Other Crap

ROTTEN TOMATOES: Movies Opening this week

• Saw 3 - 3000 screens - no advance reviews.
• Catch a Fire - 71% positive reviews -1300 screens.
  • Note: 71% does not equal 71%. For a lowbrow comedy, 71% means sheer genius, because critics underrate them. There's Something About Mary, maybe the greatest lowbrow comedy ever made, scores only 60% from the A-list critics at Rotten Tomatoes.
  • On the other hand, 71% is a mediocre (possibly even poor) score for a political thriller with sincere liberal values because that is a genre which is always overrated by critics. The Interpreter, a below-average thriller which is sometimes laughably bad, got 66% positive reviews from the same group.
  • The point is, I guess, that you should be circumspect about the 71% for Catch a Fire. Critics will praise this sort of sincere, well-meaning film and give it a positive review if there is even the tiniest justification.
• Running With Scissors - 600 screens - 24% positive reviews. General consensus - "a waste of time, money, and talent." Steve Rhodes called it, "Not just merely bad; painfully bad."