Dan’s Rotten ToMeToMeter

Dan’s Rotten ToMeToMeter

Dan's Rotten ToMeToMeter

Dan Morris, 2014

For a few years, I’ve been habitually rating movies I saw on Flixster, for no reason other than the fact that I love having lists of things. This trivially supports the operation "give me a list of Dan’s favorite and least-favorite movies". But this doesn’t really say much about my taste in movies: everyone who saw “The Princess Bride” loved it, and everyone who saw “Nacho Libre” regretted it. So I got curious about what movies I like more or less than everyone else.

So I wrote some code to parse the super-convenient JSON output that Flixster provides, which happens to include the Rotten Tomatoes “Tomatometer” score. I scaled my Flixster ratings (0.5 stars → 5 stars) into the 0% → 100% range, and subtracted either the audience-based or critics-based Rotten Tomatoes score, giving my “ToMetoMeter” score (get it? ToMeToMeter!). A score of 0 means I liked it the same as whoevever I’m comparing to (audience or critics), a score of 10 means I liked it 10 points more, a score of -10 means I liked it 10 points less.

So below are my favorite and least-favorite movies compared to everyone else. F(*& the critics and the audience for liking “The Shining” more than “Reign of Fire”.

Code is also on GitHub.

Movies I liked more than the critics

1		Law Abiding Citizen (2009) Critics: 25%, Me: 78% ToMetoMeter: +53%
2		Reign of Fire (2002) Critics: 40%, Me: 89% ToMetoMeter: +49%
3		Lara Croft - Tomb Raider (2001) Critics: 19%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +48%
4		Man on Fire (2004) Critics: 39%, Me: 78% ToMetoMeter: +39%
5		Pandorum (2009) Critics: 28%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +39%
6		Bad Boys (1995) Critics: 43%, Me: 78% ToMetoMeter: +35%
7		Resident Evil (2002) Critics: 33%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +34%
8		Bad Boys II (2003) Critics: 23%, Me: 56% ToMetoMeter: +33%
9		Passchendaele (2008) Critics: 36%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +31%
10		Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) Critics: 36%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +31%
10		Gladiator (2000) Critics: 76%, Me: 100% ToMetoMeter: +24%
10		National Treasure (2004) Critics: 44%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +23%

Movies I liked more than the audience

1		Reign of Fire (2002) Audience: 49%, Me: 89% ToMetoMeter: +40%
2		Wrecked (2011) Audience: 24%, Me: 56% ToMetoMeter: +32%
3		Ocean's Eleven (2001) Audience: 79%, Me: 100% ToMetoMeter: +21%
4		I Am Legend (2007) Audience: 68%, Me: 89% ToMetoMeter: +21%
5		Cloverfield (2008) Audience: 68%, Me: 89% ToMetoMeter: +21%
6		Enchanted (2007) Audience: 80%, Me: 100% ToMetoMeter: +20%
7		Pandorum (2009) Audience: 48%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +19%
8		Lara Croft - Tomb Raider (2001) Audience: 48%, Me: 67% ToMetoMeter: +19%
9		Jurassic Park III (2001) Audience: 37%, Me: 56% ToMetoMeter: +19%
10		District 9 (2009) Audience: 82%, Me: 100% ToMetoMeter: +18%
10		Cast Away (2000) Audience: 83%, Me: 100% ToMetoMeter: +17%
10		Children of Men (2006) Audience: 84%, Me: 100% ToMetoMeter: +16%

Movies I liked less than the critics

1		Jaws (1975) Critics: 98%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -98%
2		The Shining (1980) Critics: 92%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -81%
3		Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Critics: 78%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -78%
4		The Mask (1994) Critics: 77%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -77%
5		School of Rock (2003) Critics: 92%, Me: 22% ToMetoMeter: -70%
6		Blades of Glory (2007) Critics: 69%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -69%
7		Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Critics: 80%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -69%
8		Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Critics: 79%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -68%
9		Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones 3D (2002) Critics: 67%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -67%
10		The Nutty Professor (1996) Critics: 65%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -65%
10		Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) Critics: 96%, Me: 33% ToMetoMeter: -63%
10		Scarface (1983) Critics: 84%, Me: 22% ToMetoMeter: -62%

Movies I liked less than the audience

1		Jaws (1975) Audience: 90%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -90%
2		The Shining (1980) Audience: 93%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -82%
3		Transformers (2007) Audience: 86%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -75%
4		Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Audience: 86%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -75%
5		Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007) Audience: 72%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -72%
6		Scarface (1983) Audience: 94%, Me: 22% ToMetoMeter: -72%
7		Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Audience: 82%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -71%
8		Blades of Glory (2007) Audience: 69%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -69%
9		Rush Hour (1998) Audience: 79%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -68%
10		The Mask (1994) Audience: 67%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -67%
10		Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Audience: 61%, Me: 0% ToMetoMeter: -61%
10		Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) Audience: 72%, Me: 11% ToMetoMeter: -61%