Bob Mondello

I think we need to acknowledge that.

On Rotten Tomatoes, for instance, the critical consensus was about 11% positive, whereas the audience response, the user response on the site was 95%, right?

That just isn't something that usually happens.

Yeah, the term I used was infomercial.

That's what it felt like to me.

And I didn't think it was, listen, I don't think it's a terribly made film.

It's glossy and it's pretty and

And there are moments in it where you sort of feel, well, I'm surprised we're looking at that room.

The decor is kind of interesting.

And for a very brief moment, I cared deeply about tablecloths.

But anyway, I mean, one of the other things about this is that for Amazon...

$40 million is a rounding error, right?

It doesn't need to be huge.

Now, it's interesting that we're talking about this in the same week that the Washington Post has just announced, which is also owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, that they're laying off a third of their staff.

And you can't help thinking about what $40 million might have done for the Washington Post at this moment, that kind of thing.

or actually $75 million because they also promoted it.

But for Amazon, this might have been a smart move, probably was a smart move.

I won't pretend to understand how billionaires figure these things out.

I don't think it has very much merit...

But it is what it is.