A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 100-RATED ROTTEN TOMATOES FILMS: Part 1

The weekend is upon us, so my next two days will feature entertainment.  However, there are several crucial matters of extreme importance.

• The most important, for me, and rest of Hawaii, is Hurricane Nola.
• She is at this moment on a path pointed directly at the Big Island of Hawaii

• 
  HOWEVER, AND THIS IS THE CRUCIAL MATTER, NOLA IS EXPECTED VERY SHORTLY TO MAKE A LEFT TURN, THEN HEAD WEST, LEAVING THE STATE ONLY WITH A LOT OF RAIN.
• If Nola keeps going straight north, the damages will be catastrophic for the Big Island.

• 
  If Nola swerves a little west, but only a small amount, she will soon strengthen into a Category 4 and totally wipe out Maui County.
• If Nola turns a little more westward, this Category 4 hurricane will cataclysmically devastate Oahu, where I live.

• 
  Just a little more westward, and Kauai experiences another Hurricane Iniki.
• However, if Hurricane Nola performs exactly like models predict and take a complete left turn, only a lot of rain (up to 35 inches for the Big Island, and somewhat less for Maui).
• The next couple of days could determine the future of Hawaii.
• 
  The Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico has not had any hurricanes this year.
• Their weather is influenced by the strong El Nino pattern in the Pacific, which ameliorates ocean storm conditions in the Atlantic.
• The last time the Atlantic and Gulf had no hurricanes was 112 years ago, in 1914.
• 
  However, the East Coast will this weekend be threatened by something called a nor'easter, from the Mid-Atlantic up through New England.
• Winds could approach hurricane force in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
• Waves should reach as high as 18 feet.
• 
  The 3-day summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump was heavy on pomp and light on substance.  They no doubt will meet for the third time this year at the November APEC gathering  in China.

• 
  Actually went well, for a lot of goodwill was shared.
• But there were no breakthroughs regarding Taiwan, AI and related key matters.
• Almost like they coordinated what to wear.  Note same ties.

Well, now into my topic of the day.  How I determine what films to view on all those streaming channels I now can watch.  Almost always, I depend on Rotten Tomatoes ratings to help me decide.

• Two years ago I provided an intro to Rotten Tomatoes.  I also asked if this photo is real.
• There are two ratings/film:  by reviewers and audiences.
• 
  However, for the Wikipedia list, only reviewers are used.
• Somewhere between 500,000 to a million films have so far been made.  This from Google AI.
• Also from Google AI, there are 480 films with Rotten Tomatoes 100 scores, where the minimum threshold is 20 reviewers.  Wikipedia has this list.

• 
  Using a number of 500 100-rated films and 500,000 total made, my math says that one-tenth of one percent thus make this 100 list.
• Variety picked the 30 highest rated movies of all time with 100% Rotten Tomatoes scores.  Never heard of more than half of them.

• 
  If only one reviewer does not give a film this 100% rating, than it gets a 99% rating.  To quote from Wikipedia.

The 100% rating is vulnerable to a film critic purposely submitting a negative review for notoriety. For example, Lady Bird had a 100% rating based on 196 positive reviews when a film critic submitted a negative review solely in response to the perfect rating.^[7] To date, Lady Bird has a 99% rating with 395 positive reviews and four negative reviews.^[8] Paddington 2 held a perfect rating from its release in 2017 until a film critic published a negative review in June 2021.^[9] To date, Paddington 2 has a 99% rating with 251 positive reviews and two negative reviews.^[10] The 100% rating could also be affected by rediscovering negative reviews, as in the case with Citizen Kane, when an 80-year-old negative review from the Chicago Tribune affected its former 100% rating with 115 reviews.^[11] As of August 2026, Citizen Kane has a 99% rating with 136 positive reviews and one negative review.^[12]

• 
  Can't be too sorry about Lady Bird because I found it utterly boring and definitely would not have given it a 100% rating.  Maybe more like 65%.
• Got to say something about Paddington films, and there are three of them:  Paddington, (2014) Paddington  2 (2017) and Paddington in Peru (2024)

• 
  I don't like animated movies, Paddington is computer generated.  About a young male bear from Peru who finds a home with the Brown family in London.  What can be more prosaic?
• But for reasons I can't explain, I've been wanting to see them.  However, I can't seem to find a free version of Paddington, which got a 96  score from reviewers and 81 from audiences. Amazon Prime does carry it for $3.99.
• Paddington 2 can be found on HBO Max, for free, because I have all the streaming stations, except for Apple TV.

• 
  Paddington in Peru received 93/90 scores from Rotten Tomatoes.  Netflix has it.
• There will be a Paddington 4.

So do I only watch films with extremely high Rotten Tomatoes scores?  

• Not only, but usually.
• Take a 2013 film Movie 43, for example.  Here is the Red Band trailer.
• Got scores of 5 from reviewers and 25 from the audience.
• But featured stars like Halle Berry, Kate Bosworth, Gerard Butler, Richard Gere, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pratt, Dennis Quaid, Liev Schreiber, Emma Stone, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet and more.
• So I just had to take a look, and as terrible as Rotten Tomatoes scores were, I watched till the end.
• Read my review.
• Very interesting.

As Part 2 of this series, I will lead you to those 100-rated films.  Plus a half-dozen I recently watched, which for two of them, I actually got so bored that I stopped viewing them way before the end.  One 100-rated movie, called Black Narcissus, starred Deborah Kerr and Jean Simmons.

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