There was a bit on MadTV about this very thing--it was a spoof ad for Lost with increasingly ludicrous quotes from Larry King, singing its praises.

I found it on YouTube.. check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWfN7uB2nTg&mode=related&search=
Or search on YouTube for Larry King loves Lost

King formerly had a column in the Monday edition of "USA Today" up until 2001. Well, less a column and more a long, rambling clog of a paragraph that abused ellipses within an inch of their life, and which would often contain his opinions on the newest movies he had seen. If they were positive, studios would use his line in their publicity and use him as a critic. After the column I guess they didn't want to lose him, so he still 'reviews' movies thanks to studio staff that reads through CNN.com LKL transcripts looking for anything good that Larry has to say about their film.

King often likes crap movies so his quote on the tv ad goes a lot further than say John Smith's of KTXY in Podunk's would. It's usually a pretty good indicator that the movie is crap if King is the only high profile quote the studio has.

Here in Canada I've seen tv reporters from shows like eTalk Daily have their quotes used. I think that's slightly worse than King because these reporters have more often than not just come back from an all expenses paid junket tour and would do anything to be favoured by the studio.

Or cachet, even.

eFilm Critic does a list of the biggest critic whores of the year -- those whose pullquotes get used the most on the worst movies. Larry King just missed out on making the Top Ten this year.

http://www.efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=2043

So why do all of these movie commercials I see have a quote from him? And he's always going overboard on his quotes, calling this movie "the best" and that actor "the greatest" and this director "the best."


I think you've answered your own question. Usually if a movie advertisement features a Larry King quote, it's because he's the only major outlet that had anything positive to say about the movie. A Larry King quote typically means a movie is not any good.

Try picking up a Roseanne DVD, every box has a comment from him - because he interviewed the cast once to plug the DVD?

Larry King has loved every movie he's never seen.