Here’s a list of the first eight movies listed, that I have seen, which are rated between 30-50% on Rotten Tomatoes:
Snow White and the Huntsman - 48%
RoboCop (2014) - 49%
Kick-Ass 2 - 30%
RED 2 - 43%
Pain & Gain - 49%
Beverly Hills Chihuahua - 41%
Hancock - 41%
Rambo (2008) - 37%
Now I’m sorry, RoboCop, Kick-Ass 2, Red 2, Pain & Gain, Hancock, and Rambo might not be classic films but rating them anywhere near to Snow White and the Huntsman and Beverly Hills Chihuahua makes about as much sense as No Soap, Radio. They may be somewhat flawed or largely forgettable, but they’re professionally made and fill time perfectly well.
You’re going to be just as satisfied by RED 2 as if you were to watch:
Die Hard 3 - 51%
Pirates of the Caribbean 1 - 79%
Mr. & Mrs Smith - 59%
Ocean’s Eleven - 82%
I could see those movies being spread over the 65-75% range, maybe, but not 43-82%. RED 2 is not “about as good” as Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Ocean’s Eleven shouldn’t be comparable to Curse of Chucky - 80% nor In Bruges - 84%.
If I go onto the IMDB and look at ratings, other than the obscenely high rankings of Tolkien and comic book movies, they at least make sense. And, even if we return the Tolkien and comic book movies, I can at least say that there is a general consistency to how things get ranked, even where I don’t agree. If something is particularly nerdish, it will get extra love on the IMDB, but otherwise, everything’s sane and I can do some mental math to correct for it.
I’ll go back and revise my statement that RT rankings are pro art film, but they’re certainly arbitrary. Looking at any particular slice of near-rated items, what criteria could possibly have gone into making those items all end up around the same place is completely baffling.
And just to go back to my “spread over the 65-75% range” statement, here are the previously listed movies as found on IMDB:
RED 2 - 6.7
Die Hard 3 - 7.6
Pirates of the Caribbean 1 - 8.1
Mr. & Mrs. Smith - 6.2
Ocean’s Eleven 7.8
Pirates obviously hit it big with the nerd crowd, so I think we can safely crop 0.5-1.0 points off of it. Mr. and Mrs. Smith is still a bit low, but that rating is comparable to This Means War and I think we can safely expect it to drop with time (IMDB ratings generally trend downwards) and will probably end up lower than Smith, so that’s as I would expect. Whereas on RT, This Means War is a 26%. Clearly, a far worse movie than Beverly Hills Chihuahua. :dubious: