Inspired by the linked XKCD. Using 60% instead of 50% because that’s an easy filter to apply on rottentomatoes.
I’ll go first: I think “Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows” was awesome, from the plot to the characters ,and especially how they used screen-play to highlight how Sherlocks head works in these absurd ways.
I just looked up Event Horizon and it only got a 33%. I love that movie. It genuinely really creeped me out. Few horror films do.
Just goes to show you some people (critics) have no taste. That movie was awesome!
As always, it has to be kept in mind how the RT scores work. It doesn’t aggregate scores, it just aggregates if the review is positive or negative.
A movie with hundred critics saying “Yeah, the movie is fine I guess” will score higher than a movie with 90 of those critics saying “This is the best movie I’ve ever seen!” and 10 of them not really feeling it.
The concept of mass critic aggregation also just has fundamental problems compared to following and learning the tastes of a specific critic, in order to evaluate their review.
Right? It also got a 61% audience score, which I found surprising. I always hear good things about it from people.
It is a horror movie so that could put a lot of folks off, especially with some of the imagery. That’s one of my favorites but just a theory on why others may not like it.
I love the dismissal of critics as a while because a movie you like scored low. It’s a good creepy movie but it’s no that good of a movie overall. It’s very cheesy, the dialogue is poor, the story is minimal. It’s got great creeps though.
Check out Pandorum if you haven’t already. I think about that movie a lot.
That is absurd! Event Horizon is the only legit Doom movie. That was the idea all along and they even used the sound clip from the spawn cube in the movie.
Also, although I am not a 40k fan, I know some people see this as a prequel to Warhammer 40k as the moment in which humans first get to use the Warp.
It was ruined by execs, but it is a masterpiece, especially in the production design.
I remember feeling like that about “the Sphere” which came out the year after and has 13% on rotten tomatoes. I really liked it.
What? I still hold that movie as the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. It grips me just thinking about some scenes. It’s an amazing movie. Can’t believe the score
I watched that thinking it was just sci-fi while high as a kite in my teens.
I’m still not over it.
A+
Indeed, that movie is actually scary! Like proper scary, not how most movies are.
And there was a lot of cut content that was even crazier than what made it into the released film:
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Sure it’s campy and way over the top. But I kinda like it for that. Plus the characters are awesome, the designs were pretty cool, and Sean Connery was great. Currently at 17% on rt.
How in the world is that 17%? TIL I also like unpopular movies.
Connery literally retired because of it lol
Turned down Gandalf to do that. Hilarious.
Dammit, you can’t submerge the Nautilus in Venice’s Grand Canal! It’s only a few meters deep!
Okay, it’s not a great movie, but it’s definitely fun enough to warrant more than a 17%
I genuinely loved that movie. Watched it as a kid, got the DVD as I got older, downloaded the torrent when I was in college, watched it with friends for movie nights.
I had no idea it was supposed to be bad! I loved the weird fusion of camp, bizarre situations, and genuine action. Although I did have to chuckle at one of the reviews criticizing its CGI, written twelve years after the movie came out.
It was great up until the last 15 minutes, I remember. And it was beautifully artful. But I was a bit colored by the comics, the villain and his motives was just so much better there.
Titan A.E. only got a 50% and it is incredible and still holds up!
Only 50%?! Holy crap! I guess they really don’t wanna live on Planet Bob.
“You can’t name a planet Bob.”
Cosmic Castaway is a fuckin good song too
Terrific film. One of Don Bluth’s best. It’s right up there with NIMH for me.
One of my favourite animated films ever. Also love the soundtrack.
Grandma’s Boy is a perfect stoner comedy. Featuring Nick Swardson in a hilarious breakout performance. RT can kiss 15% of my ass.
I’m thinking about getting metal legs. It’s a risky operation but it will be worth it.
Fuck RT, imdb it’s over 7. That’s really high for a comedy to be honest. One of my favorites and has rewatchability.
I vote Freddie got Fingered as the only better stoner comedy.
Or comedy overall.
It’s one of the best movies.
Nothing can hurt me in my CHEESE HELMET!
I love that I see you everywhere and am graced by this approval uwu
This one of my all-time favourite movies
That movie is hilarious sober!
