Sony sued for phony movie critiques.

[Daikun]

A class action lawsuit against Sony's Columbia Pictures unit has been settled, and anyone who has gone to see Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, A Knight's Tale, The Animal, or The Patriot is due US $5. Why? It all goes back to David Manning of the Ridgefield Press, whose quotes filled print and TV ads with praise for these movies. While other reviewers trashed many of these titles, Manning always managed to find something fantastic or amazing about the films. The problem?

He doesn't exist. Colombia Pictures made him up. (Full story here. (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050803-5165.html))

I wonder where I can pick up those $5... :evil:

[Artimus Gigan]

I never saw any of those movies....

Wait except by The Patriot, do they mean the Mel Gibson movie?

[TimTwoFace]

I saw "A KNIGHT'S TALE" and "THE PATRIOT"!

GIMME TEN!

(Haha...I KNEW that some movies had fake reviews and quotes. I could never prove it, but I KNEW someone must have done it at some point.)

-Tim

[Fone Bone]

This is old news...

[Chris Wood]

What do they pay for watching XXX:State of the Union? $5 ain't gonna cut it.

[Classic Speedy]

Wait except by The Patriot, do they mean the Mel Gibson movie? Yep, The Patriot (Gibson) was a Columbia/Tristar movie. The Steven Seagal flick of the same name was Touchstone.

I saw Hollow Man in theaters (much to my regret). Finally, my comeuppance! :D

[Nin-Nin69]

Bad reviews? I loved Mel Gibson's The Patriot more than Brave Heart.

[Chris Wood]

I saw Hollow Man in theaters (much to my regret). Finally, my comeuppance! :D

Er, you mean Sony's comeuppance?

[Demonic Raven]

That's hilarious. I never saw any of those movies though, so no money for me.

Were the movies that bad? Sony honestly couldn't get any good reviews to put up? Pathetic.

[Frank Castle]

I get $15. Although I did enjoy the Patriot but The Animal and A Knight's Tale were complete pieces of crap.

[Superperson]

I saw Teh Animal, even though I was dragged along, it still won't cover the 6 dollar admission price, hahaha, I'm dissapointed.

[The Penguin]

I wonder where I can pick up those $5... :evil:With the CD pricing lawsuit you had to sign-up on-line before it ended and then if is was more than I believe 5 bucks, you were paid. It ended up being about $14 a person. I don't see anything like that here.

And I'm sorry, but if anyone who went to "The Animal" doesn't deserve any compensation. That one is your own fault—you should have known better.

[Conekiller]

I thouroughly enjoyed a Knights Tale....course I was watching it for free while working at a theater at the time.....

can I have my money back for Stealth.....?:D

[Superperson]

can I have my money back for Stealth.....?:D
No, as punishment for the error of your ways.

[Lord Dalek]

The Patriot = 5$!

[The Landstander]

This seems rather stupid. With every newspaper in every town they still couldn't find enough one liners to fill an ad?

I actually saw the Patriot. Where do I get my 5 bucks

edit: A quick trip to Rotten Tomatoes finds plenty usable lines

[SirLemming]

Wow, I kinda always wondered if this would happen...

I wonder if people would be able to sue for having their quotes used grossly out of context. I guess not, or it wouldn't be worth the trouble, since lawyers could totally spin it as a "it's just the quote, nothing more" thing. But I think about this because I remember on the DVD box of 40 Days and 40 Nights (a lame movie, by the way) it has a quote from Richard Roeper that really doesn't even SEEM good out of context, but I guess you could conceivably think it is. It was something like, "So-and-so is a very good actor, but this movie is just wrong in so many ways." And sure enough, I checked the web site archives for Ebert & Roeper's reviews and he did in fact give it thumbs down!

[Youko Recca]

This kind of thing has been going on since before I was born. By just about everyone. Now, it's just that Sony were the only ones caught with their hand in the cookie jar. But at least they won't go down without being the sacraficial lamb. No one else should be even suspected now due to this. They'll tighten their sources.

[Fone Bone]

Entertainment Weekly had on article on this case A YEAR AGO. If you'll notice, NONE of those movies were released in the last couple of years. This IS old news.

I know, that I'm no fun.:p

[Harley_Quinn]

I'm still looking for a place to sign up!

[SirLemming]

Oh no, it's the Old News Police! Run for your lives!

[sdp]

I do remember that they got in trouble for this a long time ago, but it's been posted on many forums so maybe they decided to make it as new news again or something...

[langden alger]

even if it's old news, still funny as hell that sony would pull this stunt. worth digging it up again. no need to write jokes anymore..hollywood is just making fun of themselves completly these days:p

[Lord Dalek]

Legal issues usually take a long time to be sorted out. The "new" news here wasn't that Sony was sued but that they settled.

[Harley_Quinn]

Legal issues usually take a long time to be sorted out. The "new" news here wasn't that Sony was sued but that they settled.
Yeah, that what happened, so like the music industry they'll send out checks to whomever was listed on the legal paperwork as plaintiffs