major world capital being destroyed looking laughably cartoonlike.

Related content:

• G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, how much trivia do you know?
• Slideshow: Toys, tastes and trends of '70s and '80s, including Joe
• What's your 'get off my lawn' moment?

REVIEW: Let's get the basics out of the way first: If you want to see "A Good Day to Die Harder," the fifth film in the "Die Hard" series, that's pretty much a guarantee that you'll like it. Don't read the negative reviews that are sure to come out, just go.

No, Bruce Willis, 57, is not too old to be an action hero (though a few "Grandpa" jokes go a long way). Yes, he sails through blizzards of bullets seemingly untouched, makes the same joke ("I'm on vacation!") a dozen times, and the actual movie plot makes little sense (secret files and weapons-grade uranium and a truly bizarre visit to Chernobyl). So what? 

Willis tells GQ in the magazine's new issue that he knows he'll never win an Academy Award for his role as John McClane, saying "you don't get an Oscar for shooting people." Got that right.

But in McClane, he's created a truly classic character, and he deserves recognition. Untouchable, unbreakable heroes like the ones Arnold Schwarzenegger plays are fine in their place, but McClane's not that. He's more Indiana Jones or McGyver, street-smart and world-weary. He spots things others don't, dives through escape hatches that a sane person wouldn't consider, and through it all, remains the action hero you'd most want to have a beer with.

Here's the difference: Schwarzenegger knows he's the Terminator. Willis acts like he's a lunkhead with a gun, a hapless Joe just trying to get home. Terminators are fun to watch, but hapless Joes are the ones we take to heart.

This installment sends McClane to Moscow in pursuit of his equally lunkheaded son Jack (Aussie Jai Courtney), who turns out to be as much of a superhero as Dad, even though the actor himself has none of Willis' beer-me personality. Father and son hate each other at the start, then come around, duh.

20th Century Fox

Like father, like son: Bruce Willis' John McClane and his son Jack team up in "A Good Day to Die Hard."

That doesn't matter. What matters is that Willis is still a comfortable tour guide through the car-flipping, tank-driving, window-smashing wreckage that is "Die Hard's" stock and trade. His McClane tries to stop cars with his body. He takes a call from his daughter while driving over other vehicles. He dubs other characters "Papa Gepetto" and "Odd Job," bluntly confesses he's a bad dad, and agrees with his son that "we're not really a hugging family." He wins the audience over to the point that the plot holes and logic lapses and unexplained minor characters sail past you like the fusillades of bullets.

The "Die Hard" series has had some heart-in-your-throat moments, from a horrifying plane crash ("Die Hard 2") to McClane being forced to wear a racist sign in the middle of Harlem ("Die Hard With a Vengeance"). It's unlikely any moments from this film will stand out in the same way -- although one especially gruesome bad-guy death had the audience howling with laughter.  The father-son feud is meant to be the backbone of this one, and that makes for a lighter, never stressful movie.

Back in 2010, Willis said he'd make this film and then one more "Die Hard" installment  before he lets McClane yippee-ki-yay off into the sunset. But action heroes today scoff at mandatory retirement. Schwarzenegger just made "The Last Stand" at 65, and 66-year-old Sly Stallone starred in "Expendables 2." Willis himself has a role in "Expendables 3" and the upcoming "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." In other words, we'll believe McClane's retired when we see the AARP card, and not before.

Will you see "A Good Day to Die Hard"? How long can Willis keep at it? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

• Bruce Willis: I was on wagon, now drink wine
• Action stars do battle with age

Mario Testino / GQ

After years of sobriety, Bruce Willis is allowing himself alcohol again, but in limited quantities, the "Die Hard" star told GQ magazine in a new cover story.

"I had been sober," he said. "But once I realized that I wasn't gonna run myself off the pier of life with alcohol, drinking vodka out of the bottle every day ... I have wine now, mostly when I eat."

Willis also discussed the 1994 classic "Pulp Fiction," and the disturbing scene he shared with Ving Rhames. "Those were a couple of dark days of shooting," Willis said of acting with a ball gag in his mouth. "Grim."

Willis won an Emmy for "Moonlighting" in his TV days, but he's not upset if he never adds an Oscar to that shelf.

"You don't get an Oscar for comedy, and you don't get it for shooting people," he said. "You get it for novelty, for being fascinating to watch in some character role. But the 'Die Hard' stuff and 'Dirty Harry' are all fraught with the same thing that every story is fraught with."

