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 actually like:
- Hackers (31%)
- National Treasure (46%)
- Bandits (64%)
What!? Hackers at 31%? The one with young Angelina Jolie? The critics gotta be some uncultured swine. That movie was gold! It was The Matrix type of cool before The Matrix. It put the punk part into cyberpunk for a lot of kids.
Also its a bad influence: Got kids inspired to learn about phreaking and phone systems.
I enjoyed Waterworld (I know it’s 90s, but I feel it gets too much hate). The premise and aspects of the screenplay were ridiculous, but the set design and effects were fascinating, and I was surprisingly invested in the characters. Kevin Costner and the kid had good chemistry. Dennis Hopper was a campy joy to watch as the villain as expected.
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 that movie, although the couple from die Antwoord are terrible actors, I found it a bit distracting. I still recommend people watch it.
They are terrible actors but I think they were handled well. Because the characters were written for them, they really just had to be themselves.
I think their prominence in the movie is what resulted in such a bad score. Even without the personal controversies, they are polarizing artists. Few people have a neutral reaction to their stuff. At the time I was pretty into their music, so seeing them in the movie was fun for me.
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%.
Wow, I never would have guessed Chappie was even considered “bad.”. I love this movie and just recently watched it again and enjoyed it completely. It’s like a charming reverse RoboCop.
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.
Sucker Punch (2011) (technically not made in my ‘adult’ life, since I was still a teenager, but semantics)
I genuinely love this movie and don’t understand how it’s rated so poorly. Sure it’s got that Zack Snyder-flair (but I think it actually works for this??) and it can seem a little gratuitous. but even then to me it seems like it’s done to make a point instead of just ‘hehehe hot girls in short skirts’. The action is awesome, the sets are cool af, the soundtrack is phenomenal, the cast is great, the plot is interesting, (and sure, maybe me being a mega gay means I’m giving this a higher rating then I otherwise might have) - it’s just overall a great movie to me. I do wonder how much of the ratings is a symptom that all women lead films suffer from review bombs by some upsetti-spaghetti men, but even I think this movie is not generally liked by most.
This has always been easy for me because my favorite movie is “Speed Racer” which has like a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes.
A movie that was genuinely before its time. Would fit right in these days with “Barbie” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once”.
The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington (who said his son got him to sign on to the movie) and Mila Kunis. It’s 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Final Fantasy: the spirits within.
The animation felt way ahead of its time. It’s been over a decade since I watched it, but I have very fond and exciting memories of watching it.
It felt ahead of its time because it was basically a tech demo showcasing their 3D modeling abilities. It was partially a foray into video media, but it was mostly a “hey, look what we can do”. It came out 17 days before Final Fantasy X, which was their move into much more realistic graphics and longer cinematic cutscenes. It was basically an ad to convince people to buy the next 100 hour game.
Still a great movie tho. Shows how far you can go when you’re truly passionate.
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.
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.
I unironically like Sucker Punch. And no, it’s not only because of scantily clad women.
Definitely helps tho 👀
I didn’t understand the hate Sucker Punch got until I found out that the theatrical release was cut down to a PG-13 movie. To make it PG-13 they had to cut the core themes from the movie since they were not PG-13 appropriate.
I had only watched the unrated directors cut and never saw the theatrical version so any time I talked about this movie people had no idea what I was talking about. The story and supporting scenes were completely gutted and that’s why people say the movie didn’t have a good story - it was removed.
Cube Zero (2004)
That’s right, the prequel to the 1997 horror film Cube. Where people are trapped inside a cube that keeps killing them.
I feel like I’m cheating because it got some positive reviews, just not enough to even have a critic score. Audience score is in the 20’s. I don’t know why! It’s a great follow up. Much better than the sequel, Hypercube. It gives us some much needed backstory on why the cubes exist and what their purpose is.
I really like Hardcore Henry, it was just a fun movie to watch but apparently the audience disagrees
Titan A.E. only got a 50% and it is incredible and still holds up!
Cosmic Castaway is a fuckin good song too
Only 50%?! Holy crap! I guess they really don’t wanna live on Planet Bob.
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.
The Cable Guy
Iron Sky!!
Who doesn’t love a movie about Nazis hiding for 60 years in a secret base on the dark side of the moon?!?!
Okay, so I hit rotten tomatoes, checked movies that were both critics rotten AND audience rotten, and started perusing titles for stuff I thought rocked.
abraham lincoln: vampire hunter
waterworld
hellboy (how is this in here? I thought this was universally loved)
mars attacks! (56 and 53, I also feel like this shouldn’t be on the list. It’s too good, and not in a bad way)
x-men origins: wolverine (again, is this not considered awesome? I thought it was great)
daredevil/elektra (I enjoyed both movies)
and now for stuff I’ve watched at least five times:
the ninth gate
planet of the apes (2001)
avp
prince of persia
green lantern
van helsing
I’m dead serious, I was looking forward to MORE green lantern movies along the lines of that first one. I bought it on amazon having heard nothing about it (I was in a societal black hole for a few years there), watched it, loved it, and was like “sweet, when’s the sequel coming out? I wanna see sinestro do his thing…wow, this did not do well. Fuck.”
I wasn’t super happy with ALL of the writing, but that’s comic stuff in general and I thought the whole thing was still quite enjoyable. Like, multiple rewatches enjoyable. Seeing Hal Jordan on screen and having Ryan Reynolds do it was great.
Some of the stuff on your list is pretty bad, but a lot of it is intentionally appealing to a niche audience, which with how Rotten Tomato scoring works, will give it a bad score.
Mars Attacks is an example of a love it or hate it movie. If you are on the right wavelength with the humor and style, it’s amazing and hilarious. If you aren’t, then nothing about it appeals to you.
Rotten Tomatoes scoring favors movies that the majority of people find “Pretty ok, I guess” rather than movies which create strong reactions.
Listing Daredevil is pretty daring though. The Netflix show, and the Punisher show which is something of a spin-off blow it out of the water.
Waterworld is such a great movie with a lot of misguided hate. Many dont like it because of its reputation of being an expensive flop but havnt actually bothered to watch it. I personally love it, I also enjoyed The Postman too which was another unloved Kevin Costner post-apocalypse movie
