CASABLANCA - MOVIE NON-REVIEW G.I. JOE

MOVIE NON-REVIEW G.I. JOE

Paramount, insisting that it is putting into place an unconventional marketing campaign for G.I. Joe , has not screened it in advance for most U.S. critics, with the exception of a few that it felt it could depend on for positive reviews. And indeed it may be the first time ever that a studio has not screened a major tentpole summer release for critics. That hasn't daunted Joe Morgenstern, the critic for the Wall Street Journal , who, unlike other major critics, ordinarily doesn't bother with movies that studios don't want him to see -- ordinarily, low-budget horror flicks that his colleagues take in over the weekend and usually review on Monday. "At first I felt shut out," he writes, "but then I realized ... Paramount has spared me the pain of sitting through another military-toy epic ... and has set me free to reach my own conclusions -- not quite groundless but close -- on the basis of the G.I Joe trailer." He then goes on to review some of the scenes in the trailer, finally remarking that by doing so, he is not likely to be exposed to the condemnation he received from toy collectors who wrote to him following his scathing review of Transformers 2. They were right, he suggests. "I am no more qualified to judge the details of these toy-based monstrosities than a toy critic -- there are toy critics, aren't there? -- would be qualified to review Casablanca."

07/08/2009