His next film, "A Good Day to Die Hard," opens Feb. 14. Willis has said he thinks he will do one more movie in the series.

Are you a fan of Bruce Willis? Will you see "A Good Day to Die Hard"? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

• Action stars do battle with age
• Ted Nugent: State of the Union was 'flowery'
• Marsellus' rape almost kept Thurman from 'Pulp Fiction'

How old can they go? Harrison Ford has expressed interest in reprising his gun-slinging intergalactic smuggler Han Solo for Disney’s planned “Star Wars” sequel. This would make the action star, who was 35 the year the first “Star Wars” film was released, 73 years old for the expected 2015 release date.

Reuters, AP (2)

Action stars Harrison Ford (73), left, Bruce Willis (57), center, and Tom Cruise (50) are still going strong.

How long can a guy keep believably kicking butt on the big screen?

Seemingly forever.

Slideshow: Harrison Ford

Ford, who also reprised his beloved Indiana Jones character nearly 20 years after staring in the one-time-trilogy’s third film, is in good company.

Viewers turned out in droves to see Sylvester Stallone’s assembly of over-the-hill action stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in “The Expendables” and The Expendables 2.”

Slideshow: Tom Cruise

With ages spanning from 72 to 52, the actors blew up jets, helicopters, cities and an uncountable number of cars while wielding guns, knives, bombs, planes and their own fists onscreen. Combined, the films have taken in over $500 million worldwide and they’ll be going for more. A third movie, which will potentially include 82-year-old “Dirty Harry” star Clint Eastwood, is in the works.

Next year Willis, 57, will also bring back his “Die Hard” detective John McClane and play the original G.I. Joe, Joe Colton, in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” in which he keeps step with 32-year-old Channing Tatum.

Even Tom Cruise, who celebrated his 50^th birthday this year, continues to take on extremely physical roles. The “Top Gun” actor, who scaled the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, for 2011’s “Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol,” is playing a tough-as-nails former Army officer in “Jack Reacher,” out Dec. 21.

The trailer shows a ripped Cruise, who notoriously loves doing his own stunt work, busting down doors, driving cars off the road and street-fighting five men on his own. Age is just a number

So you tell us, does an action star lose his believability at a certain age? Take our poll and sound off on Facebook.

Related content:

• Report: Han, Luke, Leia may be back in 'Star Wars 7'
• 'Star Wars 7' will need The Force to be with it
• Happy 70th birthday, Harrison Ford!
• Tom Cruise tops highest paid actors at $75 million

Oh, yes. "Die Hard" fans, we have just four months to wait. A short teaser trailer from "Die Hard 5," aka "A Good Day to Die Hard," has been released, and it's the Die Harderest of them all.

As Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" crashes in the background, Bruce Willis returns as John McClane to do some crashing of his own. Choppers! Guys in hazmat suits! Menacing figures on fast bikes! Bruce Willis racking a giant shotgun in an elevator! Breathtakingly gorgeous  Julia Snigir unzipping a black leather catsuit to reveal sexy lingerie!

Buildings blow up! Cars blow up! For some reason, a piano seems to blow up!

And Bruce Willis just smiles, and dubs himself "the 007 of Plainfield, New Jersey."

Yippie-ki-yay, monkey fighters. We're pretty sure that's the line, right?

The movie opens on Feb. 14, which makes sense for such a romantic film.

Will you see "Die Hard 5"? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

• Abrams premieres 'Star Trek' clip on 'Conan'
• 'Twilight' poster shows cast running awkwardly
• Nurse Ratched: I'm too mean in 'Cuckoo's Nest'

Sony Pictures

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "Looper."

REVIEW: "Looper" is a clever, entertaining science fiction thriller that neatly blurs the line between suicide and murder. An existential conundrum wrapped in a narrowly conceived yarn about victims sent back in time to be bumped off by assassins called loopers, Rian Johnson's third and most ambitious feature keeps the action popping while sustaining interest in the long arc of a story about a man assigned to kill the 30 years-older version of himself.

A lively, high-profile choice to open this year's Toronto International Film Festival, this Sony release co-starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the same role should chalk up sizable returns in the wake of its Sept. 28 theatrical bow.

VIDEO: "Looper" star Joseph Gordon-Levitt on getting kicked in the head by Bruce Willis

Probably the shakiest aspect of Johnson's original screenplay is what it asks the viewer to buy about the future: A mere 62 years from now, in 2074, time travel has become possible, but such a momentous breakthrough is limited to serving as a body-disposal system. Under the prevailing authority, time jumping is strictly outlawed because of its potential for messing with history. A large criminal mob, run by an overlord called The Rainmaker, defiantly uses it but only as a vehicle for assassination, with “loopers” -- disreputable gunmen living in 2044 -- laying in wait for people to execute so no bodies or other evidence can be found in the future.

