Thursday, June 9, 2011

TIME-WASTER OF THE DAY:  Slate.com received access to the raw data at RottenTomatoes.com, so now you can create graphs tracking an individual actor's or director's critical reactions over time.  The American actor whose films have the highest average critical response?  John Ratzenberger, of course.

6 comments:

  1. Watts9:44 AM

    That reminds me of some bit of trivia that used to be true about Jeff Goldblum and "box office" because he'd been in the first two Jurassic Parks and Independence Day.

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  2. George Clooney's is the most impresssive one I saw.  Some poor performers early, but once he hit with Out of Sight he found his place and has just absolutely been in control of his career.

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  3. I noticed on the X-Men commercials they're running during the NBA Finals that they're stamping a "Certified Fresh" at the end of it.  I'm sure that will be abused, but good for Rotten Tomatoes.  They provide a great service and it's cool for them to get some mainstream love.

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  4. Tosy and Cosh1:28 PM

    And for a brief time in the 80s, wasn't Harrison Ford in something like 5 of the top ten films of all time, courtesy Star Wars/Indiana Jones?

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  5. I don't think you can really compare reviews from two decades ago to reviews today. Reviewing was a more 'professional' and better compensated profession in the 80s and 90s compared to the 00s. The quality and quantity of reviewers has changed, so the numbers aren't apples to apples.

    Certain types of films get high aggregate scores because they resonate with the kind of people who are in the reviewing business, and that often doesn't correlate with most people's taste in films. For me personally, I find Rotten Tomatoes useful, but I generally ignore the aggregate, and pay attention to a few big name reviewers. Some, like Manohla Dargis (at least for me), are almost a perfect mirror image of my taste, anything she hates, I love, and anything she loves, I can safely avoid.

    As far as actors go, Michael Caine's graph has an interesting sawtoothed pattern. He seems to be one of the more paycheck/art/paycheck/free trip to exotic location/art/paycheck actors in the business.

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  6. Nancy5:50 PM

    Surprised at Meryl Streep's jagged pattern!

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