The streak reaches 18!
Bill Klem umpired 18 World Series, Chicago Cubs reliever George Washington (Zip) Zabel once pitched 18 innings in relief (eventually winning the game) and now 20th Century Fox has made 18 movies that couldn't even score a mediocre 50 rating on Rotten Tomatoes. To recap:
Everyone knows Fox makes bad movies, but just how bad? We've been keeping a running tab on the lousy reviews for each of their new movies. With the exception of "Horton Hears a Who" last spring, Fox has released 18 movies since last summer's "Simpson's Movie," none of which have earned a 50 rating on the Web's leading aggregator of movie reviews.
This Friday's new film, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," kept the streak alive, scoring a measly 31 on Rotten Tomatoes. Our reviewer wasn't all that impressed, a reaction shared by most critics. The Charlotte Observer's Lawrence Toppman, hardly a fancy-pants big city snob, put it best: "They've given us a mash-up of a procedural police thriller, a B-grade mad scientist movie of the 1950s and some mumbo-jumbo about God's influence that hasn't a real shock or surprise throughout."
What's the potential No. 19 film in the streak? "Mirrors," a thriller with Kiefer Sutherland and Amy Smart, that's due out Aug. 15. Let's just say, considering Sutherland's big-screen track record, that we've got our fingers double-crossed.
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox/ Diyah Pera
While Darryl F. Zanuck produced some stinkers, his touch - guided by the seat of his pants and social consciousness - produced many a masterpiece.
Sir Rupert has submerged an icon of quality into a low brow tabloid studio and filled with the Jingoism he thought necessary to allow him access to media ownership in conservative America. Murdoch is even worse than Kirk Kerkorian, who dismembered MGM so he could sell of the pieces for a profit.
Hopefully, Fox will survive the death hold of Mr. Murdoch.
Posted by: Arye Michael Bender | July 26, 2008 at 12:42 PM
The unfortunate thing about this X Files movie that came out is that it truly is a good film. It is a Thinking Film, however. not an action, or even mystery per say. The study of characters and motives is incredibly deep here, something most critics overlooked in search of eye candy and jump-out of your seat suspense.
If you have intellect and would like to use your brain for once in a movie theatre, go see this film and pay a lot of attention. There is a wonderful story of loss of faith, loss of self and self-actualization going on in this movie.
Fox is just a bunch of idiots that marketed this great little film that could extremely poor and against the real heart of the story.
Posted by: Mel | July 30, 2008 at 01:54 PM