DBoy's Blog: I Love Countdowns

This post relates to: Star Wars, The Godfather: The Game, The Movies

As I was browsing through the Interwebs last night, I thought I'd take a peek at one of my favorite websites, Rotten Tomatoes, to see if the mighty Dark Knight had finally been surpassed at the box office during the weekend and, to my mild surprise, it has.  Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr, has taken it's place at the top of the box office.  I've been hearing great things about the movie and plan on seeing it soon.  But, as I was preparing to change sites, something caught my eye.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rotten Tomatoes, let me fill you in on what the site is.  Sponsored by IGN, the site compiles reviews from renowned movie critics onto a scale called The Tomatometer.  The higher the meter, the better the movie is.  Critics also sound off with their own mini reviews, and even the reader can rate movies and post reviews of their own.  Now, I know some of you out there will say that they'd rather trust their own instincts instead of a critic's assessment of the movie, and I don't blame you, but I've found myself agreeing with most of the scores given on the site.

Anyhow, I was interested by this countdown section they have on Rotten Tomatoes where they list the best movies in different genres.  For example, they compile the 100 Best Reviewed Sci-Fi movies of all time (my favorite genre), the 50 Best Reviewed TV Adaptations of all time, and so on.  There's also a very interesting countdown where they take every Best Picture Oscar winner and list them according to their reviews.  The positioning of some of the movies in those countdowns had me dumbfounded but, for the most part, it's what I expected.

Another interesting section is The Battle Of The Blockbusters.  The first list contains the biggest moneymakers of all time, the second contains the biggest ticket sellers, while the third compares the Tomatometers from each list.  I was shocked to see that Titanic had made over $600 million.  I mean, the movie was good and all, but $600 million?!  As for Gone With The Wind, the leader in the 2nd column, after adjusting it's ticket sales to today's prices, it grossed over $1.37 billion!!  One thing's for sure, it's a much better movie than Titanic can ever hope to be.  I'm also glad to see that Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is 2nd in both countdowns.

I hope you enjoyed this blog and I'd like to hear what you think about those lists.  On a side note, I'm going back to work tomorrow.  Vacation's over.  Ugh.