Weekend Feature: Movie Review Hoax Uncovered on Popular Entertainment Website
Records Movie Critic Rocky Petralia?
Jayson Blair bamboozled the New York Times by making up stories, sources and quotes. It was certainly a lot easier for Blair to craft a compelling story when he wasn’t constrained by what really happened. This form of faux- journalism (a tactic that has also been employed at the Los Angeles Times and others) has just been found on the movie review section of pop culture web site of Rhino Records. Independent Sources has been investigating claims of journalistic fraud in the movie review section of the popular website for several weeks and found significant evidence of wrong doing.
For example, the movie review for Disney’s the Ice Princess on the Rhino Records website is so far off base from the actual movie that it’s clear that the reviewer never even bothered to watch the film.
exerpt from the Rhino review of the film:
- “Ice Princess is a joyful journey back to 1994 when, for a few short weeks, figure skating actually mattered. This fact-based movie captures Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding’s savage quest for Olympic gold. It faithfully recreates that wonderful-yet-brief time when we were allowed to peek beneath the gaudy costumes and ghastly make-up and see the sport in all of its marauding ugliness…”
Now the movie’s description from IMDB:
- “A high-school bookworm transforms into a swan in Walt Disney Pictures’ “ICE PRINCESS.” Brainy Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg) has never quite fit in. Caught between her fantasy of becoming a championship figure skater and her strong-willed mother (Joan Cusack), who has her on the fast track to Harvard, she can only hope to be like Nikki, Tiffany and Gen (Hayden Panettiere)–three elite skating prodigies who…”
Reading the two reviews above, it is clear that they are not the same movie. And this is not the only time that the reviewer (Rocky Petralia) has turned in reviews that bear no resemblance to the actual movies. Looking at the other movies that he has “reviewed” for Rhino it would appear that his deception as been going on for at least since last year.
- The Pacifierr: “In The Pacifier Diesel portrays a man who, like Jean Reno in the original, suffers a bonk to the head which causes him to behave like a toddler…”
- Hide and Seek: “De Niro and Fanning play a father and daughter who leave Manhattan for Snellsville, a small upstate community where Hide and Seek is a way of life for area youth. The kids wear camouflage and are harried by parents haunted by the failures of their own childhoods — attempts to crouch behind bushes too small to conceal, positions given away by neighborhood mutts, uncontrollable giggles, etc…”
- The Aviator: “The Aviator is a gripping look at the life of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh…”
- Alexander: “Alexander is an historical drama so disconnected from actual history that by film’s end I had the sensation of floating in the mossy dankness of Oliver Stone’s bong water. Director Stone presents a highly inventive look at the life of America’s first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton…”
Even Mr. Petralia’s published bio is suspicious: “When Rocky Petralia’s second tour of Nam ended he couldn’t go home…He caught a transport to Manila and bummed a ride to Jolo Island on a rickety schooner transporting cases of Yukon Jack and frisbees. Rocky retreated into the jungle where he lived on papaya and wild boar….”
I know that Rhino.com is not held to the same journalistic standards as the New York and Los Angeles Times (or maybe it’s the other way around) but in this case the fabrications seem so blatant that one has to wonder if Mr. Petralia’s materials were even reviewed (let alone fact checked) before being published. The parallels are so close to Mr. Blair’s exploits at the NYT that one wonders if Mr. Petralia’s hoax is the result of the exposure of the Blair affair.
Is this a case of Rhino.com being so rushed to get movie reviews published that they don’t take the time to check them or is this merely a symptom of entertainment journalism in general where sensationalism trumps truth? For the record, I find the Blair/Petralia movie reviews to be hilarious and given the choice I rather see the movies described on the Rhino website than the ones actually released in the theatres, but when a reader of one of his reviews orders a DVD of “The Aviator” expecting to see the Charles Lindbergh story perhaps Petralia will see that his hoax isn’t victimless.
[Ed. note: Calls to Mr. Petralia for comment went unreturned. We then sent an email to Mr. Petralia detailing our allegations and at the time of this posting are still awaiting his response to that as well.] 
Similar Independent Sources posts:
- First person account from the “Big Dig”: Rocky Petralia on Boston's Big Dig: The first obstacle to overcome was “The Big Dig,” the most expensive highway project in the history of ...
- Really, We Just Wanted To Make A Small Film …: "Sometimes it looks like a business masquerading as a movie" -- Peter Guber, movie producer, complaining about the merchandising exploitation of his t ...
- In a Galaxy Not So Far Away?: We're not revealing any major plot points by letting you know that at the end of the new Star Wars movie the audience sees a glimpse of the first Deat ...
