A whole lot of rottenness at Rotten Tomatoes.

[AJTaliesen]

It stands to reason. You’re spending $100,000,000 to market a movie, why WOULDN’T you spam review sites? It wouldn’t cost even a fraction of your marketing budget. As a studio, it would be stupid not to.

What’s always amazed me is the terrifying number of people (even in this forum) who claim it’s not the case.

 

[p51]

Same with Yelp. A business can pay to have bad reviews removed.
Happened to one of mine, for a business that royally screwed me over, it got removed later because the business paid (and a friend heard the owner complaining about "having to pay" to maintain only positive reviews).

 

[JediMichael]

Growing up in Orlando, FL, the big movie critic for the orlando sentinel was Jay Boyer.
When the SW Special Editions came out in 97, he gave each 3 stars. I remember thinking he was so wacked and I didn't care what his rating were, as we shouldn't anyways. (Maybe now in hindsight, the CGI parts do deserve 3 stars, but thats besides the point)

I believe he gave Fight Club only 1 star. I knew a guy that when stating a production company back then, at least for a while, called it, Rage against Boyer productions, as he was a HUGE Fight Club fan....and Rage Against the Machine fan as well and was super mad at Jay Boyer for that rating.
I long ago stopped caring what critics say.....as well as the Academy Awards, mainly after Saving Private Ryan lost to Shakespeare in Love.
Every single person I know, even the ones that like those sappy type love stories thought that that was such a scam. Come to find out that a lot of the influence for that movie to win was because of Harvey Weinstein......a guy with too much power to get what he wanted. Well, hes at least paying for the really bad part of that now.

 

[Halliwax]

I never cared or listened to rotten tomatoes or IMDB

I’ve always gone to the most reliable source, therpf entertainment section, those guys know their stuff and are wicked honest

 

[AJTaliesen]

I never cared or listened to rotten tomatoes or IMDB

I’ve always gone to the most reliable source, therpf entertainment section, those guys know their stuff and are wicked honest

Damn right!

Although, in the spirit of that honestly, you should know, the only reason I've never sold my opinion to a studio is because they've never made me an offer.

 

[Wakeem]

Personally, if you like and enjoy movies, why are you checking scores to begin with? I only checked Rotten Tomatoes once or twice when I heard about the site and it didn't work or didn't load right without cookies and I never went back.

All these review totaling sites are just for the masses who need to see I guess an 8 or 9 to see a movie or play a videogame. And of course the company marketing departments pat themselves on the back for getting all the reviewers on the same page. I never believed in grading creativity anyways.

Out of curiosity I just checked IMDB for Star Trek Wrath of Khan and Into Darkness. Somehow, both are rated 7.7?! But Into Darkness has more votes with 796K versus Wrath of Khan's 128K.

If you like movies and Star Trek you should check out both. But I consider Into Darkness a garbage remake with only one or two notable scenes. I'm shocked that it has the same rating and people not knowing might think it's equal to Wrath of Khan.

 

[mailalan]

"I'm shocked, SHOCKED to find gambling is going on in here!"

One of my all-time favorite movie lines!

 

[adamszki427]

paying for bad reviews to be removed is a really shady practice that says alot bout the state of... lets say "the world".... surprising? is anything surprising these days?
ive never really used sites like IMDB or Rotten tomatoes for the reviews, just things like cast and release dates etc. i dont know if i really see the need for them.... i see a movie trailer, i form an opinion as to whether i want to see it, then i either do or dont. even if a good friend tells me a movie is crap i will likely still see it had i wanted to in the begining. transversely if someone tells me "oh man that movie is epic you have to see it" it wouldn't do much to change my mind if i had decided not to see it after watching the trailer.

 

[jts1031]

Never forget that Roger Ebert wrote a movie, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," that Gene Siskel gave 0 stars to. This was in the days before they had a show together.