A number of the movie critic quotes adorning this weekend's newspaper ads would surely garner two thumbs way down from Merriam and Webster.
By FilmStew Staff, FilmStew.com
We're not picking on the idea of a movie critic being excerpted to put people in the seats. Heck, even FilmStew.com has occasionally been sourced in this fashion. We're just putting it out there than when publicists choose quotes, they should make sure they opt for ones that are grammatically correct. As opposed to…
"A block-busting scarefest & thrill-ride": This one is for Rob Zombie's Halloween and has the distinction of being entirely made up of non-authorized English language words. Block-busting and scarefest are at best colloquialisms, while thrill ride is normally spelt without a hyphen. Nice touch to throw in an ampersand instead of the actual word, 'and.' The cherri on this Sundai, if you will.
"…a movie that will grab you, lock you in and not let go…": That's from one of The Kingdom kudos, reflecting the kind of pejorative slip found in many quotes. A movie is not something that can grab, lock and refuse to let go; that first date male moviegoing companion sitting next to you, maybe, but not the movie itself.
"Touching & Funny.": There's the ampersand again, for the Henry Jaglom drama Hollywood Dreams. Since when did this symbol become acceptable to use in a long-form English sentence? The reason of course is that it takes up less newspaper column width space than the spelled out a-n-d. Still, it's irritating & incorrect.
"…will reinforce your belief in the power of melody and harmony to heal one's inner wounds…": Hmmm. Once is a great film, but this run-on, misattributed subject sentence plays off-key. We get the sentiment, but not the sentence.
"Tommy Lee Jones' unforgettable performance will lead directly to Oscar's door": We didn't know Oscar had a door. A garbage chute, maybe, but not a door. In addition to the incorrect linking of subject and verb, this Elah rave manages to turn a small golden statuette into an object with a floor plan (they probably meant to say the "Academy's door"). If a critic is going to rave in that direction, they might as well go all the way. As in: 'Book the babysitter and save the date. This puppy is a lock for the February shindig at Oscar House.'
"A hold-your-breath ticking time-bomb of a movie": This praise of The Kingdom really should be more along the lines of, "A movie that will cause the audience to hold its collective breath and experience the feeling of what it must be like to be in the presence of a ticking time bomb." But when you're limited to short word-length reviews, as this critic is, that simply doesn't cut it.
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