Megalopolis Trailer Used Fake Review Quotes to Blast Dead Critics

The latest trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis featured various derisive quotes from famous critics about his past work, but people were quick to find that all of these quotes are either made up, or misappropriated.

What did the Megalopolis trailer fake review quotes say?

Prior to the trailer’s start, the new Megalopolis video opens with reviews from the 1970s and 1980s, with quotes from iconic movie critics like the late Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, and Andrew Sarris all quoted as having disliked certain Coppola films like The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

After doing some digging, however, fans on social media were quick to realize that most of these quotes were simply not real.

Various people on X were quick to point out that Pauline Kael’s quote, which allegedly called The Godfather a film “diminished by its artsiness,” was not a real quote. Her actual review was quite the opposite, as Kael lavished praise on the film. Likewise, a quote from the late Andrew Sarris appeared in the trailer deriding The Godfather, but no such quote has been able to be found.

Adding even more mystery and confusion to the story, another X user was able to find the source of a Roger Ebert quote that was attributed to his reaction of Dracula. However, the quote itself is not only not speaking about Coppola, but is about an entirely different movie — 1989’s Batman — altogether. Ebert’s original Dracula review also spoke highly of the film. Quotes from critic Rex Reed were also unable to be sourced, according to a report from Vulture.

Megalopolis will be released in United States theaters on September 27, 2024, from Lionsgate Studios.