Movie critics of the world unite! The Man is out to silence you. But hear this — we will not be muzzled. Read the full post.
Aug 6
2009
03:19 PM ET
'G.I. Joe': Why hide it from critics?
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Advance review or not, this film’s trailer speaks volumes. Some of the action sequences shown look slow and wooden; some special effects forced and obviously faked. And the only speaking role featured is from Sienna Miller which, combined with his “uncomfortable to watch” appearance on the Tonight Show, isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the film’s star, Channing Tatum. But none of the above necessarily translates into poor box office, nor would any advance review, good, bad or indifferent. There’s just no accounting for taste … nor where and how the targeted demo chooses to spends its money!
Owen,
Since one of your sites was allowed to review the film I don’t really believe your’re unbiasted.
On the film review website Rotten Tomatoes, Gleibermann agrees with the Tomatometer (proportion of critics who label the movie “fresh” or “rotten”) 74% of the time.[2] The most notable film that Gleiberman has not agreed with the Tomatometer on is Epic Movie. He was the single critic out of a total of 57 to label the movie as “fresh”, thus preventing it from receiving an overall “fresh” rating of 0%. The movie is currently listed with a rating of 2%.[3] This led to numerous mocking, sometimes abusive posts on comment pages of Rotten Tomatoes and Entertainment Weekly; some called for an end to his career as a critic.[4][5]
A similar episode was his single-paragraph review describing Let the Right One In as a “Swedish head-scratcher that has a few creepy images but very little holding them together.”[6] It was the only review preventing that film from receiving a 100% “fresh” rating, and prompted derision from reviewers who doubted that Gleiberman had watched the film.
Actually, I agree with his review of Let the Right One In. I really really tried to like that movie … but I didn’t. Interesting, but kinda boring at the same time.
Maybe Critics are not as important as they think they are. Most people do not read the Critics reviews anyway, so the production company saved a few bucks by making the Critics buy there own tickets. Good for them.
People don’t read a critique of something necessarily to get permission to see a movie. I like to read reviews for the same reason I like to read Entertainment Weekly – it is a chance to enter into a discussion about a movie, the same way it’s fun to talk to friends after leaving the theater.
And by the way, with newspaper and magazine advertising going the way it has lately, I’m sure NO critic feels like they are too important or indispensable.
I believe the reason why they didn’t screen it was because the demographic is geeks, and people who are action oriented. This is a movie I want to see, will it NOT getting reviewed or getting a bad preview stop me from seeing it, probably not.
Also I had read earlier that some critics did get to preview/review the movie, and the studio picked and choosed who they wanted to review. Just like some other films this year, Bruno, Transformers you either got the film, good review or you didn’t bad review.
My question becomes are we placing to much importance on someone else reviewing a film for us, instead of us going and checking it out for ourselves. Also, did anyone ever think that maybe the critics get money under the table for good reviews or gifts to make the review better then the movie actually is?
The trailer for this movie looks terrible.
Scene: two kids walking up to a movie theatre
Kid 1: Hey Mikey, what do you want to see?
Kid 2: How about GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra?
Voice from off camera: I wouldn’t do that if I were you.
Kid 1 & Kid 2: Shipwreck!
(Shipwreck walks on camera)
Shipwreck: That’s right kids, this movie is so bad that even though it is released today, the movie studio didn’t pre-release it at all for the critics to review.
Kid 2: Why wouldn’t they do that?
Shipwreck: Well, anytime a movie studio doesn’t let the critics see a movie before it is released, you know it is going to be utterly unwatchable because they don’t want the inevitable horrid reviews to have drag the movie down it’s first weekend.
Polly: Braaaaack…It’s a pile of sh!t, it’s a pile of sh!t …Braaaack!
Shipwreck: Seeing this movie would just be a waste of time and money.
Kid 2: Now we know.
Kid 1: And knowing is half the battle.
GI JOE!
End scene
Oh puhleeeeeeeeze!!! The only REAL reason why EW gave this movie a low D-rating is because EW did not get to screen/preview it. So, that’s why Chris Nashawaty paid and went to the midnight screening – and came back to cudgel the movie instead. Boo-hoo-hoo.
Well – I DID get to screen this movie Thursday evening – and I enjoyed it. I was not expecting a life-changing experience. I KNEW it is a ‘Hollywood’ product – and that it is all action. So what? It’s still a fun enjoyable movie.
I wanna see this movie.
Alexaaish, if you’ve seen the trailer you don’t need to shell out ten bucks to see the whole movie. Just watch the trailer over and over for two and a half hours. It’s not like this movie is going to have anything resembling a story; it’s softcore pornography that doesn’t even bother to show bare breasts.
You guys (meaning critics) are just complete snobs. So you’ll trash the movie because they don’t let you see it in advance!? Get over it, and review the movie as it should be reviewed–don’t make some snobby political issue about it. Grow up!
Early Fiday estimates for Aug.7th- G I Joe opens huge somewhere in the neighborhood of +20 million and will absolutely blow the roof off of expectation. Also looking at a phenomenal weekend worldwide- + 37 million according to some early estimates.
Everybody has their own tastes, and critics don’t it all. Sometimes I hate movies that have good reviews,and sometimes I love movies that have bad reviews. The way you can trust a critic is simple. Just rent a few movies they have reviewed, (good and bad) and see if you think they were right by your standards. Simple really.
To everyone basically trashing movie critics in this blog (especially Rob), I hope you realized the irony of participating in this discussion. For one, the concept of pre-conceived notions with not screening a film; many of which Owen accurately notes. If you already think they’re indefensible snobs, why are you even willing to listen with what they have to say? Seems like a waste of time if you truly feel that way.
Owen made a similar topic a few years back, and I certainly see his point. In all fairness, whether studios screen movies or not usually isn’t an issue for good film critics. He and Lisa gave many of the Tyler Perry films decent ratings, despite:
1) it wasn’t screened for critics
2) the assumption they hate any film with predominantly black characters (a blatant lie) and
3) because the collective public assumes they’re tasteless, pretentious snobs.
And yet I, as a black male who’s a casual moviegoer, thought the films were rather weak, caricaturized portrayals of contemporary black America. Don’t think certain people would love or hate certain films because of assumed prejudices.
While I do believe not screening films for critics leads to lower expectations, at the end of the day, I doubt they’d use this as a reason to dislike the film more than they would, even away from their preferred conditions on how they usually watch it.