24 years ago, we witnessed one of the weirdest chapters in movie review history. Hollywood execs are no strangers to testing the limits of trust and good taste, but this took it to a whole other level. Deluged by AI, bots, and deepfakes, we are now savvier about fake news, but back in the Y2K days, widespread trust in the media made it remarkably easy to bamboozle the average person. Ridgefield Press writer David Manning’s name began popping up around 2000, offering glowing praise for such forgettable fare as Hollow Man, The Patriot, and A Knight’s Tale. People grew extra suspicious when he lavished attention on the much-maligned The Animal, the latest vehicle for divisive Saturday Night Live comedian (yes, he even had his own catchphrase during his tenure on SNL) and Adam Sandler cohort Rob Schneider.
We’re not going to rip the guy for actions he had absolutely no control over, but this fiasco marks the beginning of the souring of his reputation in the business, a fate he never recovered from. It soon became clear that this wasn’t a typical blurb. Manning was an easy man to impress, complimenting every film that he saw. Did he really enjoy these films, or was he getting compensated? Neither, as we soon discovered. Unfortunately, Manning was a front, the fake reviewer hyping Sony-affiliated releases, often featured on posters and print advertisements. The cover-up revealed just how little confidence Sony had in its films and how little respect it had for its own customers.
“Another Winner!”
Every producer and star is eagerly fishing for gushing comments to lure in movie patrons, but few will take the steps of Columbia Pictures and its parent company, Sony. Unable to find enough good reviews effusive enough to slap on the promotional material for their newest Adam Sandler-produced raunchy comedy, Sony’s ad men had a brainstorm. If you can’t find anyone with bad enough taste to vouch for your newest raunchy joke fest, just make up some quotes instead. The other films were easy to overlook, boasting decent acting and solid action. However, something about a professional critic being impressed by a Rob Schneider film was deemed too unbelievable, especially as other reviewers were uniformly scathing.
It probably didn’t help that critics, even back then, had a grudge against Sandler, despite his unbreakable, nostalgic appeal among Gen Xers and Millennials. Not much has really changed, has it? Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers went so far as to berate the film’s viewers as “suckers.” That Mr. Manning would declare the film as “another winner” was the moment of critical mass of incredulity. Newsweek exposed the ruse in late Spring 2001, with investigative reporters mocking the suspiciously friendly writer as “one of Columbia Pictures’ most reliable reviewers.” This says a lot about the quality of the output of Columbia in the early 2000s.
Will the Real David Manning Please Stand Up?
Yes, The Ridgefield Press was indeed a reputable newspaper in New England, but it had no one on staff with that byline. Sony came clean, pointing a finger at a couple of renegade marketing employees who had dreamed up the fraudulent movie review on their own. The culprits expected that no one — save a paranoid Newsweek employee with way too much free time — would ever investigate an ad for a silly popcorn movie.
Today, the internet would uncover such a deception within an hour, but a quarter-century ago, widespread trust meant it took a full year to unravel the scheme. In reaction, Sony’s spokespeople feigned shock. Despite the negative press, the story breaking on the same day as the film’s national premiere, The Animal still managed to pull in an impressive profit, only topped by two enormous blockbusters in its opening week: Shrek and Pearl Harbor, according to data from The Numbers.
Fake Reviewers, Real Consequences?
Originally claiming the entry was a placeholder left in, they later altered their explanation when court proceedings kicked off. Sony, fighting the most ridiculous legal case, then boldly invoked freedom of speech, according to the BBC. That defense went over like a submarine with screendoors, the judge laughing the defense out of the courthouse. Out of excuses, Sony faced its judgment day. As part of the con, Sony punished two unnamed employees, was fined by the state of Connecticut for fraud, and forked out over a million dollars in a class-action lawsuit brought by angry filmgoers wanting a refund, according to a Variety piece in 2005.
This was a drop in the bucket considering how much these films grossed, with The Animal itself earning a tidy sum on a relatively small budget. Schneider’s film highlights the frequent disparity between critic and fan scores, making it difficult to ascertain whether the Manning hoax had any tangible effect.
Compounding the issue, Sony changed its story multiple times in an attempt to cover it up. It should be noted that it settled the case without taking any responsibility whatsoever. The David Manning debacle is a poignant example of why PR people are never to be trusted. With rumors of an Animal 2 in the works, we can’t wait to see what the marketing team whips up. If The Animal is any indication, it will be the most interesting part of the whole production. It’s far from the worst film ever made, but without the journalistic intrigue, it would have completely faded into obscurity, which is probably where it belongs.