But why?
Constantine - 46%
Predator - 34%
Ghost in the Shell - 43%
Hellboy - 17%
Robocop (2016) - 49%
Well, it seems like I have poor taste in movies after all.
Constantine is an awesome movie.
Yeah. I don’t understand why it doesn’t get a lot more attention as one of the early solidly made comic book movies.
I liked Hellboy
I loved Ron Perlman’s Hellboy, but the Hellboy 2019 movie was the best. Felt more like a comicbook pulp story and less of a 2000-ish action comedy. But the public and critics has spoken; if it ain’t a standard superhero action comedy flick, it is a “soulless” reboot.
David Harbour had the potential to be a better Hellboy than Perlman, but the rest of the movie was … really not very good – in pacing, characters, or effects.
If you want a mash-up horror movie that’s more fun than the critics said, go for the 2004 Van Helsing.
I loved Van Helsing. It was seriously brain dead entertainment but action was great and the effects were good. I loved The Brothers Grimm, that came out the year after, better though. Horror movie, comedy, action. I passed that movie over back then because of the critics, so took a few more years until I actually got to see it.
Predator came out in 1986 I think. But I totally agree about Constantine and Robocop 2016, I liked those a lot.
Yeah. Robocop 2016 is so good. I get that it’s different, and it’s reboot no one asked for.
But it’s also a solid movie.
I believe they’re referring to “The Predator” from 2018 (because why should movies have logical titles) where the aliens are here to
spoiler
harvest autism from our children before climate change destroys humanity.
I wish I were joking.
I was not aware of that. Oh dear, that sounds like the kind of plot studio execs would come up with in the 80’s while high on coke, except they are all woke now.
Wow, those are some hot takes, those movies are great
I’m on your team for that.
Hellboy is amazing how the hell is it that low?!
They mean the 2019 David Harbour Hellboy.
The 2004 Ron Perlman one is at 82%.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hellboy
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hellboy_2019That makes more sense. Thanks.
Ghost in the Shell (2017) was quite good.
Loved the characters, but the movie plot felt like a clipshow of a bigger plot that didn’t fit into 2 hours. I haven’t watched the anime but it probably was.
Watch the anime, everything that was great in the 2016 version is a bow to the “original”. And I actually think Johansson was a great cast for the film. The way she moves is so totally Major Kusanagi.
Chappie (32%)
I love that movie and have seen it several times. Directed by Noel Blompkamp (District 9) and starring Die Antwoord.
It’s extremely original and entertaining sci fi.
I liked Chappie a lot when it came out, I was and still am a fan of Neill Blomkamp’s work, but found this one harder to enjoy over the years the more I learned about how awful the two people from Die Antwoord are in real life.
I watched the interview with the kid they, “adopted” and it’s so sad.
Wtf how is it 32%? While maybe not a masterpiece it was a decent movie, I really enjoyed it as well and also cried when the robot got hurt
Agree. Its no “MaStErPiEcE” but it was for sure not a 32%.
I loved it, I am actually surprised it is rated so low.
I tend to like sci-fi in this category such as Stargate, Dune (1984), and the Riddick films.
TRON Legacy is my favorite of the bunch, however. Incredible soundtrack, gorgeous costume design, and plenty of character.
I loved the film, but I can’t think too hard about it. I treat it like a really long music video. It was such a fun watch.
I really liked Tron Legacy. I keep hearing the next one in the works so cautiously awaiting to see what they release next.
If Daft Punk isn’t doing the music, I won’t even bother being interested
TRON Legacy is one of those movies where I watch it purely for its visuals and music. It’s a let down in terms of story and action, but I stop everything to look at it when its on.
Stargate, Dune (1984), and the Riddick films
I like those too, in particular Dune and the Chronicles of Riddick, but they all have audience scores above 60% (and Stargate and Dune are from the last millennium if we’re sticking to that requirement).
I wanted to like TRON: Legacy. I didn’t.
There’s one reason the original TRON wouldn’t play today, and it’s not the 1980s fake computer graphics. It’s the pacing. TRON is slow. There’s no jitter. It looks like a 1980s video game, not a 21st-century video game.
