The website RottenTomatoes.com has arguably become the Internet’s best way to decide whether a movie is good or not. Moderators pull movie reviews from newspapers from around the country and post them on the site. From there a consensus is determined as to whether a movie is Rotten (bad), which means the movie received 60 percent or less negative reviews or Fresh (good), which means 75 percent or better positive reviews. There are 40 critics that are designated “top critics” because of their frequency and quality of reviews. These are the critics that appear on the front page of each movie’s page when it is searched for.
Rottentomatoes.com has really become the movie-buff’s dream site. On one site there are trailers, photos, synopsis’, interviews, and forum and of course tons of movie reviews. But the site has gone even further. It has become interactive. There is now an entire social networking aspect to the site.
It is called “The Vine.” On this FREE network (I signed up, it took 30 seconds) users are given a Journal and ability to make “friends.” There are many more forums here than in the Forum section on the site and reviews from other user’s journals. The journals are primarily used for personal reviews of particular movies. At “The Vine” there are also groups created for users how have similar tastes in movies or actors.
I was really impressed with the usability of the site and the relaxed atmosphere. It really felt like it was designed for the average movie-goer who cared about what they are about to see. “The Vine” was created for the more serious film enthusiasts who really want to find a group of like-minded individuals. RT does a great job of creating an environment that is interactive and simple.
Rottentomatoes.com recently celebrated it’s ten year anniversary and created a satirical video about how the site’s creators view the site.
