Note: focus between the ears.

September 9, 2015 11:32 PM

How my negative review of Legend was spun into movie marketing gold
posted by philip-random (45 comments total)

This basically confirms everything I've always believed about movie review quotes:

The TV spot for Gone Girl included a quote from Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers, who called it “the date-night movie of the decade”. It failed to include the second half of his actual quote which finished with “… for couples who dream of destroying one another”.

posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 11:38 PM on September 9, 2015 [22 favorites]

"...hit sandwich."

I like that the critic has a sense of humor about the poster, and even admits to a begrudging admiration for the brazen ingeniousness of the film's marketing team.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:16 AM on September 10, 2015 [5 favorites]

I am not surprised by the dishonest quoting and other advertising shenanigans by the movie industry - look at the shit they're putting out for entertainment, of course they're going to sell it as hard as they can - but this particular case doesn't look all that egregious to me: They might as well have skipped the Guardian rating from the poster altogether, people who care enough to go looking for it among the names have probably read the review already. It feels more like Benjamin Lee is spinning some graphic designer's visual sleight of hand into column writing gold.
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:18 AM on September 10, 2015

It failed to include the second half of his actual quote

I'm sure I saw this tactic used as the joke in MAD Magazine piece about ten thousand years ago. Not extremely hilarious. But bastards using it in real life makes me laugh in real life. Laugh, and then wonder how they should be punished. Public shaming wouldn't work on a shameless assholes like that. It would have to hit them square in the wallet. That would also make me laugh.
posted by pracowity at 12:18 AM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'd say that the people promoting these movies are being more creative than the people making the movies.

And you can quote me on that.

-oneswellfoop, MetaFilter.com
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:16 AM on September 10, 2015 [5 favorites]

It's kind of self-defeating in the end, though, isn't it? If every comment on every movie poster is a rave and every star rating on every poster appears to hit the maximum, then surely people simply ignore them all as a matter of course.

Looked at another way, how do a dozen rave quotes on your movie poster help it compete against the rival movies that week when they've all got a dozen rave quotes of their own? Seems to me the whole process cancels itself out.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:43 AM on September 10, 2015

I love this. Selective quotation is a timeworn practice, but this is different. It's a very clever exploitation of amodal completion.
posted by painquale at 1:43 AM on September 10, 2015 [5 favorites]

I think in this case it's an example of the Streisand Effect - by trying to be sneaky (albeit in a very creative way) they've now highlighted the point that while quite fluffy publications like Glamour and Heat have given it 4 stars, the more serious Guardian has given it two.
posted by DanCall at 2:09 AM on September 10, 2015

Oh, like when SFX magazine perpetually had cover models cover up the bottom of the F
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:10 AM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

The picture in the linked article makes it appear to be a Day Today movie.
That is a spot on Christopher Morris and Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:13 AM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

"movies are being more creative" - oneswellfoop, MetaFilter.com

"appears to hit the maximum" - Paul Slade, MetaFilter.com

"I love this ... this is different ... very clever" - painquale, MetaFilter.com

"4 stars" - DanCall, MetaFilter.com
posted by pipeski at 2:44 AM on September 10, 2015 [54 favorites]

"these movies are being more creative" - oneswellfoop
posted by veedubya at 3:08 AM on September 10, 2015

It's kind of self-defeating in the end, though, isn't it?

Not more so than any other trick relying on fallible human memory.
posted by hat_eater at 3:18 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

> how do a dozen rave quotes on your movie poster help it compete against the rival movies that week when they've all got a dozen rave quotes of their own?

The absence of them would look like nobody could find anything positive to say about it.
posted by ardgedee at 3:27 AM on September 10, 2015

The absence of them would look like nobody could find anything positive to say about it.

In a world where there is Armond White, you can always find someone to praise your film.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:31 AM on September 10, 2015

I have often pondered the reviews chosen to be on the cover of a no-doubt knock-off DVD of Eddie Murphy's Meet Dave that my family bought to watch while on holiday in Bali. On the front it has "Dumfoundingly erratic, for the most part, but smart and funny from time to time - Wall Street Journal" and on the back "Eddie Murphy's least-painful comedy in years has a certain peculiar charm - TV Guide", both of which I just confirmed are real reviews. I guess you sometimes just have to work with what you've got. I think I enjoyed the movie much more than I should have because I was primed with those reviews, and still have a soft spot for it despite the fact that I know in my heart of hearts that it is a terrible terrible film.
posted by drnick at 3:52 AM on September 10, 2015 [12 favorites]

I'm not sure the logic of giving the picture such a weirdly generic title that doesn't really tell you anything about it. The poster in question here is similarly generic, just a picture of two guys in suits, you'd never know that they were gangsters.
posted by octothorpe at 4:21 AM on September 10, 2015

For most movies, the first weekend is when almost all the tickets are sold. Word of mouth marketing won't work because the movie is on its way out and heading to DVD by the time you meet your coworkers on Monday.

So for the majority of movies, good and bad, that didn't build up a lot of promotional buzz online before their one week of general accessibility, they have to rely on vox pop and critics' quotes to make it appear that real people unaffiliated with the studio and production company like it. And, as has been relearned by many a public figure, it's safe to say any outrageous thing that works, and let the retraction trickle out later, barely noticed.
posted by ardgedee at 4:23 AM on September 10, 2015

Ironically The Guardian has recently published an article on how the Krays marketed their image.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:35 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

For busy folks, here's the TL;DR version of the article:

"Tom Hardy’s Krays biopic Legend"

" a stroke of brazen genius"

“Another winner!”

"maddeningly brilliant"

“the date-night movie of the decade”
posted by dgaicun at 4:53 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

The poster in question here is similarly generic, just a picture of two guys in suits, you'd never know that they were gangsters.

