Gone too far?

A Memphis projectionist named Jesse Morrison has been fired from his job at Malco theatre chain, not for bootlegging movies, stealing gummy bears, or even screwing up at his job. No. Apparently he’s been fired when Fox strong-armed his employers after he wrote a negative review of FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, and posted it on Ain’t It Cool News.

The Hollywood Reporter has got the in-depth article for you over HERE, with all the dirty details, and after reading it myself, it sounds like Fox was acting like an insecure bully who had to put the smack down on the little guy in order to protect themselves. There is no proof that Fox had anything to do with the firing, but according to Morrison, he was called into the senior vp’s office of Malco, and:

Tashie pointed out that “20th Century Fox called them that morning and threatened to take away the press and trade screenings because of this whole thing. They were upset.” The exec said his company received a call from Fox that said “there’s somebody there working for (Malco) who is writing reviews in advance. That’s all they said. No one asked us to do anything. We have been in business 95 years, and this is the first time anything like this happened. And this boy knew what he was doing was the wrong thing. … He was in a position of trust and he violated that trust.”

Hmmm. I’m not sure I believe this Tashie character. It sounds like perhaps he’s trying to save Fox the embarrassment of coming down so hard on an amateur online reviewer, but let’s face it, reviews affect people’s decisions on what to see, even if it’s a bonafide blockbuster like FF2. Especially when that review is written by a ‘regular’ movie fan like Jesse Morrison. What do you guys think? Are studios being too hard on the online fan community, or do they have the right to protect their investments before they’re released?