Rotten Tomatoes 100 Best Reviewed Sci-Fi Films

I find it rather odd that they put #2 and #8 in the sci-fi genre. IMDb puts eternal sunshine of the spotless mind in the Drama / Romance genre. While The Host can be put in many genres, it is not a typical sci-fi movie.

The others I haven't seen.

I think "The Host" has social satire which keeps it from being trapped in the horror movie genre, so I wasn't so much surprised it was on the list as being at the top of the list. What happened -- did they hire HAL to compute their adjustments?

"Eternal Mind" I don't believe had any science in it, except maybe psychiatry or space/time shifting like in an imagined alternate universe, and that's really a genre stretch. It's really a metaphysical fantasy. Sci-Fi has to have a dominant theme based on some scientific premise. A time travel story like "Somewhere In Time" also isn't sci-fi as there is no real explanation why Christopher Reeve travels back in time. It's a romantic fantasy.

Look at all 100 and you'll see a few more off-the-wall inclusions (but no startling exclusions that I could immediately detect).

Part of the problem is, if you want to abide by the true characteristics of real sci-fi, there aren't enough sci-fi films to even embark on such a list.
Getting more down to the nitty-gritty, there are really great sci-fi classics
that would not find enough of an audience. They took a respectable series like the robot stories of Isaac Azimov and stirred them together in to a Will Smith vehicle. Of course, for the most part that's what Hollywood does.

I skimmed by all 100 so I should spend a little more time scrutinizing -- I just feel their "formula" does not really compute. "Daisy, Daisy...."

Personally, I never really liked rotten tomatoes. A site that puts shrek on the top-ten list really needs to reconsider their criterias. I mean, it's and ok movie but, top ten?

I much prefer IMDb.

Where's "Shrek?"

Rank T-meter Title No. of Reviews
1. 100% Toy Story 2 120
2. 100% Bus 174 71
3. 100% Deliver Us From Evil 66
4. 100% The Wizard of Oz 60
5. 100% The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night 59
6. 100% The Taste of Others 58
7. 100% The Godfather 53
8. 100% Rear Window 53
9. 100% Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 52
10. 100% Blood Simple 52
11. 100% The Sweet Hereafter 51
12. 100% The Third Man 50
13. 100% The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 49
14. 100% Sunset Boulevard 47
15. 100% Sense and Sensibility 46
16. 100% Modern Times 45
17. 100% Taxi Driver 45
18. 100% King Kong 44
19. 100% The Player 44
20. 100% On the Waterfront 43
21. 100% Seven Samurai 43
22. 100% Toy Story 43
23. 100% Citizen Kane 42
24. 100% Do the Right Thing 42
25. 100% The Philadelphia Story 42
26. 100% Singin' in the Rain 42
27. 100% Vertigo 41
28. 100% The Manchurian Candidate 40
29. 100% North by Northwest 40
30. 100% Bull Durham 39
31. 100% A Streetcar Named Desire 39
32. 100% Airplane! 38
33. 100% Chinatown 38
34. 100% The Princess Bride 37
35. 100% Rosemary's Baby 37
36. 100% Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. 37
37. 100% Red 36
38. 100% All About Eve 35
39. 100% The Bride of Frankenstein 35
40. 100% The Crying Game 35
41. 100% The Night of the Hunter 35
42. 100% Boyz N the Hood 35
43. 100% Aliens 34
44. 100% A Fish Called Wanda 34
45. 100% M 34
46. 100% The Road Warrior 34
47. 100% Secret of Roan Inish 34
48. 100% All the President's Men 34
49. 100% Laura 33
50. 100% Sweet Smell of Success


Rotten Tomatoes has no panel determining a top ten -- it's either the critics or the user's ratings.

Ok, so it was toy story 2, not shrek(which is even stranger). But I'm none the wiser on the rating system. Does that mean that nearly all critics thought that toy story 2 was the best movie they ever saw?

Their list makes some sense but ranking them by the number of reviews because all fifty are 100% is hardly statistically scientific.

