GI JOE - RETALIATION - Big Opening, Part III On Its Way

[AndyDursin]

Looks like as close to a full-scale reworking as you can do while still making a sequel (hey, let's kill everyone off! lol).

The Rock is the new lead instead of Channing Tatum? I'll take that.

Bruce Willis and Adrienne Palicki added? I like that too.

Sure, I'll miss Rachel Nichols but this looks to be a upgrade to a movie which wasn't great, but I liked it mildly in terms of providing no-brain summer fun (least it was better than the Transformers films).

[Monterey Jack]

I despised the first film (Stephen Sommers is every bit as inept a filmmaker as Michael Bay), so I hold out little hope for this one. Childhood nostalgia fails me again.

[Mike Skerritt]

Couldn't agree more, Jack. The RETALIATION trailer is very effective, but with the first film's taste in my mouth I couldn't must any more emphatic reaction than "meh."

I don't mind if it's dumb so long as it's not boring, and that's the cardinal sin of the first film.

[AndyDursin]

Stephen Sommers is every bit as inept a filmmaker as Michael Bay

The original MUMMY is infinitely better than any of Michael Bay's garbage.

I do know you have a very low threshold for "dumb fun" movies however. Don't need to go down that road again lol.

[John Johnson]

Stephen Sommers is every bit as inept a filmmaker as Michael Bay

The original MUMMY is infinitely better than any of Michael Bay's garbage.

I do know you have a very low threshold for "dumb fun" movies however. Don't need to go down that road again lol.

I'd rather watch anything Stephen Sommers does over Michael Bay any day of the week. The only thing worse than a Michael Bay film is having to sit through Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.

[Mike Skerritt]

It's hard for me to kill Sommers since he made DEEP RISING, one of the best B-monster movies of recent years. He knows how to make an effective genre flick. He just didn't do it with GI JOE.

[Eric W.]

The original MUMMY is infinitely better than any of Michael Bay's garbage.

I do know you have a very low threshold for "dumb fun" movies however. Don't need to go down that road again lol.

I'd rather watch anything Stephen Sommers does over Michael Bay any day of the week. The only thing worse than a Michael Bay film is having to sit through Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.

I'll just co-sign all of this.

[AndyDursin]

It's hard for me to kill Sommers since he made DEEP RISING, one of the best B-monster movies of recent years. He knows how to make an effective genre flick. He just didn't do it with GI JOE.

I kind of liked it. Maybe my expectations were so non-existent I was more surprised than I should have been lol, but I admit I was entertained enough to make it through a one-time viewing. (Then again I enjoyed VAN HELSING too in spite of its shortcomings. Sue me! )

DEEP RISING wasn't bad either for that matter...the end was fun. Speaking of that, I haven't seen the film in ages!

[AndyDursin]

Wow.

Can't say I've ever seen a studio movie, A MONTH out from its release date, suddenly get delayed for 9 months. They can spin it with "adding 3-D," but the truth is the film must be something horrific to jump ship this late in the game.

Amazing...

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/g-i-joe ... ox-office/

EXCLUSIVE: The sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation was supposed to come out GI Joe Retaliation Release Datethis summer on June 29th. But I’ve learned that Paramount is moving the movie nine months to March 29, 2013, to add 3D. “We’re going to do a conscientious 3D job because we’ve seen how it can better box office internationally,” one of the studio execs just told me. “Jim Cameron did all of Titanic‘s 3D in post – and look how well that movie turned out.” Paramount has had luck delaying films before: its decision to move Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island gave the director his biggest box office hit ever. And right now, 3D is huge internationally, with Russia and China building new 3D theaters by the week. Also the execs say that the blockbuster performance of The Hunger Games shows that March can be a prime time of the year to release movies. Of course, Paramount had to talk its partners on GI Joe 2 into the extra nine months of carrying costs – MGM/Spyglass which has 25%, and David Ellison’s Skydance which has another 25%. The $125M-budgeted actioner stars Channing Tatum, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, and Bruce Willis and is directed by John Chu.

[DavidBanner]

Perhaps they felt this movie was bringing the wrong kind of retaliation to the audience...

[Eric W.]

Wow, the thing must be a nightmare.

[AndyDursin]

And the real reason for the delay comes out...which none of us will be surprised with. Bad test scores will do this kind of thing to a movie

From the beginning, I also found the concept of killing off every original cast member including a guy who -- whether or not you care/like his style -- is becoming one of the more bankable younger actors around (at least, 21 Jump Street and The Vow both did big money this spring and he's got that male stripper flick coming out) smacked of almost ALIEN3 proportions. If Tatum is available, then it's likely a good idea to bring him back and give him more than a cameo (and NOT kill him off). Sounds like his involvement is what's mostly being retooled...

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/big-pro ... big-delay/

...The fact is that Paramount became extremely concerned about G.I. Joe 2‘s box office prospects worldwide after its test scores were mediocre to bad. Reshoots were needed. Plus, the moguls realized what a complete miscalculation it was to kill off Channing Tatum in the sequel. And even more so at the start of the film. You will remember that Tatum wasn’t a star when the first G.I. Joe was released. But since then his back-to-back successes in The Vow and 21 Jump Street have made him into a draw. And it turned out that the only bright spot for audiences as a result of the G.I. Joe 2 testing was the aborted relationship between Tatum and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Plus look at the movie poster for Retaliation: you wouldn’t even know Tatum is in the sequel. Now the movie is being reworked — and reshoots don’t lose a valuable leading man like Tatum by killing him off. “The 3D is an excuse as to not reveal the Tatum of it all,” one of my sources tells me.

[tjguitar85]

Test screenings of the revised film must have happened by now. I wonder how much changed.

[AndyDursin]

My goodness...the reviews are actually GOOD

94 minutes and many claim it's by far the best Hasbro movie (over the Transformers and Battleship -- not exactly classics but still...).

May have to go check it out now.

[Eric W.]

Sounds good.