I’m running around New York on an HBO Home Entertainment thing today, but MSN has just put up a couple of items you may wish to read.
This week’s DVD column looks at three new releases/reissues — Criterion’s The Devil’s Backbone, Shout! Factory’s The Fog and Anchor Bay’s The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh — that all arrive just in time to ride the heels of The Conjuring’s surprise success.
Meanwhile, another of the week’s A-titles, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, is shadowed by the tone of its predecessor, The Rise of Cobra. Jon M. Chu tells me all about reorienting the franchise and his plans for the future, because I am a good listener. Do check it out.
On G.I. Joe: “I don’t know about you, but I liked the goofier version better.”
No. A thousand times no.
Retaliation is not a great (or even particularly good) movie, but it’s an exponential improvement on every level compared to that unwatchable Rise of Cobra crapfest. Yes, that means that this one barely climbs to the level of mediocrity, but that’s still far better than the previous movie ever aspired to, and at least it’s recognizable as G.I. Joe. Stephen Sommers has admitted (with pride, naturally) that he didn’t even know G.I. Joe existed prior to being hired for the job.