MovieChat Forums > Helicopter Mom (2014) Discussion > Buyer Beware: Fake Reviews

Buyer Beware: Fake Reviews

posted 9 years ago by civildiscussion7
2 replies | jump to latest

You know what they say, "don't believe the hype." There are dozens of "reviews" for a never-heard film?? hmmm...

I couldn't believe the gushing reviews for this film until i started reading deeper. Then, with only a little time spent looking at the most obvious of these positive "reviewers" there seems to be a pattern of:

-positive "reviews" coming fast in short periods (may 15-17th, may 5-7th, etc.)

-from mostly recently registered reviewers (but i've spied some older "ghost" members)

-whose handles all (ridiculously!) start with the letter A--as if one writer with an account quota to fill was just too lazy to come up with less obvious handles (AbigailKLeavitt, AbrahamDMcMaster, AmeliaMatrix, AdamRLockhart, AdamGBonney, AbrahamIPerlman, AngieGHopkins, angeloumaya45322, alfredjack78, adamsibryn1, etc.)

**Sheesh, please make note how the "reviewers" abigailkleavitt and angeloumaya45322 have the SAME EXACT REVIEW!**

-whose profile shows "them" giving 7+ stars to the same cluster of films (Olympus, Interview w/a hitman, Altar,Bongwater, warx2, night of the templar, dear white people, The lookalike, etc.)

I'm not claiming all the positive reviews are fake. But, i'd be blind to not see that there is indeed review/vote rigging. And, not only am i pissed about this nonesense, but i'm now leery/suspicious of the other films

continuously showing up in their rankings.

I think if you're being paid to write something positive (or negative) about a film you should disclose that information! I will take into consideration the insight from illuminating posters here, and I will be a lot more observant/ suspicious of the reviews i see, that's for sure.

As an real viewer I will say the only thing this film has going for it is the father/son moments--which as one other real reviewer pointed out--seem lifted from an entirely different (good) movie and plopped here. They were the only moments of relief in an otherwise pointless mess of a film. This film is not the worst, but it is a big miss.

[–] azriel_abyss 9 years ago

Although there are people who have jobs to review crappy movies and maybe even lie and do this repeatedly there is also the alternative to consider. Some people just have crappy taste in movies.

[–] cpoet 8 years ago

All the artificial raves have been deleted, so it looks like you got your point across. Good job.

IMDb didn't bother to adjust the rating, however, so my jaw dropped when I saw the 7.5. Crappy taste notwithstanding, there won't be many people who find this dross better than mediocre.

I noticed a similar situation on Am*z*n yesterday. An item had stellar reviews, but not one of the reviewers had a "Verified Purchase" notation. And only a few people had ever reviewed anything else--a different gizmo from the same company.

Don't be so obvious about rigging the system! It's insulting.