Does Sony owe you 5 Sony bucks?
Sunday, October 29th, 2006If you saw one of these lame Sony movies Hollow Man, The Animal, The Patriot, A Knight’s Tale or Vertical Limit in American theatres between 3 August 2000 and 31 October 2001 then you’re a winner! Sony agreed to refund US$5 to anyone who sat through one of these dogs.
Why would they do such a thing? Because they felt guilty about unleashing garbage on the American public and decided these movies sucked so hard the consumers deserved a refund? No, it was that Sony Pictures were turning out such horrifically lousy movies that their poor marketing team was desperate - and they crossed the line of normal promotions. David Manning was their imaginary friend who wrote glowing reviews for sucky Sony films released by Columbia pictures which were panned by the real critics. Yes, that’s right, Sony executives fabricated a critic and wrote positive reviews about their own crappy movies which everyone else hated!
When they were busted by NewsWeek’s John Horn what did Sony do? Admit their guilt, accept responsibility for the errant actions of a misguided employee and take their licks, oh no, not Sony, they fought it on “Free Speech”! Yes, they tried to defend their fraudulent, criminal behaviour by claiming it was free speech. Unsurprising Los Angeles Justice Reuben Ortega didn’t see things the Sony way - due to having a basic understanding of right and wrong which is apparently lacking in Sony execs - and eventually Sony was cornered into the out of court settlement whereby YOU could be entitled to 5 Sony bucks!
So just how bad were these movies? Here are the MetaCritic and RottenTomato ratings:
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Hollow Man | 24% | 27% |
| The Animal | 43% | 29% |
| The Patriot | 63% | 61% |
| A Knight’s Tale | 54% | 59% |
| Vertical Limit | 48% | 47% |
“The Animal” was reportedly so bad that Sony paid cinemas to show the film’s trailers.
So how exactly do you go about collecting your 5 Sony bucks? The official court notice says this:
“The Court has preliminarily approved the proposed settlement of this class action. To be paid, you must submit the authorized Claim Form downloaded from Gilardi & Co., LLC’s website located at http://www.gilardi.com/rezec signed under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California and of the United States stating that, between August 3, 2000 and October 31, 2001, you purchased one or more tickets to a United States theatrical exhibition for yourself, an adult companion, and up to two minor children to attend the same exhibition.”