Larry King (of the blurbs)

posted by Patrick Crowley on February 14, 2007 at 8:00 am

Ever notice how many movies Larry King seems to like? (His quotes have been appearing on a ton of movie trailers and posters.)

Well, the Los Angeles Times has a funny piece about CNN host Larry King’s prolific movie reviews.

King sees movies every week, often catching a noon flick before heading over to CNN to do his show. It must keep him young. At 73, he’s slim and trim, almost boyishly petite. His hair, once gray, is now a dry brown, like the trunk of a palm tree, with gray at the temples. He seems to see everything, describing the movies in blurb-like bursts, from “Letters From Iwo Jima” (“Loved every minute of it!”) to a film about Turkish genocide called “Screamers” (“Very well done!”).

“I know they’re only looking for a catchphrase,” he explained the other day, ensconced at his favorite table at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, where he orders a spartan salad for lunch (“Don’t give me any eggs!”). “If I like the movie, I give ‘em a quote. If I don’t like something, I’m not gonna rap it. Sometimes they don’t even use it. I gave Clint a big rave for his movie and they didn’t even need it.”

While King could probably take a break from reviewing movies for a while, the article mentions that the CNN anchor oftens sees a film before heading into the studio each day.

And there’s a nice story about why movies mean so much to him.