Posted on 08/24/2026 4:25:42 AM PDT by nikos1121
As a Greek-American, I went to see The Odyssey three weeks ago with eager anticipation. At the time, the Rotten Tomatoes scores had dropped into the 60s—significantly down from the high 90s where they started.
I ended up walking out after 90 minutes. Two other couples had already bailed around the one-hour mark. Only one guy remained sitting up in high right corner of the theater.
It was clearly the worst movie I have ever seen, and after 70 years of watching movies, that says a lot.
My brother, who still lives in Chicago where we grew up, saw it the day before. He leans left but is a sharp, reliable judge of cinema. He thought it was downright terrible, but to his credit, he didn't say a word about it until I’d seen it for myself.
I was furious and deeply disappointed. I felt like I was eight years old again and someone had just stolen my bike.
I was so moved to speak out that I sat down and took the time to write a thoughtful, honest review for Rotten Tomatoes, giving it a well-deserved 1 star. I posted my piece here, too, and almost everyone in the thread agreed with me. Anyone reading my review would know I’d actually watched the film—I pointed out that the classic Sinbad the Sailor movies of my youth were far better than this snoozefest. In closing, I wrote that if I’m ever on my deathbed with only a few hours left to live, I’m going to pray to God to give me back the time I wasted on The Odyssey, including the drive to and from the theater.
Now, to get to the point: the RT scores have somehow bounced right back up to the mid-90s. I went back to read the recent reviews, and they’re almost entirely one-sentence, 5-star fluff posts.
And guess what? My detailed review was completely scrubbed.
Has this happened to anyone else?
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Check out the history and current ownership of Rotten Tomatoes.
Tell us all, please?
Online reviews are easily and very often manipulated.....mostly by bots to pump them up.
Your observation of the one liner highly rated reviews is a dead giveaway.
I really don’t believe any reviews I read online anymore unless it’s a reputable source.
Per AI, sourced to Rotten Tomatoes...
“Rotten Tomatoes is owned by Fandango Media, which operates as a joint venture. The majority owner is Versant (the media company spun off from Comcast in January 2026 containing former NBCUniversal cable assets), and the minority owner is Warner Bros. Discovery.”
Now check out the company credits for Nolan’s agitprop...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258/companycredits/
See where I’m going with this...?
:-)
Ultimately, all of this is a sign of the end times for this nation, and possibly, the world. It appears this nation has fallen into a cesspool of evil and seems to be enjoying it instead of climbing out. That is my review.
Do you like any of Christopher Nolan’s other work? Did you like Interstellar, for instance?
If RT tossed a load at “Oppenheimer”, it would’ve been appropriate. The whole thing seems like a series of movie trailer videos strung together.
CoPilot Excerpt...
Rotten Tomatoes is owned by Fandango, a joint venture with majority owner Versant and minority owner Warner Bros., which is part of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Rotten Tomatoes, the popular film and television review-aggregation website, was originally launched in 1998 by Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. In January 2010, it was acquired by Flixster, which was later purchased by Warner Bros. in 2011.
In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster were sold to Fandango, an online movie ticketing service, with Warner Bros. retaining a minority stake in the merged entities
Fandango itself is a joint venture, with Versant as the majority owner and Warner Bros. holding a minority stake. Warner Bros. is now part of Warner Bros. Discovery, reflecting the broader corporate structure behind the platform
This ownership structure means that while Fandango manages the operations of Rotten Tomatoes, strategic decisions and corporate oversight are influenced by both Versant and Warner Bros.
I haven’t used RT in years.
When I want movie reviews I go to YouTubers.
My recommended list who call ‘em as they see them...
WDW Pro, Nerdrotic, Film Threat, Disparu, Critical Drinker..
There are more, but that’s my shortlist. :-)
I remember the movie Chapaquiddick, based largely on the book Senatorial Privilege by Leo Damore, a Democrat and reporter, at the time, for the Cape Cod Times. The movie was bad enough, but they pulled some punches, Damore did not.
