August 04, 2005
Fake Critic Costs Sony $1.5 million
This is shameful. Remember a couple of years ago when Sony Pictures made up the totally imaginary film critic "David Manning of the Ridgefield Press" to put outrageously positive quotes for their films in the commercials. On really bad films too... like The Animal with Rob Schneider or Knight's Tale. That was a horrible example of lying to the public. And yet everyone just seemed to forget about it and let it slide under the rug.
So now a settlement has been reached in a class action case in which Sony will pay $5 to everyone who saw any of the movies "David Manning" gave a quote for and can produce their ticket stub up to $1.5 million dollars. Honestly I don't think that's enough. I want to know why Sony wasn't charged criminally with fraud and public mistrust. Not that I think Sony should be shut down for it... but really they should have been slapped with a heavy fine. Am I over-reacting?
Posted by John Campea at August 4, 2005 11:55 AM
Comments
Posted by: T-Jax at August 4, 2005 12:21 PM
I'd say the punishment is enough. Anyone who would see a Rob Schneider movie based on a positive blurb from a critic they've never heard of and then not bother to try to find the whole review deserves to lose their movie admission price. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if that type of gullible person actually enjoyed THE ANIMAL.
Posted by: John N at August 4, 2005 01:45 PM
So who's got a ticket stub from that long ago? I haven't got one for 2 weeks ago. Nice "gesture", but totally impractical.
It's a shameful act and Sony should be hung out to dry for it, but I'd agree with John N's second sentence there, just remove Rob Schneider so it's -any- film.
Posted by: sunnydunny at August 4, 2005 02:52 PM
Technically it's false advertising, not fraud, I think, but certainly Sony should've got hit a lot harder.
Posted by: James Russell at August 5, 2005 02:52 AM
HA, if I'd seen the movie when it came out, I'd be able to redeem the $5. I have all my movie tickets stubs going back to 1995.
Posted by: ShoeStringBudget at August 5, 2005 05:47 AM
It's too bad I never went to see either horrible movie. I am a fan of Schneider, but I wasn't going to go near that one. As for Knights Tale, how can anyone like that p.o.s.?? It had a friggin Queen song in it (It was We Will Rock You, and the peasants were providing the beat). Just that alone is enough to miss (is hate to strong?) a movie.
I'm with sunny, who keeps their ticketstubs? I'm lucky if I still have mine after the movie is over
Posted by: Rome227 at August 5, 2005 09:20 AM
Maybe we should create a false journalist a make him say some terrible things about 'The Da Vinci Code' and spread them over some blogs and moviesites. I would first say 'Stealth', but this has been taken care of by REAL journalists.
:-D
Posted by: darko at August 5, 2005 01:56 PM
thats a super spectacular idea!
it's extraordinary!
-phenomenal!
its so good i want more!
Posted by: david manning at August 6, 2005 09:05 AM
OK, "The Animal" was bad, but I really really liked "A Knight's Tale"; in my opinion it's a great movie. Even if a fake critic says it's good, it's still good. And it's got 57% on rottentomatoes and a 6.5 rating on imdb (based on a large enough number of votes), so even objectively speaking it can be still considered at least an average movie - definitely NOT a "really bad" one.