Curious about this whole Universal "Fake Fan/Message Board" controversy? (1 Viewer)

[Ricardo C]

If you want to watch a real (and/or decent) surfing film, watch the two Endless Summer films or watch Point Break. Blue Crush is your typical teen romance film with surfing and some great cinematography added into the mix. It's not an enjoyable movie and for me it was a pain to sit through. Now if it was a fun movie, then it could've been a good b-movie, but sadly, it's not.

Is it better than surfer-movie-masquerading-as-skating-movie Airborne?

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Is it better than surfer-movie-masquerading-as-skating-movie Airborne?

No.

 

[Vickie_M]

First, I do agree that this type of "advertising" is intolerable and appalling. Besides being dishonest, it throws doubt on anyone who says they like a film before it opens and a consensus is reached. This type of ad has been going on and a factor on Usenet newsgroups for years, so it's funny that it's just now getting mainstream attention.
Scott, you're right, it would be just as upsetting if it were The Two Towers, or the Matrix movies, or anything else I'd want to see anyway.
Terrell, I don't know, word of mouth is a powerful thing. Just look at My Big Fat Greek Wedding! As you point out, Blue Crush is marketed toward the MTV crowd. Still, the majority are probably not hanging around movie newsgroups, websites, chat rooms, or message boards.
Matthew, you're cool, but I think I'll try Blue Crush for myself. It's not meant to be a fun and breezy summer flick. There's actually a human story there, and that's the part that Ebert goes on so much about. Regarding the surfing, since I live in Chicago and may never see an ocean wave again in my life (and even if I did, I sure wouldn'be be surfing on it) I've decided that I WANT to see those waves huge and right there in front of me...on the big screen. I hear the photography is magnificent. Movies are meant to take us places we usually wouldn't go otherwise. Sometimes the story/script/acting is/are so bad that we wouldn't want to go there anyway, but I've heard enough to know that Blue Crush won't fall into that category for me. I may not be able to see it right away, but I will be going to a matinee at some point.
I think my biggest reason for wanting the movie to do well is to give a positive but realistic, non-smarmy (goody-two-shoes) role model to teenage girls. From what I hear, the movie delivers on that.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

While in Orlando, be sure to visit Universal Studios Theme Park

And while youre here, make sure to go on our Back To The Future 'INSTAPUKE' ride.

signed,
the suits in florida

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Quote:

I didn't think so. The film's story is too cliched. Now, if they took away of the few cliches that shouldn't have been in the film's screenplay to begin with, the film could've been much better (and much enjoyable). But if you want to see Blue Crush, go for it and I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Given the wide-open anarchy that is the Internet, why should anyone be surprised by the concept of faux fans being used by the studios to hype releases on enthusiast-operated sites?

Fair game. It's marketing. If a studio gets caught (a la Sony), also fair game.

 

[Ricardo C]

Fair game. It's marketing.

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of "deception and fraud," but to each his own.

 

[Tino]

For clarification, My Big Fat Greek Wedding has in fact grossed over $52 million, increasing 85% and jumping to #6 on the weekend chart!
All on word of mouth. Good films do that. They don't need bogus reporting. Hollywood take heed...yeah right!

 

[Francois Caron]

Let's recap.
- Sony used fake reviewers and "public opinions" in their movie advertising (confirmed by news agencies).
- Most movie blurbs are from unknown reviewers who have furnished the blurb to the studios before they've even seen the movie (confirmed by the Canadian information show Undercurrents).
- Studios now use fake message posters to advertise a movie for free on most movie Web sites, and they steal e-mail addresses from these same sites for spamming purposes (confirmed by Hollyood Bitchslap via the TCP/IP addresses).
Man! Where else can you use fraud, deceipt and misrepresentation in the marketing of your product, and not go to jail for it! As Yakov Smirnoff would say: "What a country!"

 

[Brian Kissinger]

I have to agree with Scott all the way. While more often than not, I go to a movie because it looks good to me. Then there are those movies that look like I might enjoy them, but I'm undecided. Then I (don't laugh) will usually look for Scott's review. We seem to have very similar tastes in film, and I often find him to be dead on for my taste. I then will hit the review thread here at the HTF. If I'm still undecided, word of mouth over some sites can push me over the edge. Granted, there aren't many times when this happens, but it does happen. And to think that what I may be reading is nothing more than studio hyped bullshit tends to piss me off. Even if I don't lend a lot of weight to it.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Your check is in the mail, Kissinger...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm not sure the internet crowd can affect a films success or failure Vickie.

Well, if you ask Harry Knowles, his negative advance review on AICN is single-handedly responsible for Batman and Robin being a bomb

 

[David Rogers]

The only thing I'd ask Knowles is for him to move a few seats over so I can sit comfortably in the theater.

(cymbal(sp) crash, and yes I'm being mean but I'll stop now)

But I have no use for AICN. Give me real sites anytime.

 

[Tino]

Well..I went and Saw Blue Crush today with my fiance`. It was a choice between xXx or Blue Crush. The "wet chick flick" won..and we both lost!
Matthew has nailed it perfectly. Blue Crush was mind numbingly horrible. Cliched, dull, lifeless, uninteresting characters, no heart and yes, painful to sit through.
Predictable thru and thru and some of the worst dialog I have heard in a feature film in a log time. Plus poorly choreographed "action" scenes with visibly bad SFX shots, superimposing the lead actress's face on a double.
UGH! Avoid at all costs.
P.S...Michelle Rodriguez was horrible in this. She was better in both RE and TFATF.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

"THIS IS IT ... THIS IS IT!"

Wasn't that the last line spoken on the Titanic trailers? So that's what Leo has been up to these past years.

 

[Lew Crippen]

For a little added outrage, any of you who have not read Jonathan Rosenbaum’s Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See, might like to check it out.

He details, among other things the ‘fake’, or at least ‘sort-of-paid’ review.

I don’t recall that even Rosenbaum commented on fake internet postings.

 

[Adam Tyner]

Wow! Who'd have thought it would happen here?
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=90245
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=90246
Since these threads will probably be deleted momentarily, they were both posted by "Daniel Demarco" of 'Anytown, USA' (11 posts total; registered 7/12/02). The subject was "Blue Crush the movie for a generation", and the body of the messages went like this:

Have you ever wanted to just let go? Have you ever wanted to rise above the rest? Have you ever just said its time for action? Well now its time for all that and a Blue Crush! This years Best Wave is Blue Crush,staring Michelle Rodriguez,Kate Bosworth,and Sanoe Lake.From the Director of Crazy/Beautiful comes the summers Greatest story of Just being who you are,and forgeting about the rest! With a Soundtrack from some of best artist today! Featuring Lenny Kravitz. If you havent seen Blue Crush come see the movie for a new generation,and if you have come see it again for the first time!

 

[MichaelAW]

I'm sure someone's going to correct me right away, but wasn't Daniel DeMarco "Daniel-san" in Karate Kid?

 

[Tino]

Close Michael. It was Daniel LaRusso.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Wasn't that the last line spoken on the Titanic trailers? So that's what Leo has been up to these past years.

Is Leo the new "In a world" guy?
Have we identified another new trend -- bookending a trailer with "In a world" at one end and "This is it!" at the other?
I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed that we weren't offered the chance to ridicule those Blue Crush review posts before they were vaporized.