But the premise is established in nifty fashion; the doomed, hooded with hands bound behind them, suddenly materialize in an empty field, and the looper immediately blows him away with his blunderbuss. One such executioner is Joe (Gordon-Levitt), a retro-looking hipster who drives a very old red Miata and wears ties, “a 20th century affectation” that offends his crankily genial boss, Abe (Jeff Daniels). If he can get out of this racket, he says he'd like to go to France, which earns him further scorn from the older man; “I'm from the future, you should go to China,” he scolds.

PHOTOS: Movies with different actors in the same role

Backed by a cynically confessional voice-over track from Joe that is not as self-consciously hardboiled as the commentary Gordon-Levitt read for Johnson in "Brick" seven years ago, Looper mostly is set in a seedy metropolis that doesn't look all that different from sketchy neighborhoods in some big cities today; there are derelicts, bombed-out buildings, ruined cars and enough other signs of urban ills to suggest that, in Johnson's view, things will just gradually decline over the next three decades.

Joe hangs out in clubs, sees a sexy woman (Piper Perabo) who works in one of them and tries to help a friend and fellow looper, Seth (Paul Dano), who's imminently endangered by a new development that's come down from on high: They're “closing all the loops,” meaning they're sending the “future selves” of all the loopers back to be killed.

Almost immediately, Joe is in the same jam. When, a half-hour into the film, he goes to the field to do his next job, the guy who pops up to be shot is not hooded. Joe's hesitation allows the older man to escape, and it's clear who he is: It's Joe as his older self. And, for his failure to kill him, young Joe is in a pile of trouble with Abe and his “gats,” first-class hired guns.

STORY: "Looper" interactive trailer reveals new interviews, behind-the-scenes footage 

When the two Joes finally sit down -- across from each other in a diner in the middle of nowhere -- there's no doubt they're working at cross purposes: Young Joe is determined to kill his older self, while old Joe is dead set on tracking down and taking out The Rainmaker, who would be a little kid in 2044, so his late wife won't die at his hands after all.

The biggest problem facing the makers of "Looper" is how to make the audience believe that the trim, long-faced Gordon-Levitt could somehow change so much in 30 years that he would look like the thicker-built and shorter-nosed Willis. The solution lay in altering the younger actor's appearance, imperceptibly at first, but gradually to morph his dark eyes into Willis' gray-green and to reshape his nose and eyebrows, either with makeup or digitally or perhaps both. At first, the effect is a bit odd, and you can't quite put your finger on what's off; then it feels downright weird to be looking at a version of Gordon-Levitt who is no longer the actor you've known for a few years now.

This is especially noticeable during the film's second half, much of which takes place at young Joe's place of refuge, the isolated home of feisty young farmer and single mom Sara (Emily Blunt), who has an unusually gifted son, Cid (Pierce Gagnon). Even as the temperature is kept at a low simmer, the film's pace deliberately is slowed here to develop some intimacy between these two isolated people and give some screen time to the kid, who pretty obviously will provide the reason for old Joe to eventually head for the farm. The eventual ending is great, the resolution to the tricky time maneuvering very impressively worked out.

VIDEO: "Looper" trailer puts Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a tough spot: Killing Bruce Willis

Shot mostly in Louisiana, with a bit done in Shanghai, the film looks tightly made on a budget but sacrifices nothing for that; the world depicted looks dirty, dangerous and ramshackle, with a few high-tech touches here and there.

Their physical disparity notwithstanding, Gordon-Levitt and Willis both come across strongly, while Blunt effectively reveals Sara's tough and vulnerable sides. Daniels is particularly amusing as the garrulous old enforcer holding down the future's outpost in the past.

Related content:

• VIDEO: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt talk 'Looper'
• VIDEO: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt talk 'Looper'

Also in NBC Entertainment:

• Inconceivable! The irresistible 'Princess Bride' turns 25
• 'Toy Story' toys burn up in family's evil prank on mom
• Crew member drowns on set of 'Lone Ranger' movie

Wait, this wasn't in the script, was it? Talk about an action movie!

In true adrenaline-pumping Hollywood fashion, a fire broke out Thursday on the Budapest set of the latest "Die Hard" sequel after a high-flying stunt went awry, engulfing a building in flames, E! News has confirmed.

