Just the other day, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” was at the top of its critical heap. It was sporting an impressive 91% fresh consensus rating on Rotten Tomatoes and basking in the rays of what looked like an easy ride to glory. Suddenly, the film opens and where’d the love go? The film’s rating plummeted to a dismal 38% and with no sign of recovery in sight. What could it have been? No one can really throw judgement as some of the folks here thought it was good fun. Personally though, many of us are not running out the door to see the thing. However, it is amusing in light of the tightness around the project as Paramount hid it from critics from the very beginning like an ugly stepchild. It was a brilliant move as the film pulled in $22.5 million already on Friday. But will the bad reviews get to people? Perhaps poor word of mouth? Which glancing in some places (Twitter, Facebook) seems to be running wild. Paying for it or not, people aren’t exactly liking it.
One of those people is the honest, always open-mouthed director, Quentin Tarantino, who last night gave the film a little jab in the ribs while promoting “Inglourious Basterds” on Jimmy Kimmel. The director was sitting back, while actress and one of the stars of ‘G.I. Joe,’ Rachel Nichols, discussed the script with Kimmel. The host brought up the veil secrecy that director, Stephen Sommers kept around the film’s script and interjected that this unlike Tarantino, who passes his around like hot cakes. Tarantino, quickly and rather cleverly, shot back, “Well, I’m proud of my scripts.”Boom, headshot as the geek crowd says. Nichols pretended not to be offended but you could see a little sting in her eyes when the audiences ooooh’ed, with their “Oh, snap!” reaction.
Anyway, aside from the Basterd vs. Joe moment, the Cobra will surely make a mint at the box office regardless of what critics or bad word of mouth says (and that’s relative bad word of mouth; do people in the heartland even give a shit about Twitter?) as the film is likely set for a $55-60 million opening weekend. Even if the film is underperforming with critics, it’s not like Paramount didn’t see this coming, or really gave a shit .PS, did you see that Wall Street Journal “review” from the writer who didn’t even see the film, but wrote one anyway because he was so pissed? Brass balls man, and perhaps an indication that even serious critics were angered about being shut out of screenings. – Frank Rutledge