The only list IMDb has only the user top movies. Here's their top ten:

1. 9.1 The Godfather (1972)
2. 9.1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
3. 8.9 The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. 8.8 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
5. 8.8 Pulp Fiction (1994)
6. 8.8 Schindler's List (1993)
7. 8.8 Casablanca (1942)
8. 8.8 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
9. 8.8 Shichinin no samurai (1954)
10. 8.8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

But back to the topic at hand as we digress.

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God, Minority Report, while slick, was crap. There's a lot of stuff they could've selected ahead of it, including 2001, Blade Runner and even an oldie (while not slick, they had great stories) like Forbidden Planet or The Day The Earth Stood Still. And Star Wars V ahead of IV? What kinda crack were they smokin'?

I love good science fiction. There is not that much of it to make a long list.

Blade Runner is a superior movie . "Tmater's" got its head up in the dark orifii. "BlADE..." stands up , 30 years later, much better than the "Star Wars "original trilogy"
Jurassic Park should be up there, also.The original "Jouney to the Center of the Earth" with James MAson and Pat Boone should be up there also.

ET is , maybe, second tir. Its definately not The Best SCi-Fi. Thats boolsheet.

So far, you're all really in my track -- I'm still puzzling over how their formula worked. Looks more like some for of handicapping. As far as the general quality and use of the site, it does do a better job at clocking the critical reviews than IMDb. Both make it rather difficult to find the all time user ratings.

This is their existing list in "Best of Rotten Tomatoes."Top Movies
Best of Rotten Tomatoes
Best of Rotten Tomatoes

BEST OF:


* Only movies with 20 or more rated reviews are counted

Rank T-meter Title No. of Reviews

1. 100% The Bride of Frankenstein 35
2. 100% Aliens 34
3. 100% The Road Warrior 34
4. 100% The Terminator 31
5. 100% Invasion of the Body Snatchers 31
6. 100% Frankenstein 29
7. 100% Sleeper 27
8. 100% The Invisible Man 25
9. 100% Them! 21
10. 99% Metropolis 70
11. 98% E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 85
12. 97% The Incredibles 218
13. 97% The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 206
14. 97% Spirited Away 145
15. 97% E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial The 20th Anniversary 79
16. 97% Alien 69
17. 97% The Empire Strikes Back 60
18. 97% Brazil 39
19. 97% Solaris 36
20. 97% Repo Man 34
21. 97% Invasion of the Body Snatchers 32
22. 97% Terminator 2: Judgment Day 30
23. 96% The Truman Show 82
24. 95% Star Wars 55
25. 95% Back to the Future 41
26. 95% Things to Come 20
27. 94% The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 227
28. 94% Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 208
29. 94% Alien: The Director's Cut 49
30. 94% 2001: A Space Odyssey 47
31. 94% Mad Max 35
32. 94% Blade Runner - The Director's Cut 35
33. 94% Close Encounters of the Third Kind 34
34. 94% Forbidden Planet 34
35. 94% Time Bandits 31
36. 93% Spider-Man 2 229
37. 93% The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 183
38. 93% Princess Mononoke 61
39. 93% Superman: The Movie 45
40. 93% Young Frankenstein 44
41. 93% Edward Scissorhands 42
42. 93% Day the Earth Stood Still 41
43. 93% Ghostbusters 41
44. 93% Ghost in the Shell 30
45. 92% The Host 128
46. 92% Gojira 52
47. 92% Blade Runner 39
48. 91% Minority Report 216
49. 91% Children of Men 186
50. 91% Metropolis 53
51. 91% Star Trek: First Contact 44
52. 91% The Fly 43
53. 91% Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 35
54. 91% Re-Animator 32
55. 91% Fantastic Voyage 23
56. 91% The Brother From Another Planet 22
57. 90% Galaxy Quest 103
58. 90% Men in Black 60
59. 90% Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut 42
60. 90% 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 20
61. 89% Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 218
62. 89% Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 204
63. 89% THX 1138 46
64. 89% A Clockwork Orange 36
65. 89% Delicatessen 36
66. 89% Westworld 27
67. 88% Shrek 2 197
68. 88% The Crow 34
69. 88% They Live 33
70. 88% Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 32
71. 88% The Thing From Another World 24
72. 87% X2: X-Men United 212
73. 87% 12 Monkeys 47
74. 87% Save The Green Planet! 39
75. 87% Altered States 31
76. 86% The Matrix 118
77. 86% Superman II 37
78. 86% Planet of the Apes 36
79. 86% Alphaville 22
80. 86% Seconds 22
81. 86% Excalibur 21
82. 86% Sunshine 21
83. 85% Paprika 62
84. 85% Robocop 39
85. 85% Jurassic Park 33
86. 85% Time After Time 27
87. 85% Akira 27
88. 85% Fahrenheit 451 26
89. 85% The War of the Worlds 26
90. 85% The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 20
91. 85% Journey to the Center of the Earth 20
92. 85% The Man Who Fell to Earth 20
93. 85% X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes 20
94. 85% Batman - Mask of the Phantasm 20
95. 84% Bridge to Terabithia 125
96. 84% 2046 105
97. 84% Open Your Eyes 43
98. 84% Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure 31
99. 84% The City of Lost Children 25
100. 83% Paris, Je T'aime 95