It's not the main poster. Most of the others have "the notorious true story of the Kray twins" as the tagline.
posted by effbot at 5:03 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Heh, this is pretty awesome. The Gaurdain might be the most reputed of mainstream media outlets when it come to culture, but it's probably worth a gamble (what are the odds the movie would have made a second appearance here after a FF post?) making sure everyone knows they sneaked in their two star review as a four, at a time most tv/movie sites are counting the days to the Emmys or to be disappointed with Star Wars again (or, well, endless 80s and 90s related listicles, as usual) probably pays off more than the outrage of, well, sneaking a two star review as a four.

Plus, it has Tom Hardy. Two of them.
posted by lmfsilva at 5:16 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

"The TV spot for Gone Girl included a quote from Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers, who called it “the date-night movie of the decade”. It failed to include the second half of his actual quote which finished with “… for couples who dream of destroying one another”."

Oh, see, I thought we were all in on this joke and the advertising was being meta. It's way less amusing if they were trying to be straight-up.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:40 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

Before reading the article, I initially thought this was in reference to the author's two-star review of Ridley Scott's 1985 film Legend, and vowed to take bloody revenge.


Ironically, I had planned to attack him with a sword or machete of some sort.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:55 AM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

No, no, I've seen Legend. It's got Tom Cruise and a unicorn.

damn it, white skull
posted by Naberius at 5:58 AM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

Plus, it has Tom Hardy. Two of them.


I believe that, under the Guardian's style guide, it would be "Toms Hardy."


Which, in print, is rendered "Nmkl Pjkl Ftumch."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:00 AM on September 10, 2015 [16 favorites]

The Gaurdain

It's spelled Grauniad.
posted by graymouser at 6:01 AM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

The poster in question here is similarly generic, just a picture of two guys in suits, you'd never know that they were gangsters.

It's playing on their iconic, David Bailey photographed image, without going for an outright copy like the poster for the previous bio pix did
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:05 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Remember they only ever two-starred their own! You could leave your door open day and night back then.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:06 AM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

It's spelled Grauniad.

It's been years, so I'm going for the second generation typo-of-a-typo.
posted by lmfsilva at 6:26 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Right. I am only going to watch one movie called "Legend" in my lifetime, and you can be damn sure it's the one with Tim Curry and his giant wobbly Satan horns.

Quote that on your poster, ad dorks.
posted by dgaicun at 6:43 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

"I am only going to watch one movie called 'Legend' in my lifetime, and you can be damn sure it's th...is"
posted by No-sword at 6:49 AM on September 10, 2015 [11 favorites]

I believe that, under the Guardian's style guide, it would be "Toms Hardy."

William Safire orders two Whoppers Junior
posted by leotrotsky at 6:49 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's kind of self-defeating in the end, though, isn't it? If every comment on every movie poster is a rave and every star rating on every poster appears to hit the maximum, then surely people simply ignore them all as a matter of course.

I'd imagine it's far more common for bad reviews to significantly hurt a movie than for rave reviews to significantly help it. Conditioning people to ignore reviews is probably in the studios' best interest.
posted by straight at 7:02 AM on September 10, 2015

As for this, it seems more like a cheeky prank than a serious attempt at fraud. I take my hat off to the poster designers and feel a lot more amused than deceived.
posted by straight at 7:06 AM on September 10, 2015

On a related note, I know this guy and he mentions in this video interview, "They even used my quote in a movie: KICKS BOATLOADS OF ASS." Now I saw the movie and liked it, but apparently most people didn't, so it makes me think that if the guy I know who's a reviewer for a movie show nobody sees got quoted, they must not have had much to fish from.

But seriously, this just makes me think that people need to be very careful as to how to give a negative review..."the perfect date movie", for example, should probably be left out even if it has great snark potential with what comes after it. Then again, maybe people will just resort to "the....perfect....date.... movie"-type remarks in the future?
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:26 AM on September 10, 2015

I am only going to watch one movie ... in my lifetime ... and you can be damn sure it's the one
posted by rdr at 7:29 AM on September 10, 2015

I do get a kick out of the quotes on the back of shitty horror or sci-fi DVD cases, where they really have to dig deep for positive quotes: "AWESOME!!!" - someblogyouveneverheardof.com
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:44 AM on September 10, 2015

It's spelled Grauniad.

Written by David Eddings.
posted by djeo at 8:01 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'd imagine it's far more common for bad reviews to significantly hurt a movie than for rave reviews to significantly help it.

That's possibly true of big tentpole movies that everyone is (at least vaguely) aware of anyway. But when it comes to smaller movies with little or no advertising budget, I think the primary value they get from any review is simply to tell people "this thing exists". It follows that a review slamming your independent movie is still better than no review at all. Same thing goes for books and CDs at that level of the market too.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:29 AM on September 10, 2015

It's spelled Grauniad.

The Guardian actually owns the url grauniad.co.uk and it redirects to theguardian.com
posted by DanCall at 8:38 AM on September 10, 2015 [8 favorites]

Also, there's a graffiti campaign for the movie under way here in London at the moment. Scroll down here for an example.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:40 AM on September 10, 2015

Well you never had to pull shady shit like this when Walter Monheit was around…

The Cadillac Man blurb remains one of my all-time faves.
posted by mazola at 1:05 PM on September 10, 2015

When are we going to get the story of the Krays with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito?
posted by lagomorphius at 1:32 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm sure the possibility of being caught was factored in. Seems like a win/win really. There was no way that the prank was going to hurt the box office, and as things stand it will probably help it. Lots of people like films that get good reviews in Heat and bad reviews in the Guardian.
posted by howfar at 2:07 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]