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Thinks reviewing movies is an "art" that cannot be left to the uneducated, ignorant masses. You may remember Brett Ratner as the Hollywood director who always looks like he just wandered off the set of a seedy porno that pays the actors in pills. You may also remember him helming the utter failure and disappointment that was X-Men 3: The Last Time We're Letting Brett Fucking Ratner Direct An X-Men Movie" as well as a study on the effects of steroid use starring Chris Tucker that went by the name of Rush Hour. Fucking seriously, Chris goes from Ruby Rod to Barry Bonds over the course of the franchise.

Anyhow, he's bitching about the internet.

The worst thing that we have in today’s movie culture is Rotten Tomatoes

No. The worst thing we have in today's movie culture is the lazy, repetitive, brainless mistakes that arrogant pricks like you keep making and getting away with. The best flick Brett Ratner ever directed was Hercules in 2014 with Dwayne Johnson. But why are his panties in such a twist?

Here's the whole quote.

“The worst thing that we have in today’s movie culture is Rotten Tomatoes,” said Ratner, whose company RatPac Entertainment co-financed Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (among dozens of other Warner Bros. titles). “I think it’s the destruction of our business. I have such respect and admiration for film criticism. When I was growing up film criticism was a real art. And there was intellect that went into that. And you would read Pauline’s Kael’s reviews, or some others, and that doesn’t exist anymore. Now it’s about a number. A compounded number of how many positives vs. negatives. Now it’s about, ‘What’s your Rotten Tomatoes score?’ And that’s sad, because the Rotten Tomatoes score was so low on Batman v Superman I think it put a cloud over a movie that was incredibly successful.”

Traditional film critics have had their heads thoroughly up their ass on occasions too numerous to count, even if I restrict the entire universe of critics to Roger Ebert. This appears to be Brett bitching about how Marvel is absolutely beating the everloving shit out of him in a genre where he think he's god's motherfucking gift.

But wait, it gets better.

“People don’t realize what goes into making a movie like that,” Ratner continued. “It’s mind-blowing. It’s just insane, it’s hurting the business, it’s getting people to not see a movie. In Middle America it’s, ‘Oh, it’s a low Rotten Tomatoes score so I’m not going to go see it because it must suck.’ But that number is an aggregate and one that nobody can figure out exactly what it means, and it’s not always correct.

Several points:

1) I don't give a fuck what goes into making a movie. I care what I get out of it. It's not my fault you took something and turned it into a boring nothing.

2) In Middle America? Are you shitting me? The tech savvy Middle America is beholden to the great shadow of Rotten Tomatoes while the elite in NYC, LA, and Frisco (hi, Troy) somehow get it "correct."

3) WTF is "correct?" And who the hell can't figure out what an aggregate score is? Are there people out there who visit Rotten Tomatoes but don't know about dictionary.com?

In short, fuck Brett Ratner, he's a talentless dick.

Brett Ratner is clearly a bigoted moron. Yes, it's the audience's fault your movies are complete dogshit. Makes sense!

And spending a lot of time, money, and effort on something doesn't automatically make it good. I wonder what Ratner thought of Waterworld, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, etc.?

His ignorant ramblings do touch on one thing of note though...I think Rotten Tomatoes has led to "band wagon reviewing" in some cases. Reviewers see a movie getting great or bad scores and that skews their score. It's very human to agree with the masses.

Some of the effect goes the other way, too, though. Expectations can make a huge difference. So if a movie is being totally trashed and your expectations are low you may be pleasantly surprised by how not awful it seems, and vice versa.

Hey I liked Rush Hour.

Rush Hour was great. Has he made a good movie since?

For some reason, in my head, Brett Ratner was also Data.

I googled him, cuz something felt off, and I was like "Wow he looks different" Spiner... Ratner... whatever.

Also: Brent ... Brett... whatever.

TPRJones wrote: Also: Brent ... Brett... whatever.

Weird, I edited the original post to say that too, but apparently I hit preview instead of submit. But yeah, that, too.

TPRJones wrote: Some of the effect goes the other way, too, though. Expectations can make a huge difference. So if a movie is being totally trashed and your expectations are low you may be pleasantly surprised by how not awful it seems, and vice versa.

True. I thought the original Ghost Busters was very "meh". It wasn't bad, but all the hype led me to believe I'd be seeing a Blazing Saddles level comedy. It wasn't even a Stripes level comedy.