reviews

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Nanjiani: I Sought Therapy After Crappy Film Reviews

'Eternals' star says it was 'very, very tough' to hear criticism of the 2021 Marvel movie

(Newser) - When Kumail Nanjiani shot 2021's Eternals, alongside big names like Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and Barry Keoghan, he had a blast. "I had the best time doing that movie, and I realized this is how work should feel like," the 45-year-old Silicon Valley star said Tuesday on...

FTC Wants a Steep Crackdown on Phony Online Reviews

Proposed new rules include steep fines

(Newser) - The Federal Trade Commission says it wants to "level the playing field for honest companies" with a crackdown on fake online reviews. The FTC has proposed new rules that include heavy penalties for companies using dodgy reviews to boost their products, the Washington Post reports. Offenders could be fined...

Netflix's The Diplomat Is an 'Intellectual Whirlwind'

Keri Russell shines as Kate Wyler, opposite a 'first-rate' Rufus Sewell

(Newser) - Five years since she last played a Russian spy in The Americans, Keri Russell is back on TV and killing it. The Diplomat , an eight-episode Netflix series from showrunner Debora Cahn (The West Wing, Homeland), finds Russell (lead actor and executive producer) on the US side as a longtime State...

Surprise: Long-Ridiculed Bing May Out-Google Google
Reviewers Are Stunned
at How Good Bing Is
tech reviews

Reviewers Are Stunned at How Good Bing Is

Techies test the new AI search engine, which is still being rolled out

(Newser) - Kevin Roose is a tech columnist for the New York Times , and he's as surprised as you are that he concludes his latest column like so: "I'm switching my desktop computer's default search engine to Bing. And Google, my default source of information for my entire...

Glassdoor Must ID Person Who Wrote 'Toxic' Reviews

Judge sides with New Zealand company that was the subject of scathing critiques

(Newser) - Glassdoor is a website where users can look for future jobs, as well as post reviews about companies they've worked for to help others determine if a company might be a desirable employer or one to avoid. What allows reviewers to be as brutally honest as possible is the...

Norm Macdonald's Posthumous Special Unlike Any Other

It includes a 'televised wake in miniature'

(Newser) - Norm Macdonald didn't plan on filming his last comedy special in his living room. It was 2020 and the secret cancer patient was testing material for his next Netflix special. He was also about to undergo a major procedure. So he sat down to record the material in case...

What Critics Are Saying About The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
Is Being Uniformly Hailed
TV REVIEW

The Underground Railroad Is Being Uniformly Hailed

Berry Jenkins adapts Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for Amazon Prime

(Newser) - An enslaved girl flees a Georgia cotton plantation and its brutal owner, only to be pursued by a bounty hunter spurred by his failure to catch her mother years earlier in The Underground Railroad , a 10-hour limited series debuting Friday on Amazon Prime Video. Just how good is Moonlight director...

TripAdvisor Apologizes Over Auschwitz Review

Museum complained about insensitive post, and the travel website eventually agreed

(Newser) - TripAdvisor has removed an insensitive review of the Auschwitz Museum after initially saying it complied with its submission guidelines, per the AP . The museum at the site of the Nazi concentration camp in Poland on Thursday tweeted that it had asked the Massachusetts-based travel website to take down a review...

Hotel That Had American Jailed Is Furious With Tripadvisor

Sea View Resort and Spa given 'one-of-a-kind' warning label

(Newser) - American Wesley Barnes was made to apologize for his unkind reviews of a Thai resort hotel so as to avoid years in jail . But if the Sea View Resort and Spa in Koh Chang celebrated a victory, it was premature. Now that charges have been dismissed and Barnes has left...

American Escapes Jail Time After 'Stilted' Apology to Resort

Wesley Barnes had faced years behind bars for trashing Thai resort online, violating defamation law

(Newser) - Looks like Wesley Barnes won't see jail time after all. The American living in Thailand had complained online , including on the Tripadvisor site, about the Sea View Koh Chang resort, airing grievances about his stay there over the "unfriendly staff" and accusing the resort of "modern-day slavery"...

