by Dick Rolfe, CEO – The Dove Foundation

Dick_RolfeQ: Can they forecast the weather?

Q: Can they predict the stock market?

Q: Can they estimate the box office success of a family film?

Answer to all three: Not so much.

According to GeekWise.com, “A movie critic views movies in the way a restaurant critic views a new restaurant or a travel critic views a new hotel. The product may look promising on the surface, but a critic’s role is to provide a brutally honest assessment before the movie is released to a general audience. His or her evaluation of a film is based on a number of elements, including the previous work of the director, the level of acting, the overall casting, the faithfulness to source materials, the editing and the quality of the screenwriting.”

Rotten Tomatoes has developed a handicapping system by amassing hundreds of individual critics across three divisions; print, broadcast and online. According to their website, “Movie reviews in the Tomatometer come from publications or individual critics that have been selected by the Rotten Tomatoes staff.”

To balance the equation, Rotten Tomatoes also records an Audience Score from subscribers to their service.

tomatometer

After all is said and done, movie critics tell you whether a movie fits their criteria. So, the next question is, who are they and what are their criteria? Someone once said, “A film critic is a frustrated filmmaker who never got the chance to fulfill his or her dream.” Actually, most film critics are journalists with a love for, or knowledge of, the art of filmmaking. The upside is that they are usually passionate patrons of cinema. The downside is that they, like any other individual, are likely to favor a particular genre or type of film, and that preference shows up in their work.

There are a few elitists who flaunt their credentials by using fancy insider lingo that bores the average reader and contributes little to the overall critique. For example, I’m less interested in the filmography of the director or whether the cinematographer once won an Academy Award or Golden Globe, and more interested in the theme and the power of the story. Many tell me they look to their friends and neighbors who have seen a movie for their input and ask how well the movie conveyed the story and their overall opinion. Reading blogs, Facebook and Twitter reviews from like-minded friends is also a fairly reliable barometer.

It’s not surprising that most people prefer to take advice from friends and acquaintances who share the same values. Likewise, I’m interested in whether a particular movie critic and I have a common core belief system. That helps me measure the weight of the critique. He or she may prefer thrillers and horror flicks with a high bloody body count. Or perhaps they are fans of sexploitation stories with a high naked body count.

This brings me to the Rotten Tomatometer and how often its results differ significantly from the audience’s reactions.  This is especially true of faith and family movies.

Here are a few examples:

Movie Title                        Tomatometer              Audience Score

Paul Blart, Mall Cop 2                 6%                        48%

God’s Not Dead                        17%                         79%

Mom’s Night Out                       18%                         68%

Son of God                                21%                         73%

It can also work the other way…

Noah                                         77%                           42%

The most recent example of a disconnect between the movie critics and audience is newly released, LITTLE BOY, the inspirational story of a 7-year old boy who is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so he can bring his father home.

Movie critics slammed the film and gave it an overall Tomatometer rating of 15%.  The audience didn’t see it that way, and awarded the movie an outstanding 88% The opening weekend box office was a respectable $2.7 million on 1045 screens, about 1/3 the number of screens for a major release.  Many faith and family movie critics praised the film with such accolades as: “Beautiful,” Deeply Moving,” “Utterly Amazing” “Moving and inspirational,” “An instant family classic.” Dove’s reviewer called it, “A movie you must not miss!”

LITTLE BOY had the second highest percentage gap between Rotten Tomatoes critics and Audience Scores ever for a major release at 73% – second only to Out Cold in 2001 which logged a 77% difference.

Here is the complete Dove review of LITTLE BOY and an interview with Jakob Salvati, the talented young lead actor. When you read our review, it is important to remember that Dove’s reviewers are not critics, they are parents and grandparents who are as passionate about good filmmaking as they are their down home values.

I recommend you go see this movie and judge for yourself! Feel free to share your comments on The Dove Foundation Facebook page.

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