Alas, contrary to at least one heroism-touting report, Bruce Willis was not on hand to battle the blaze himself.

More from E! Online: Cute alert! Bruce Willis and baby Mabel!

"There was a fire on the set of 'A Good Day to Die Hard' in Hungary," 20th Century Fox said in a statement. "No one was injured by the flames, which occurred during a pyrotechnics stunt just after midnight CET on Thursday, and were contained a short while later. Bruce Willis, was not on set, nor were other principal cast. Principal photography on the movie began in April in Budapest, and is expected to wrap late summer."

Production crews were reportedly shooting a scene that called for a helicopter to land near a five-story wooden structure whose lobby would be set on fire for the action sequence.

However, stunt coordinators didn't anticipate that the helicopter's expansive blades would actually stoke the fire, causing the flames to quickly spread and raze the building.

The fifth "Die Hard" flick also costars Patrick Stewart and is scheduled to hit theaters on Feb. 14, 2013.

More in Entertainment:

• Ted Nugent: It might have been best if South won Civil War
• 5 spoilers (sorta) from 'The Dark Knight Rises'
• Ned Stark and Jaime Lannister of 'Game of Thrones' battle with lightsabers

Esquire

Bruce Willis is no fan of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In an interview for the cover story of the June/July issue of Esquire magazine, Willis tells a reporter he's not exactly pleased with the former Massachusetts governor.

"He's just such a disappointment, an embarrassment," the actor tells writer Tom Chiarella. "He's just one of those guys, one of those guys who says he's going to change everything. And he'll get in there, and they'll smile at him and introduce themselves: 'We're Congress, we make sure nothing changes.' He won't do it. He can't. Everybody wants to be Barack Obama. And what did he change?"

When asked if he thinks Romney will win the election, Willis told the writer "No," and added "I don't really care."

He also called Romney "the Dash Riprock" of the Republican party, referring to Elly May Clampett's handsome and conceited suitor from "The Beverly Hillbillies."

Willis has supported both Democratic and Republican candidates in the past. In 2006, he told reporters, "I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government."

Should celebrities share their political opinions? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

• Bruce Willis now dad to a fourth daughter
• Can Bruce Willis save the day in 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation'?
• Kimmel, Obama roast press and presidency

OK, so it borrows liberally elements of "Transformers" at the start and employs the now clich-thumping mechanical groan a la "Inception" to heighten the excitement for viewers.

Forgetting that, by the look of the new trailer out Tuesday, Paramount's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" still looks pretty kickass, at least when it comes to vertigo-inducing action and its Rock-solid cast led by Dwayne Johnson and Channing Tatum.

Here's what we've learned from the latest teaser.

MORE: G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trailer: Which Action Star Helps Dwayne Johnson and Channing Tatum Get Revenge?!

In a twist, the Joes this time have to go rogue and survive being hunted down by their own commander in chief (Jonathan Pryce) after the highest echelons of government have been infiltrated -- presumably by Cobra.

Our heroes turn to the one man who can help them, Gen. Joe Colton, played with cheesy aplomb by Bruce Willis, who's never met a good one-liner he didn't like, natch. Together, with the aid of some cool-looking fighter planes, tanks and other special-ops toys, they fight to save America and provide a lot of bang for your buck along the way.

GALLERY: Movies From the Future!

Just watch out for that avalanche, boys. The sequel invades theaters June 29.

Slideshow: April movies

20th Century Fox

Launch slideshow

Bruce Willis is a diehard new dad once again! The star and his wife, Emma Heming, became the proud parents of a precious baby girl Sunday in L.A., per People.

Matt Sayles / AP file

Bruce Willis and Emma Heming.

We're sure the couple are beyond thrilled -- it's their first little bundle of joy together!

So what name can well-wishers start cooing as they ogle the adorable tot?

MORE: Bruce Willis to Die Hard Yet Again -- and the Title Is...

Say hello to Mabel Ray Willis!

The little angel, who weighed in at just over 9 pounds, joins Willis' three daughters from his previous marriage to Demi Moore: Rumer, 23; Scout, 20; and Tallulah, 18.

Willis, who just turned 57 two weeks ago, and Heming, 33, were married in 2009.

PHOTOS: Weirdest Celebrity Baby Names

The actor is gearing up for a busy year: He's got five (!) films hitting theaters and is set for a one-two summer-movie punch with "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" and "The Expendables 2."

Congrats to the happy parents!

Related content:

• Slideshow: Celebrity dads