Critic quote conflict?

I saw the recent TV commercials for HANNIBAL RISING and couldn’t help but crack up laughing at the critic quote assertion that it’s one of the best movies of the year…which at the time was about 35 days long. Being the best of a bunch that includes such winners as EPIC MOVIE and STOMP THE YARD shouldn’t be something to crow about, yet here we are. The critic in question who laid down this line of nonsense is Maxim’s Pete Hammond, 2006’s Quote Whore of the Year. The issue in question isn’t that he gave HANNIBAL a retarded quote (no one is debating that) it’s that Hammond allowed the studio, The Weinstein Co., to edit his quote for the ad according to Variety (by way of Consumerist). His original quote provided to TWC was “‘the most terrifying thriller of the new year” but Les Moonves, head of CBS, had issues with using the word “terrifying” during the Super Bowl. So Harvey Weinstein reedited the clip (with Hammond’s blessing) to read “‘the year’s most electrifying thriller.” Now reediting of critics quotes isn’t shocking, it’s fairly common practice. But it should only be done by the original author to take an out of context quote to place it in context. Changing the wording of a quote from your review, no longer makes it a quote. That’s why we put quotation marks around things. The lesson, though I’m sure you JoBlo.com readers are smart enough to know this, don’t trust those stupid quotes you read on TV. To put some of this ridiculousness in context, here are Hammond’s quotes from 2006.