I saw a television ad for a movie, this week. I believe the movie was
"The Chronicles of Riddick." The ad alternated between scenes from the
movie and quoted testimonials raving about what a great movie it is --
the catch being, all three testimonials were attributed to a single
critic. I believe the critic's first name was Shaun, and I think the
source was FOX TV.

A five-star answer would be the critic's full name and the three
quotes from the ad. I'll throw in a tip if anyone has a link to the
Newsweek article which broke the story about Sony's fictitious
critic/shill "David Manning." (The article was titled "The Reviewer
Who Wasn't There," by John Horn, published online June 2, 2001. It's
no longer online at MSNBC.)

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 13 Jun 2004 14:28 PDT

Hi Cribcage,

I can provide all of the following:

(1) One of the quotes from "Shaun" about "Chronicles of Riddick."
(2) Information about "Shaun" and his TV station
(3) A link to a site where he has posted a "Chronicles of Riddick"
review (although access to the complete review won't be available to
non-subscribers until Friday).
(4) The Newsweek story "The Reviewer Who Wasn't There."

Would this be enough?

---

Clarification of Question by cribcage-ga on 13 Jun 2004 14:57 PDT

Sure, that'll do.

Hi Cribcage,

I checked the movie section of local newspaper today (San Francisco
Chronicle, Datebook section, page 32).

Sure enough, the ad for "The Chronicles of Riddick" carries the following quote:

"ONE OF THE BEST SCI-FI FILMS EVER!"
-Shawn Edwards Fox-TV


It turns out that Shawn Edwards is a movie reviewer for WDAF (FOX 4)
in Kansas City.

See: "Movie Critics Who Will Shill For Anything":

"SHAWN EDWARDS, FOX TV (WDAF-TV, Kansas City)
Shawn Edwards is possibly the most enthusiastic man in the entire
world. Everything is great! Destined to be a hit! Wow! No, Mr. Edwards
does not hold back his joy when it comes to reviewing the amazing
efforts of Hollywood's dream factory. He is a man with a lot of love
to share."
source: popcultmag.com
http://www.popcultmag.com/passingfancies/bottomfive/moviecritics/moviecritics1.html

Also see: 
The Screening Room for Shawn's ratings of various movies last year
http://www.wdaftv4.com/Screening%20Room.htm


Mr Edwards seems to have developed something of a reputation for
giving excellent reviews to films that manyt other critics dislike. 
See:

"Not only has controversial Fox 4 movie reviewer Shawn Edwards slimmed
down by 40 ? count 'em ? no-movie-popcorn-eating pounds, he's zeroing
in on a handful of summer movies that just could cement his rep for
touting flicks that mainstream local critics can't stand."
source: Kansas City Star, cached by Google, url shortened by snipurl:
http://snipurl.com/720r
Also see:
"CRITICWATCH"
http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=699
"CriticWatch 2004"
http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1745


Shawn Edwards has written a review of The Chronicles of Riddick for
the Kansas City Call newspaper (available to non-subscribers next
week). See:
Diesel Fuel
By Shawn Edwards, Entertainment	June 11, 2004 
http://www.kccall.com/News/2004/0611/Entertainment/001.html

-------

Newsweek's "The Reviewer Who Wasn?t There," saved by archive.org
http://web.archive.org/web/20010609225327/www.msnbc.com/news/581770.asp?cp1=1
Also available from Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=01HW.B741970B006147C31AD2CB00%40news-server.socal.rr.com&rnum=1

-------
search strategy:
"shawn edwards" fox 
"shawn edwards" "fox 4"
"shawn edwards" "kansas city"
google groups: "reviewer who wasn't there"

I hope this helps.

Thanks for a terrific answer!!

Thank you for the tip.
-juggler