Different weighting which they probably understand if they've had enough to drink.

With that "formula" it pretty much means that any controversial movie will end up way down on the list. Only the so-so neutral movies will end up with a decent score... or something.

Neither do I like the fact that they put all these adventure movies in the Sci-Fi genre. There isn't much science to harry potter or lotr...

Me thinks i'll stick to IMDb for a general idea of what movie to watch, than judge for myself.

It may kinda look that way but they're using their own kind of math and letting a computer do the walking.

Here's my Top Ten:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Blade Runner
3. Metropolis
4. A Clockwork Orange
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still
6. Alien
7. Things to Come
8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
9. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
10. Forbidden Planet

Incidentally the new sci-fi film said to be spawned by "2001" has been released at overseas venues and already has drawn good reviews:

http://www.sunshinedna.com/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sunshine/


Not sure why the title is the same as the Ray Finnes historical epic, but this film looks promising.

You're right, of course, that LOTR and Harry Potter are not sci-fi, but also I didn't find them in the new list on RT. I don't go on their forum very often but I'd sure like to comment that I think there criteria and research is flawed.

Actually, there haven't been enough fantasy films made to make up a list of 100 which is why I think they are on the sub-genre of sci-fi on the original list.

I've never found any category of genre lists on IMDb and one thing I don't like about their web design is that it is hard to find anything. Try to find the list of Oscar winners, for instance, and you have to do some peculiar searching. I find the new design even more disconcerting and no user friendly. You should see the IMDb PRO. It's like a maze.

Actually, I left off part of the cut and paste on that last list. It's listed as sci-fi/fantasy, so those movies do belong there. I use IMDb a lot but I will still give kudos to RT for some smart site design and easy to use categories. One criticism -- why do they make one surf through that whole list and show one page of the list? Well, I guess so you're flipping the the Internet ads!

I have quite the opposite impression of IMDb, you can find all the functions just using the search field. One of the reasons IMDb might be a bit trickier is the fact that there is so friggin much material. There are several pages worth of trivia and "goofs" on each movie. Never really checked, but I couldn't imagine RT having that.

Their search leaves much to be desired. It consistently misses stuff that I can find a great deal easier on Google. In fact, I have Google desktop and will use it more than IMDb or RT to search for movie data. It will bring up IMDb listings at the top as well. I still find it curious that they don't bother to do anything but user ratings (which I seldom trust). "Shawshank Redemption," is the best of the King adaptations, for instance, but it's not nearly one of the best movies ever made. It's lost in thousands of two 1/2 and three star movies. There are others. It's commendable that the user list of best movies does put "Citizen Kane," for instance, up in somewhere near the top but I would never use that list as a recommendation to see a film.

As far as material, the IMDb PRO is gargantuan.

Actually, I like using both sites and www.film.com and www.mrqe.com. But I will still generally Google it!