Or, really, just contrast the Wendy Carlos score with the Daft Punk one. The original is majestic swoops through a digital dreamscape, not jitterbug pop for robot dancers.
A thought that may help you enjoy Tron: Legacy - The pacing and style changes are meant to represent the changes in computer technology and specifically gaming, between the eras when the two films came out.
In TRON, there’s a mechanistic pacing that reflects the early computer clock cycles.
In TRON: Legacy, there’s a lot of imagery and plotting around characters trying to find peace, or achieve slowness, or even just rythm - trying to escape the attention starved modern algorithm.
Idiocracy is one of my favorite movies. When it came out, it was far below 50%, but after some of the things on the movie started becoming true, it became popular.
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
Such a great movie.
“Let’s go to Starbucks.”
“We don’t have time for that!”
Tank Girl. No one liked that movie when it came out. I left the theater with the biggest grin on my face. Absolutely awesome. Still one of my favorites.
It was completely different than the comics but it was still very fun. Especially in 1995.
You’re not supposed to watch it sober.
You’re not supposed to watch all of it; you’re supposed to be noisily and lewdly snogging your date through most of it.
I’ll have to remember that; I only saw it just after its release and don’t remember being anything other than indifferent. I’ve never read the comic though; the author/artist of the comic is part of the duo of the Gorillas, correct?
Possibly Stings best villian. I love that film.
Rotten Tomatoes has both a critic score and an audience score.
If your pick has a low critic score but high audience score, that means it was formulaic or unoriginal but probably lots of fun.
Movies with a high critic score and low audience score are usually more artsy, film-festival stuff.
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Meh, it depends. I don’t use either as a solid indicator of anything because Morbius fits your first description and that movie was hot ass. Same with 2016 Suicide Squad and the Mortal Kombat reboot. All of those movies had low or mixed critic scores with moderately high to high audience scores and they all suck.
Morbius isn’t a great one to point at as an example where this rule of thumb fails because the reviews were brigaded. It was a huge meme and would have been flooded with meme user reviews.
Mortal Kombat was a fun movie, and exactly fits the description. The whole plot is basically a series of setups for characters to fight, and characters are a bit one-dimensional, which is exactly what we all want from Mortal Kombat movies.
Mortal Kombat was fucking amazing dude.
Nah. It STARTED out amazing in the first act with subzero and scorpion in the Japanese village, but once that scene is over, the entire second act drags and is by far the biggest act in the movie. Then when things finally start picking up again in the third act, its almost over. Plus theres stupid stuff like Subzero speaking english in 1400 japan when he was speaking chinese for the majority of the film and then a little japanese plus much more. I guess it wasn’t absolutely horrible, but definitely not amazing.
The second act is when Kano talks the most which makes it the best act.
Which then it’s bogged down by cole young, who shouldn’t have been the human surrogate for the audience. Honestly, it should’ve been Kano, which would’ve improved this movie by a lot.
I support any opinion that results in me seeing more Kano
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is way better than anyone gives it credit for. It’s a really fun movie.
I also really like Vanilla Sky even though critics hate it. It’s a weird but good movie.
How Equilibrium has a 40% RT rating is beyond me. It’s amazing.
Yeah, I liked Prince of Persia as well! It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a fun movie.
That shocks me that Equilibrium is only 40%… it’s one of my favorite movies
I feel like prince of Persia missed on timing more than anything. It came out too close to dragon emperor imo. And the same year as clash of the titans. It’s a decent flick, but not good enough to outrun the comparisons on what all 3 did poorly. (Mostly dialog)
Wait, people don’t like Vanilla Sky‽ That movie is great!
So good! After seeing it, I grabbed and watched Abre Los Ojos the next week just to get more.
I’m pretty shocked to see Vanilla Sky rated that poorly. I recall it being a critical darling at the time.
Kung Pow only has a 13% critic rating and I love that movie. 69% audience score though so that might disqualify it.
I remember quite liking Slackers when I saw it (haven’t rewatched it though, so my opinion might have changed). I think if this movie every time I hear the song “She’ll be comin’ 'round the mountain”.
The Big Hit
Movies I saw 20 years ago it seems when maybe my tastes (and me too let’s face it) were a little immature. Still love Kung Pow though
Kung Pow is fucking amazing in short, memey snippets, but it was agony to watch as an actual movie.
