Paramount Pictures’ last big-budget spectacle Transformers 2 got a (arguably unfair) trashing from critics who called its big, dumb and loud. So now the studio had refused to show G.I. Joe to critics before its release date. The studio spokesmen say they want the audiences to “define the film” before the critics do. 

Now usually when a studio refuses to show a film to critics, it means the film is lousy. But not in this case. We got to watch G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra on Tuesday night, and we think it’s a perfectly fun popcorn movie. Laden with special-effects and terrific action sequences, it is just what audiences would want before the 2009 summer blockbuster season comes to a close. 

Directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy andVan Helsing), it stars the hot Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans as two talented soldiers who are recruited into an elite GI Joe team which has been tasked to stop evil Cobra arms dealers from taking over the world. Armed with high-tech spy and military equipments, the Joe soldiers track the Cobras to their base in the South Pole for a ferocious battle.

G.I. Joe the movie makes no pretence of being an important film. It is big, loud and dumb, and is irresistibly so. From the first reel to the last, it delivers pure adrenaline thrills with some spectacularly choreographed fight scenes to boot. Cast members like Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller and Rachel Nichols were obviously picked not so much for their dramatic acting skills but for how good they look in tight outfits. And the script is always secondary to the action.

For unadulterated thrills and spills, G.I. Joe is your man.