Here's my rant on RT: Their 0-100% score tells you very little about how good the movie is. It simply tells you how agreeable to critics it is.
Because often critics just contribute a binary yes/no review, movies that can get a lot of critics to somewhat approve of them can get very close to 100% (art house movies often score too high because critics would lose face giving a thumbs down). Movies that half of the critics love and half of them dislike can get 50%.
I'd really like to see a site that matches up my movie tastes with a few movie critics that predict my tastes well, and then keeps me updated with their reviews.
I like the objectivity of it. I often cite RT when someone says a movie is good or bad, but the overwhelming critical consensus disagrees. Personally, I've found it to be the best predictor of films that I enjoy.
I agree 100% - I use it to decide which movies to see in my area. I end up seeing a wide spectrum of types of movies (e.g. from Toy Story to Let the Right One In), but they are mostly all very good.
I think the better indicator that this sample may be reflective of the final meter is the vocabulary in the reviews - highly positive - one claims "movie of the year".
It's possible to get a tomato and still have some happenstance language in the critique - the fact that the language, here, is immensely positive is a strong indicator that such a strong meter will hang around.
If I could upvote you 100 times, I would. Completely agree about Sports Night, I still re-watch both seasons of that at least twice a year.
Also a huge fan of Studio 60 - not sure I could call that one "underrated", as it did have some problems, but... still absolutely loved the writing/characters in it.
Sorkin's the reason I can't wait to see this :)
(And luckily for me, I happen to be in NYC early October, so don't have to wait the extra couple of weeks for it to arrive in the UK!)
It will be interesting to see if this film translates to mainstream audiences. Even though there are half a billion users on Facebook, I'm not sure all of them are interested in a story about the company's history, no matter how good it might be.
From the trailers it looks like a drama about money, sex, betrayal, etc. Seemed pretty mainstream to me. I almost get the idea that Facebook users might find it a little over the top. I don't know anyone who takes facebook all that seriously, even though they use it everyday.
THR and Variety are notoriously tough reviewers. Besides, if you think Sorkin's going to fuck up the dialogue in a movie about communication, you're on crack. Sure, a 100% is just a leading indicator of quality, but it's a supremely high quality leading indicator.
And it’s not just Rotten Tomatoes. It seems like whenever I read something about this movie written by film critics in the last few weeks it was full of praise. Screenplay and editing must be excellent.
Brilliant. When I opened Rotten Tomatoes I saw a picture of myself, because the site is using the Facebook personalization API... Very eerie actually- not that I'm against the technology- but just noticing it for the first time on this particular movie entry...
Excited to see it. I just hope the real life facts dont get in the way of my enjoyment. At this point, if they try to make Eduardo out to be the good guy, I'm probably going to walk out of it. In every report I've read about the early stages of that company, that guy sounds like a real douche-bag.
Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House was a good read, but it sounded very embellished / made up. I didn't trust it as a read of non-fiction. And the movie 21 was just a complete piece of crap.
However this movie is directed by the guy who did Fight Club, so I'm sure it'll be turn out (and be reviewed) pretty well
Peter Travers (Rolling Stone)' only 4 star rating of the year, 100 on metacritic, which takes a mean-average of critic ratings implying perfect reviews, although sample size is 4 on metacritic, 2 of which are also on rottentomatoes. To note: Inception had 100 on several reviews on big names prior to wide-release, but settled at 74.
It is pretty safe to say that the reviews are going to be strong as the big critics have their reviews out and they lead the way. Being released in September also puts it favourable for Oscar nominations.
Roger Ebert recently wrote a bit about the gulf between fan opinion and professional reviewers. He also touches on review aggregators and what they bring to the mix.
As owner of a consultancy that makes custom web applications for clients, I'm taking the expected mainstream success of this movie as a very bullish signal about growth in the overall ecosystem of web startups.
Obie owns/runs Hashrocket which I recognize as a RoR shop, so that part is true.
As for the correlation between the movie's success and the growth of the web startup world, I disagree. I would guess that people will see this movie because it's about a website that's a part of their daily lives.
Even if I didn't know who Obie was, I don't think his comment warranted getting downvotes or being called out as bullshit.
A better-formed statement would be something along the lines of: if this movie does well in the mainstream, then there will likely be a surge of interest in web start-ups.