- Big Thought Of The Day - How Far Would You Go To Save Your Mother And Sister?: I went to see the movie Cavite yesterday, and that is what brings up the question above. The storyline of Cavite consists of a Filipino-American ...
- “Thong Girl 3″ filmed in Mayor’s office; earns our vote: Finally a mayor of the people! Mayor "Horn Dog" Reuters: "I had no idea what the movie was about," [Gallatin, Tennessee, Mayor Don] Wri ...
May 7th, 2005 at 12:36 pm
I didn’t believe this at first but then followed the links. Unbelievable. I’ve actually suspected that reviews that I’ve read in the Chicago Tribune were written by reviewers who’d only seen the ‘coming attractions’ preveiw.
May 7th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
This is a joke right? I don’t beleive it. Jayson must have written the story.
May 7th, 2005 at 6:30 pm
Anyone who believes that the movie “Hide and Seek” was based on the kids game deserves buying the wrong DVD. Sheesh. Who is this Rocky guy anyway and why does Rhino give him his own “corner”? Does anyone know anything about him? Maybe he’s made up too.
May 8th, 2005 at 9:58 am
I believe that Mr. Petralia is slyly encouraging us to take a closer look at the ambiguity and relativity of “truth” in our postmodern world. What each of us “sees” in a given movie will depend on the past experiences we bring with us, and also the interests we have in finding a particular message. Who’s to say what’s the “right” message to come away with? Just as those certain that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, those sure that the movie “Hide and Seek” is not about the children’s game may ultimately find themselves stranded far from the safe base of truth. Anyone who can’t see the humor and genius in Mr. Petralia’s thought-provoking reviews is revealing a hidden reluctance to seek alternative truths beyond the obvious one.
May 8th, 2005 at 12:10 pm
In response to Dr. T, yours is certainly a thought provoking posting and I almost fell for it. In fact I am reminded of one discussion on truth which contained the following definition of truth:
“Truth is not the opposite of untruth. The opposite of untruth is still untruth. All extremes are untruths. Truth is the mean between extremes. In other words, truth transcends all extremes.”
The parallel I see from this posting and Dr. T’s is that they are equally silly. We are talking about movie reviews for God’s sake. Either Mr. Petralia saw the movie or he didn’t. If he represents that he is reviewing the movie when in fact he is digging deep into his inner most and past personal experiences (as you suggest) and these experiences have nothing to do with what is on the screen then I’d say that violates all definitions of truth.
It’s one thing to see “Jonathon Livingston Seagull” and describe it’s parallels with religion. It’s another to see “Lord of the Rings” and say that it is a movie about P.T. Barnum.
I’d like to hear Mr. Petralia’s take on this. His response has been notably absent from this discussion.
May 8th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
Well, I got a very strange message on my own movie review blog.
I quote:
You are the first reveiwer to agree with what I‘ve been writing for the Rhino.com web site. Now people claim that I‘m a hoaxer. See story at http://informedsources.blogspot.com/2005/05/weekend-feature-movie-review-hoax.html#comments
www.informedsources.blogspot.com
Ok, firstly I’ve never heard of Mr. Petralia and I have no idea what he meant when he said that I agree with him since I didn’t see the Ice Princess and I can’t find his review of XXX State of the Union which is the movie that he left his comment on MY site appears.
Rocky, I’d love to help you out, but I have no idea what this has to do with me. I’m a smart ass who writes smart assed reviews for my own and my friend’s amusement. If you want to contact me then you’ll have to send me an e-mail address.
May 8th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
BTW, my page is http://rtheygood.blog.com and I promise you that I see all of the movies I review.
May 8th, 2005 at 4:15 pm
rtheygood:
Rocky seems to be trying to drum up support from the Internet community (the very people he deceived). Since he is going out to complete strangers it would appear that he’s hoping that people like you don’t have the time to realize all of his reviews are actually an elaborate hoax. He appears on a popular entertainment site that was until recently a division of Time Warner–making the extent of his deception that much more impressive. This is truly one of the more extensive hoaxes played in some time. Despite reaching out to people like you, he has not bothered to respond directly to us something we have been asking him to do since prior to publishing our article.
May 8th, 2005 at 8:35 pm
I just checked the Rhino site. His stuff is still up. Questions are what they know and when they knew it?
May 8th, 2005 at 10:42 pm
I found this on the Rhino site under “Rocky’s Corner”…
It took five years for the first great film of the twenty-first century to arrive. “A Lot Like Love” is a courageous piece of art, drenched in social commentary and dripping with keen observations of the human condition.
I haven’t seen “A Lot Like Love” but from what I’ve heard, I’d say this is another fake.
May 25th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Hoax or not, Rocky Petralia is one fine looking man. -