Did they at least give you the courtesy of a notification and explanation, or did they "stealth" delete your review. I suspect you are correct in your judgment of Rotten Tomatoes, the site has a left wing bias and will remove as inappropriate reviews that do not support the narrative. E.g., cops murdered St. George de Floyd, trans women are women, etc.
Yes, all of us have figured out, that what you say is true, but still up til recently, I’ve used RT as a certain gauge before I am going to venture out an pay to watch a movie, esp if you’re in a hotel room in Tupelo.
In other words, I thought it was reliably honest, and will post good or bad what people write.
But, my 1 star review was scrubbed! That’s different.
Now, thinking back over the last few years, I’ve seen some films where the RT review was way off the mark. Usually, the high numbers don’t match the movie.
But this means, too, that the critics are getting paid off.
Here’s the bottom line, I have not run into anyone who has seen this movie, who said it was great.
Death to all Internet monopolies! Big and small.
I’ve never written a review for rt. Quit checking the ratings when good movies were given low scores. I rarely look at online reviews for products. The ability and likelihood of ratings manipulate is to high for me to trust.
Everyone I know that has actually seen the movie told me the movie was very good. Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie yet but plan to do so this upcoming weekend.
I noticed that the box office numbers dropped significantly after the showings that sold out months before release. Word of mouth has been awful.
You better see post 15
Yes, and repeat for emphasis. RT is no longer an independent platform. It is a tool of two of the Bigs.
The viewer ratings are easily manipulated.
The critics’ ratings were undermined some years ago when the woke mind virus ran amuck. The RT critics list traditionally had been people with substantial track records, many of them professional critics for major publications who did it as their day job. The pros are often worth reading, and there we can pick the ones we trust.
Suddenly the RT critics list ballooned with clown car reviewers. Some are complete idiots. Some are the most narrow minded agenda driven zealots you can imagine. RT still is a useful review aggregator, but one now has to scroll through and pick out the good ones.
What props up the house of cards is that the RT ratings had a long run as something tangible. It was never the best rating system in my mind because of its binary rotten/fresh methodology, but it could be taken for what it was worth if read in the context of other ratings that offered other crosscuts. But much of the public doesn’t realize that RT is not what it was.
RT ratings still show up in film promotion and news stories about movies. But that should end. It’s consumer fraud, akin the pretending that a Harvard or Stanford or Berkeley degree still means what it used to.
I started paying more attention to Letterboxd years ago when I discovered its tools for logging my own viewing. Letterboxd too was sold not long ago, but the founders remain involved and remain committed to keeping its independent, ground-up flavor. But time marches on and things change.
As an Irish American, I can’t imagine what we did before Rotten Tomatoes.
I saw Jaws at the Shore theater with my sister. I remember we were smoking cigarettes and eating popcorn. I am still waiting for the review. I read the book and Hooper is a blond, old money, Protestant (WASP) love- interest of the old money, WASP, Mrs. Brody. Hooper and the Irish Sea worn Quint provide more of a challenge for the also Irish American Brody aboard the Orca. The casting is completely wrong.
Well, Quint is correct. The kids are well- cast. The mayor is believable. One of the towns people is clearly from Brooklyn. She wouldn’t have owned a hotel on the island. It throws the thing completely off
If I had a rotten tomato with me at the theater I’d have thrown it
My kids adore Hooper. They find him funny. When I tell them he was completely miscast, they stare at me with a blank look. They shake their heads then continue raving about the film. They like it. No matter what I say.
When I do my own film rendition of Jaws, the way it’s supposed to be done, I expect Rotten Tomatoes to be honest, authentic, raving.
If one person doesn’t like it, or if after box office sales reach 1.5 billion, as the original, and the odyssey did after one month, then I’ll show them. Then the kids will know, I am right.
“I ended up walking out after 90 minutes”
“Anyone reading my review would know I’d actually watched the film”
I get it. It sucked so badly that you couldn’t stay. Butt...
Those two statements are at odds.
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