It’s important to remember what a Rotten Tomatoes rating really represents: The average of a collection of individual scores from many different film critics. It is not a grade. It is not something determined by a group of critics who get together in a room and collectively decide on a number. It’s also not a measure of passion; on Rotten Tomatoes a 100 doesn’t mean a perfect movie. It means 100 percent of critics agree a movie is at least okay.
Some cinephiles hate Rotten Tomatoes. (I’ve met a few of them in my travels lately.) And that’s their perogative. Personally, I think if you understand what that Tomatometer number means, there’s always something interesting about it. (Maybe not as interesting as actually clicking through and reading some of the reviews that make up that number, but that’s a conversation for another time.)
For example, it is often fascinating to compare a Rotten Tomatoes score to the wider reputation of a movie online, especially as a title ages. Sometimes, a film that gets a middling response on its initial release grows into a classic. Other times, a movie becomes a monster hit and only later do people reflect and question what they saw in it in the first place.
Both scenarios can yield Rotten Tomatoes scores that are quite surprising. The 25 films below all fit the bill, whether because they hold a rating much higher — or much lower — than you would expect.
Movies With Surprising Rotten Tomatoes Scores
You might be shocked by the scores that these movies got from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
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