24 years ago, we witnessed one of the weirdest chapters in movie review history. Hollywood execs are no strangers to testing the limits of trust and good taste, but this took it to a whole other level. Deluged by AI, bots, and deepfakes, we are now savvier about fake news, but back in the Y2K days, widespread trust in the media made it remarkably easy to bamboozle the average person. Ridgefield Press writer David Manning's name began popping up around 2000, offering glowing praise for such forgettable fare as Hollow Man, The Patriot, and A Knight's Tale. People grew extra suspicious when he lavished attention on the much-maligned The Animal, the latest vehicle for divisive Saturday Night Live comedian (yes, he even had his own catchphrase during his tenure on SNL) and Adam Sandler cohort R

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