Here's a bit of topsy-turvy news for you on a Monday afternoon -- G.I. Joe has an 86% fresh ranking on Rotten Tomatoes! That means that out of the seven reviews on the site, six are positive. CHUD's Devin Faraci calls it a "delightfully light, fun and action-packed kick in the ass," while HitFix's Drew McWeeny says it's "pure pulp preposterousness, one of the most successful little-boy adventure movies in a long time." Even Harry Knowles liked it. A friend of mine who caught it across the pond called it brilliant. "It's everything you could ever want from a summer blockbuster," raved he. Why then, is Paramount not showing it to print-based reviewers?

The positive reactions are surprising considering that just two months ago, advance buzz was so tepid that rumors of director Stephen Sommers' firing were all over the web (they proved to be false). Last week, Paramount denied not screening the movie for national critics, after an item in New York magazine's Approval Matrix read "lovers of hilarious film takedowns mourn as G.I. Joe will not screen for critics." But today the LA Times confirms the movie will indeed be hidden from "real" critics, and that Paramount is spending $150 million on a marketing campaign that is essentially targeting middle America and avoiding the coasts (despite the black helicopter with man dangling from ladder I saw at the beach a few weeks back). This doesn't make sense on Paramount's part, considering so far most people really enjoy the film, and Transformers 2 just made about a billion dollars despite reviews like this one.