Update: Rotten Tomatoes Officially Declares WALL-E Best Reviewed Movie of 2008 So Far
It’s official, Rotten Tomatoes has declared WALL-E to be the best-reviewed movie of the year so far. It beats out Iron Man (93%, 209 reviews), the previous best film of 2008. WALL-E currently has a 96% fresh rating with 149 reviews. To update our previous story, the film also added another 4,000 votes on Internet Movie Database, bringing the film’s average user rating to 9.2 (8,972 votes). While many expected the film to drop from its #9 placement on the top 250 movies of all time, the latest Pixar movie actually moved up to #6!
WALL-E - The Best Reviewed Movie of 2008?
What movie should you see this weekend? Wanted is surprisingly good, and will likely beat your expectations. I can honestly recommend it… but the clear winner is WALL-E.
So far the little robot that could has a 98% tomatoemeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes with over 40 reviews. Actually, only one reviewer gave a negative critique. It helps to know that Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star also gave M Night’s The Happening a three out of four star review… Point is, WALL-E is the best reviewed mainstream release so far this year. We’ll see how it holds up after the weekend as 100-150 more reviews will likely be added to the database. But I’m sure it will remain above 90%. Wanted is currently scoring 68% on the tomatometer.
Best Reviewed Mainstream Releases of 2008 (so far)
1. WALL-E 98%
2. Iron Man 93%
3. Kung Fu Panda 88%
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall 86%
Disaster Movie Trailer - Why?!
On theCast tonight a discussion about the new Disaster Movie trailer turned into an examination of the spoof film. Neil from FilmSchoolRejects had to remind me that spoof movies were not always the bottom of the comedy genre. Mel Brooks and Monty Python created highbrow (or at least highbrow in comparison to contemporary spoof films) films which were not only praised during their time, but have gone on to become classics.
What is the difference? What has become of this genre. Watching the Disaster Movie trailer you will quickly realize that the film doesn’t even stick to the core concept presented in the title. What does Iron Man, Juno, Enchanted or Hancock have to do with disaster movies? Modern spoof films rely too much on recent pop culture references, likely because the audience for these films have such small attention spans. Any core story elements are lost, and the pop culture overload results in the loss of timelessness. The movie is only funny (if funny at all) at this moment in time.
A film like Spaceballs will always be funny because it works on its own. Sure, it helps that the subject of the spoof - Star Wars, is timeless, but even if you lived in a vacuum where Star Wars was never made available, Spaceballs would still be funny. You invest yourself in the characters and story, and in effect the comedy is elevated. I seriously doubt much time was spent on the story or characters in any one of the spoof comedies that have plagued our cinemas for the last decade. They are shot and dumped into theaters in a fraction of the time that it takes a real screenwriter to produce a first draft. That said, enjoy the Disaster Movie trailer below. Tell me your thoughts in the comments.
You can watch the trailer in High Definition on MySpace. Disaster Movie his theaters on August 29th 2008.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
In a shocking move, Paramount have decided to ditch the ‘2′ in favour of simply Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
When asked his thoughts on being ditched, the number ‘2′ replied:
You know what f**k them! I don’t need Michael Bay and his f**king robots anyway!
‘2′, best known for his roles in Spiderman 2, X2 and Terminator 2, has had a rather depressing career as of late, having been ditched from most major blockbusters. With its departure from Transformers, in 2009 we can now expect to only see ‘2′ in The Pink Panther 2 and Night of the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian. It is also unclear whether ‘2′ will still appear in upcoming Iron Man 2, or whether he will be ditched again for creative differences.
It sucks to be a number in Hollywood…