This is unfortunately an accurate description of that movie.
Think of something like Airplane! or Ghostbusters. There are so many memorable and/or silly parts and lines that people remember well and will repeat over and over. But of course, each also has a real movie to go along with it.
All the clips and lines and other zany parts of Kung Pow can be hilarious, but the movie itself is pretty bad.
The scene with the wounds on his hands, something like:
“does it hurt?”
“Not really”
Pours salt in wounds “Does it now?”
“No”
Breaks thermometer into the wounds “how about now?”
“A little”
“Aww! Poor baby!” Bandages wounds
That scene has played on a loop in the back of my brain for decades. It’s fucking hilarious. That and when the evil master reveals his name is Betty, and plays Big Butts. I loved that movie before I started smoking weed, and I loved it even more the first time I watched it stoned.
That movie (Kung Pow) was so ahead of its time in terms of jokes and set ups.
Kung Pow is a fucking delight and I still love it as much as it was the day it was released.
That’s a lot of nuts!
I, Robot, especially after reading the books. It functions as a combo of the books, but set roughly where the first book took place in, using a variant of the protagonist from the sequels. The robots taking over as they did, though, wasn’t really accurate, even just regarding the laws of robotics, but it worked for the movie’s conflict. In the books, they get a larger hold on humanity, but to help them go past Earth to become an intragalactic society. For a one-off, though, I can see the directions the movie took to give it that close-ended feeling. Also, the implications of robots and humans, and Spooner as a chracter were pretty faithful to the source material, IMO.
On the topic of Isaac Asimov stories on the big screen, I nominate Bicentennial man. 36% critic and 59% audience score respectively.
I thought it did a good with the themes it brought forth and Asimovs testing of the types of conflicts that would occur with Robots gaining sentience and humanity seeing them as just machines.
Despite the one event near the end that would create a conflict with the laws of Robotics and the effect it should have on a positronic brain.
Also James Horner’s awesome soundtrack.
I would have never guessed Bicentennial Man would have scores that low. It’s a great scifi and a really well made movie.
At worst, it sacrifices a strong ending for telling a complete scifi story, which many scifi movies do. (And I believe was the right call.)
I would say the only thing the movie has in common with the book is that it mentions the book’s main character and the laws of robotics. The book is all about weird behavior of robots that actually obey the laws but the movie just treats them as some corporate doublespeak.
Yeah, I don’t think Spooner is identical to Elijah Baley, but I see they connect on the technophobe aspects, if nothing else. It’s been a while since I’ve read the books, in other aspects they’re probably vastly different.
The main character in I, Robot is Dr. Susan Calvin. It also features Donovan and Powell. Elijah is from the robot trilogy, which happens centuries after I, Robot.
“The Caves of Steel” is very much part of the “I Robot” storyline, and not an important distinction here. I also expected Dr Susan Calvin, but when talking about what we actually got, it’s closest to an adaptation of the R. Daneel trilogy.
And anyway, on Asimov’s average scale, those years are right next to eachother. /s
Following the XKCD rules and keeping it in the 2000s and later makes it a lot harder. I could make an entire list of '90s movies that qualify.
But my answer is: Pitch Black.
Bonus answer, which doesn’t quite qualify because it has an exact 60% rating: Love (2011, the space one)
I actually like Riddick, all three of them! Haven’t checked but am pretty sure they would’ve gotten less than 60%
Agreed, although I was disappointed in the last one, but that’s because Chronicles was my favorite, and I had hoped it would spawn a Star Wars-esque space opera like series. I was super invested in the world. We still never got to see the underverse! I get what happened with three. Two didn’t do well enough to support the investment that a true sequel would require, so they tried to cater more towards the pitch black “space thriller” audience, but it just felt like they rewrote pitch black on another planet.
I just checked. Pitch Black is the highest with 59%. I like all of those movies too 😭
Wow.
Pitch Black put Vin Diesel on my radar as an actor.BI expected less than nothing from that film, and Vin has like 3 lines of dialog, and just carries it.
It’s refreshingly daring hard scifi. And yes, it’s also charming SciFi channel schlock. Both are somehow true.