For First Time Ever, Fake Reviews Get Guy Sent to Jail

TripAdvisor hails landmark ruling in Italy

(Newser) - For what is believed to be the first time, a person has been sent to jail for writing fake reviews online. The Italian man ran a company called PromoSalento, which sold hotels fake reviews, and in what's being widely hailed as a landmark ruling this week a court in...

Annihilation Is a Treat for the Eyes and Mind
Prepare to Be
'Shellshocked'
by Annihilation
MOVIE REVIEW

Prepare to Be 'Shellshocked' by Annihilation

One critic labels it 'an emotional and mental tightrope'

(Newser) - Often diverging from the Jeff VanderMeer novel that inspired it, Annihilation from writer-director Alex Garland sees five female specialists set out to explore something akin to a force field that has appeared in Florida. Only one man has escaped it, and he's, well, rattled. You might be, too, after...

IPhone X Is Impressive, but Not Flawless
iPhone X Is
a Step Toward
'Invisible' Tech
REVIEWS

iPhone X Is a Step Toward 'Invisible' Tech

Reviewers discuss Face ID, battery life, and the phone's legacy

(Newser) - It took only minutes for the iPhone X to sell out worldwide before any detailed reviews came in. Tech analysts don't think early adopters will be disappointed, except perhaps when it comes to cost. Forbes notes Apple's highest-priced iPhone yet—$999 for a 64GB model, $1,149 for...

Avoid This Mistake When Shopping Online
Avoid This Mistake
When Shopping Online
in case you missed it

Avoid This Mistake When Shopping Online

Customers are swayed by number of reviews, even for bad products

(Newser) - Quantity matters, at least when it comes to product reviews. New research finds that consumers are swayed by the number of reviews an item receives, even if it's of worse quality. Quartz reports that the study analyzing buying habits on Amazon shows that online products with the most reviews...

Winter Is Here With Game of Thrones Premiere
A Surprise Cameo on
Game of Thrones Premiere
THE RUNDOWN

A Surprise Cameo on Game of Thrones Premiere

We're giving you your spoiler alert for Season 7 now

(Newser) - Winter has arrived in mid-July, which in Game of Thrones-speak means that the HBO show was back on the air Sunday night—and per the Los Angeles Times , the premiere of the seventh season "belonged to [the] women." Those women being Sansa Stark, Cersei Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen,...

Employee's Yelp Review on Competitor Costs Him $34.5K

'Incensed' rival did his own detective work to find out who posted phony review

(Newser) - "No one should have to go through this, not children, adults, elderly," Stephen Blumberg tells CBS Boston , and a jury apparently agreed with him. The cause of Blumberg's emotional turmoil: a fake, "inflammatory" Yelp review of his Massachusetts jewelry store posted by the son of a...

Bomb Suspect's Family Eatery Targeted on Yelp

Family complained about anti-Muslim bias years ago

(Newser) - The adage "There's no such thing as bad publicity" probably doesn't ring true for the owners of First American Fried Chicken: The Elizabeth, NJ, restaurant is owned by the family of alleged bomber Ahmad Rahami , and Vice reports that its Yelp page is being spammed with negative...

Museum 'Must-See' Dedicated to Black History, Culture

'NYT' review of Smithsonian's long-awaited museum, set to open next Saturday

(Newser) - A week from Saturday, a 130-year-old bell from a church erected by slaves will ring to herald the grand opening of a 400,000-square-foot DC museum that's been talked about since 1915, NPR reports. The idea for that museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and...

Trump U Students Coerced Into Giving Glowing Reviews: NYT

'It's absolutely a con,' former student says

(Newser) - The drawn-out saga involving the lawsuits against Trump University gained a new wrinkle with a New York Times probe that reveals students who took his real estate classes were coerced into giving their instructors positive reviews—with those reviews perhaps serving as "a central component of a business model...

Amazon Sues Over 1K Unidentified People

They are 'tarnishing Amazon’s brand,' lawsuit says

(Newser) - "I will post awesome review on your Amazon product, Kindle book, ebook, etc..." If you posted that ad, watch out—Amazon is suing you and more than 1,000 others for allegedly offering to provide fake reviews on the retailer's website, Mashable reports. The company's lawsuit...

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