Paramount has declared war on the Urban Archipelago and will not hold advance screenings of the GI Joe movie. Never a good sign:
It’s the biggest movie of the summer that practically no one has seen.
“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” opens Friday, but Paramount Pictures isn’t screening the blockbuster for critics beforehand.
Instead, the studio says it’s intentionally aiming the movie at the heartland, at cities and audiences outside the entertainment vortexes of New York and Los Angeles. Paramount held a screening Friday for 1,000 military service members and their families at Andrews Air Force Base[.]
While appealing to a sense of patriotism nationwide, the plan also is inspired by the disparity that existed between the critical trashing “Transformers: Rise of the Fallen” received and the massive crowds it drew at the box office.
This really shouldn’t come as a shock—no one expected this to be the Citizen Kane of movies based on a half-century-old toy line—and I was never a big GI Joe fan growing up, so I have no horse in this race. However, I am still baffled by the fact that studios are still willing to sink $100 million into a movie they’re at least slightly embarrassed by.
If all film critics were pre-pubescent boys, the studio would be happy to screen it.
Wow. That costume is certainly pow-pow-titties, isn’t it?
Just because people saw Transformers 2 doesn’t mean they liked it.
Just watch the real GI Joe trailer that someone did using GI Joe dolls – it’s way more realistic than the green goo trailer is.
Harry Knowles of aintitcoolnews.com liked the GI Joe movie, which in my mind means that it will be a great opportunity to get my brain to shut the hell up for two hours.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41748
I bet they screwed up the Hiss Tanks.
What makes you think the studios are even slightly embarrassed to make movies for audiences rather than critics?
The Urbs are in decay…people are fleeing to the hinterland…free of Paper Bag and Light Rail taxes from pesty Libs.
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americ…
America’s Abandoned Cities
I don’t care about the movie, but if you could happen to send her over to my place (preferably dressed like that), I’d be awfully appreciative.
It’s the George W. Bush theory of marketing: Turn your negative (“So dumb it actually drains IQ points from smart people who stand too close!”) into a positive (“It appeals to regular, ordinary folks like you, but big-city ‘elites’ can’t stand it!”)
I see no reason why it won’t work.
I think they realize that critics are irrelevant to a movie like this. Why trouble with a bunch of old white men complaining about a product that’s in no way intended to appeal to them?
i’m old enough to have played with the 12″ gi joe prior to kung fu grip, eagle eyes, or life-like hair. this gi joe is some bullshit.
except for the tatties.
I have to say, I don’t blame them. Bad reviews or no reviews, the people who want to see this will, and those who won’t, won’t. I don’t need critics to tell me not to see it; I’ve already decided my money is better spent elsewhere.
Avoidance of the critics is usually a bad sign, but not always, not universally. I find reviews interesting, perhaps a noble enterprise in and of themselves, but I think they’re as irrelevant to the viewer of art films as to the viewer of popcorn epics (and perhaps more so to those who have a balanced diet of both, which I think [hope?] would be all of us) in terms of actually informing us how best to spend our money. I might let a review break an internal tie now and again, but if I wanna see it, I will; if I don’t, I don’t.
Sounds like Paramount, at least, was paying attention when Sarah Palin distinguished “real America” from the fake America you and I call home.
Where’s the guys in that kind of outfit?!
But seriously, generally avoiding critics is not a good sign. Hopefully for the Joe fans that the movie won’t butcher their childhood memories like those Movie Remakes of 80s TV shows did.
This should be better than Transformers simply because it doesn’t involve Michael Bay, or Jerry Bruckheimer for that matter.
I thought knowing was half the battle? Flint, you lied to me!
@14 – um, you red staters are down to 5 states now, by the way.
We’re the Real America here in the urbz, baybee!
@18 i think you misread @14
@8, at least one of us here might have appreciated you properly posting the link. I wouldn’t mind scrutinizing your “facts” myself.
If a person is dumb enought to pay to see G.I. Joe they will probably like it just fine.
Jonah’s just trying to get the 1MB dogtag in the GI Joe case, don’t buy his argument.
@16: no, but it does involve Stephen Sommers, director of the Mummy movies and (gulp) Van Helsing. World-class hack.
And what was wrong with the Mummy movies? I thought the first one was pretty delightful.
I wouldn’t see this “movie” at gunpoint
So it’s going to suck. Who didn’t see that coming?
There’s something about the shape and placement of those molded Barbie-style boobs in that outfit that freaks me out. It looks horribly anatomically incorrect. Give me Diana Rigg as Emma Peel anyday. She never looked like an alien life form.
Also, the term “heartland” can eat a deep-fried Twinkie and die.