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Why I Had to Stay Up Half the Night Watching 'G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra'
Newsweek ^ | 08/07/09 | Ramin Setoodeh

Posted on 08/07/2009 1:07:48 PM PDT by OldDeckHand

Paramount was so worried the critics would hate G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra—and with good reason, it's awful—that they decided not to screen it for anybody. Just one problem: the first showing was at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, which means I have all night to tell you how bad it is. Bad. Bad. Bad. It's excruciatingly bad. Gigli bad. How bad are we talking? I chronicled my night:

11:40 p.m.: I arrive to the theater, a little sleepy and slightly giddy that the movie could be so bad that it's good. I ask the older couple on the escalator behind if they're here to see G.I. Joe. No! It's got to be bad, they say, because it wasn't even screened for the critics. They're here to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child.

12:01 a.m.: Showtime. Except not really. I was expecting crowds and G.I. toys and maybe even a few people chanting "All-American Hero" (yes, I was a G.I. Joe groupie back in the day). But the theater is half empty and a woman down the aisle from me is picking her nose.

12:09 a.m.: Trailers. First bad omen: the movies previewed before G.I. Joe include a very bad John Travolta movie and a very bad M. Night Shyamalan movie. Although, in retrospect, neither of them could possibly be as bad as G.I. Joe.

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Military/Veterans; Music/Entertainment; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: badmovies; dreadful; gijoe; hollywood; horrible; moviereview; movies; worthless
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Apparently, even the leftist media loathes (as the director described it), Barack Obama's GI Joe. The reviews, like this one, are just bone-crushing critical. Worst movie ever seems to be the consensus.
1 posted on 08/07/2009 1:07:48 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
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To: OldDeckHand

Darn.

I was hoping it wouldn’t be too craptacular.

Sigh.

Maybe I’ll just wait for a pirate version consisting only of scenes of The Baroness walkign around.


2 posted on 08/07/2009 1:10:00 PM PDT by El Sordo
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To: OldDeckHand

Worst movie ever?

No, they have to sit through “Manos, the Hands of Fate” before they can say that.


3 posted on 08/07/2009 1:10:04 PM PDT by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: OldDeckHand

Obama Joe. I hope it tanks (pun intended) badly.


4 posted on 08/07/2009 1:10:43 PM PDT by Rocko (Mymindisaragingtorrent,floodedwithrivuletsofthoughtcascadingintoawaterfallofcreativealternatives.)
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To: OldDeckHand

I see Razzies in this movie’s future.


5 posted on 08/07/2009 1:12:40 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: OldDeckHand
They're here to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child.

And just how desperately bored would you have to be to see that?

6 posted on 08/07/2009 1:13:16 PM PDT by marron
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To: dfwgator
"I see Razzies in this movie’s future."

If you're a director or producer and you see the word "Gigli" in one of the first published reviews of your movie, you're probably going to be looking for a tall tree and a short rope.

7 posted on 08/07/2009 1:15:06 PM PDT by OldDeckHand (No Socialized Medicine, No Way, No How, No Time)
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To: OldDeckHand

RE: Your reference to the “preview” of the new Travolta movie. Don’t be so quick to judge. Don’t sell Travolta short. His movie could be WAY worse than this one.


8 posted on 08/07/2009 1:16:15 PM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th)
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To: OldDeckHand
Odd. The guy at Air Force Blues actually liked, particularly once you realize it's a comic movie not a military movie.
9 posted on 08/07/2009 1:18:11 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith (Obi-Wan Palin: Strike her down and she shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.)
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To: Brett66

throw in “Joe vs. Volcano” also.


10 posted on 08/07/2009 1:21:54 PM PDT by WoodstockCat (General Honore: "The storm gets a vote... We're not stuck on stupid.")
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To: OldDeckHand

12:20 a.m through 2:08 a.m - from start of movie to finish.

That’s exactly one hour and forty-eight minutes of your life you can never get back!


11 posted on 08/07/2009 1:23:06 PM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th)
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To: OldDeckHand

That was one of the funniest movie reviews I’ve ever read,

I’ve only known two people who liked The Mummy, both of them were mildly retarded. I’m sure they’ll go crazy for this pap too.


12 posted on 08/07/2009 1:24:21 PM PDT by JerseyHighlander
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To: OldDeckHand

Somehow what has happened to ‘GI Joe’ over the years tragically mirrors the slow change in our nation’s character and priorities over the years since WW2. The phrase ‘GI Joe’ became part of the American lexicon as referring to an average soldier, probably the son of a farmer or a shopkeeper or a factory worker. He didn’t have any special title; however, together with a few million others just like him, he went about saving the world through his courage, honor, and self-sacrifice.

Somehow GI Joe’s weapons became high tech and he morphed into a member of an elite top-secret special unit with unlimited resources that answers to no one, and does whatever is necessary to win.


13 posted on 08/07/2009 1:26:48 PM PDT by CaptainMorgantown
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To: JerseyHighlander

“...You’re on the wrong side of the riiiveeer.”

Loved The Mummy


14 posted on 08/07/2009 1:28:04 PM PDT by PeteB570 (NRA - Life member and Black Rifle owner)
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To: Brett66

“To Wan Fu with love, Julie Numar” I hate that movie so much I didnt look up how to spell it.


15 posted on 08/07/2009 1:30:10 PM PDT by Enigo54 (What we don't have makes up for what we don't have)
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To: OldDeckHand

Worst movie ever?

Has this guy never viewed Fireball 500?


16 posted on 08/07/2009 1:32:05 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Obama is in way over his ears.)
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To: PeteB570

Liked “The Mummy” but Sommers hasn’t done ANYTHING worth watching since. The sequels and “the Scorpion King” were all horrible and this unwatchable GI Joe might be the last nail in the coffin of Sommers’ career.


17 posted on 08/07/2009 1:33:29 PM PDT by jyoders19
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To: JerseyHighlander
I’ve only known two people who liked The Mummy

I saw part of that movie once. There were a lot of malevolent bugs. I don't know why.

18 posted on 08/07/2009 1:34:09 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Obama is in way over his ears.)
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To: JerseyHighlander

All “The Mummy” movies are popular at my house. But then the kid has just turned 17 this year and those are ‘his’ movies.


19 posted on 08/07/2009 1:39:12 PM PDT by SatinDoll (NO Foreign Nationals as our President!!)
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To: OldDeckHand
The reviewer is Ramin Setoodeh, Stanford educated with an English major and recipient of numerous business internships incl. the WSJ and USN&WR. His college minor was in (surprise!) political science. He's such a good journalist that, according to his own journal, he had already determined that G.I.Joe would be bad 20 minutes before the movie started....
11:40p.m.: I arrive to the theater, a little sleepy and slightly giddy that the movie could be so bad that it's good.
ONE MINUTE INTO THE MOVIE, he demonstrates that he's not even paying attention to what's happening on-screen, because the introductory scene sets up both the villain's background, modus operandi, and affectation for iron masks....
12:20 a.m.: OK, at last the movie is about to start. Oh. It's presented by Hasbro.
12:21 a.m. France, 1641....I should add this scene has no relevance at all to anything that follows.

20 posted on 08/07/2009 1:40:04 PM PDT by Alex Murphy ("I always longed for repose and quiet" - John Calvin)
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