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Blurb Racket

Via WAXY, I happened upon Blurb Racket, a column documenting the more egregious misrepresentations of reviews cited in advertisements. The column needs some editing, but with a little filtering you'll find some outrageous examples:

The Girl in the CafĂ©  (HBO film)
Blurb from Oregonian: "An endearing romantic comedy."
Actual line: "This new offering from HBO Films is at its heart a bit of political propaganda wrapped into an endearing romantic comedy that starts losing its laughs when it gets to Reykjavik and decides its teachable moment has arrived."

Hustle & Flow (MTV/Paramount)
Blurb from Los Angeles Times: "Place Terrence Howard front and center!"
Actual line: "Above all, 'Hustle & Flow' places Howard front and center as a man with little education but much street wisdom."

Fantastic Four (Twentieth Century Fox)
Blurb from Charlotte Weekly: "Fun!"
Actual line: "Fantastic? Not exactly, but Tim Story's take on Marvel Comic's first family of superheroes can be fun if your expectations are low enough."

Posted by Carrie McLaren on 08/10/2005 | Permalink

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