Praise for original 'Toy Story 3' rife with off-the-peg clichés
The anxiously awaited sequel "Toy Story 3" is a movie that probably doesn't need an avalanche of publicity to become a commercial hit.
Yet, Walt Disney's marketing department stooped to using comments from some questionable sources to dress up its TV commercials for the film this week:
"A masterpiece!" says Scott Mantz of Access Hollywood.
"An instant classic!" says Richard Corliss of Time.
"The best film of the year by far!" says Clay Smith of The Insider.
Media people of dubious credentials and taste who praise (or agree to praise) movies so they can be quoted in national movie advertisements have been dubbed "quote whores."
Not only do some supply effusively glowing, hyperbolic notices for unworthy movies, they have also been known to make up different versions of quotes to please studio bosses, or sign their names to quotes actually created by studio executives.
Here are 10 of the most common words and phrases they fall back on:
1. "A must-see!"
2. "(Actor 1) and (Actor 2) are at the top of their game!"
3. "A masterpiece!" (or "a classic! or "an instant classic!" or "a triumph!")
4. "It's howlingly entertaining!" (or use any adverb of choice, such as "wildly," "marvelously," "hysterically," etc.)
5. "The greatest/funniest/scariest/most romantic/most thrilling movie of the year!" (Even though the year is far from over.)
6. Any combination of the easy, vaguely undefinable superlatives "Great!" "Perfect!" "Magnificent!"
7. "(Actor 1) and (Actor 2) light up the screen!"
8. "Keeps you guessing until the very end!"
9. "A thrill ride!" (or "a roller-coaster ride!")
10. "It's a winner!" (even if the movie hasn't won anything)
Let's not forget the most brain-dead piece of manufactured praise ever created in the history of movie quotes: "It's awesome!"
Of course, Time magazine's Corliss is an established critic of impeccable credentials.
Yet, as I've noted before in this column (to critic Jeffrey Lyons, no less), when a major critic adopts the signature catchphrases of the quote mongers, the public isn't likely to make much of a distinction.