I was at a screening of Ratatouille a few days before it opened and a Disney rep who introduced the film said that it was “shaping up to be the best reviewed film of the year, bar none.” I blew that off as hyperbole since I’d been hearing the movie was well liked but would more than likely end up in the middle of the Pixar pack, away from heavyweights like Toy Story and The Incredibles. But it turns out the flack was right on the money, at least according to critical melting pot website Rotten Tomatoes. They issued a mid-year review of the critical consensus best and worst movies of 2007 and the rat in the kitchen tale came out on top.
The report covers the top 25 and bottom 10 reviewed movies of the first half-year and in the top group there are a few surprises. After Ratatouille are two movies you’ve probably never heard of or seen, Away From Her and Once, but then the abso-frickin’-lutely hilarious comedies Knocked Up and Hot Fuzz take slots four and five. If you haven’t seen these, you are in for a wonderful double feature DVD night in your future. The tenth film, The Lookout, will warm the heart of many a CinemaBlend writer. We made an effort to get people to go see this film. We failed.
But just like every yin has a yang, the top 25 has an evil doppelganger, the bottom 10. The worst reviews were doled out to Because I Said So with Diane Keaton. I was almost ready to pull out my eyeballs after sitting through the trailer, so more power to the critics who made it all the way through. Other bottom 10 filler were Number 23 (lousy trailer), Premonition (lousy trailer), Are We Done Yet? (ditto), and the no-brainer Norbit. There is hope for those wretched movies, though; a whole half-year remains for even worse movies to be released that will kick them out of the bottom group when the final 2007 tally is made.
