• supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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    3 days ago

    They added: “Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning that it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film through Fandango”.

    Doesn’t mean they aren’t paid shills.

    Rotted Rotten Tomatoes.

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I saw a clip of…maybe Jordan Klepper…interviewing people going into a showing. All of them just full-on fan-girl with anticipation, and completely upside down from the entire rest of the world. All older white people, fancy dress, clearly wealthy; might have been a premier.

      It left me thinking that someone should follow some of these people around for a while to see where their special reality comes from. Study them, like Jane Goodall with the apes.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I saw that too. They were all a bunch of rich Republicans. The screening was at the Kennedy center so it wouldn’t surprise me if basically everyone watching that screening was a government worker (or their friend/family) who probably moved to DC specifically to work for their favorite fascist.

        I also wondered how those people could be real and studying them wouldn’t be a bad idea.

        • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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          3 days ago

          The screening was at the Kennedy center so it wouldn’t surprise me if basically everyone watching that screening was a government worker (or their friend/family) who probably moved to DC specifically to work for their favorite fascist.

          Sounds like a bunch of DEI hires to me.

    • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Buying a ticket and actually watching the movie are two different things. For all we know all those that “bought” a ticket and left a review are all the military personnel that were ordered to go see it and probably were ordered to leave a glowing review.

    • Gargantuan@piefed.social
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      3 days ago

      it makes sesnse though. Anyone paying to see it is probably MAGA anyway, so of course they’re going to rate it highly.

      i doubt very many non MAGA types have seen it, so there will be very few negative reviews for that reason alone.

    • Encephalotrocity@feddit.online
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      3 days ago

      Maybe I don’t understand that site, but you click on the 99% rating and you get a list of reviews that shows 20 rotten, 2 fresh. Just a bad look imo.

    • ConstableJelly@piefed.social
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      3 days ago

      I’m not convinced there’s a conspiracy here. Seems entirely likely that Rotten Tomatoes has no contingency for the release of a movie so blatantly sycophantic and propagandistic that the only people spending money on tickets are those who are already bought into the fantasy.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      and bots.

      and when you look at who owns the sites, you have to also throw in the very real possibility of manipulation of the data itself from within, too.

    • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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      3 days ago

      Well, look at it this way: who in their right mind would go and pay to watch this movie, if they weren’t a fanatical Trump bootlicker? And what Trump bootlicker would give this movie a bad score?

    • Sir. Haxalot@nord.pub
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      3 days ago

      Exactly, and it doesn’t mean that Rotten Tomatoes is somehow involved in the review manipulation. It is obviously possible for an external party to influence the audience score, they just need enough money to buy tickets that can verify. It’s probably a much easier way than pressuring RT to manipulate the reviews if you have the money (and maybe even an interest in funneling that money into movie earnings)

      That most people wouldn’t even think of buying a ticket and thus can’t post a review almost definitely plays a part as well.

    • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      I’d watch a true story documentary on her life, I think that would be intriguing and unique. How many mail order brides find themselves in the white house, ya know? What happened in her life to get to that point? But this film is not that, only covering the month of January 2025.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        My partner said this also, but personally I find her the least interesting person in history. I really doubt there’s much to her life besides her using her looks to manipulate her reality. She randomly met the right rich loser and used him for his money. Then his psychopathic personality led him to the white house. If they did make that documentary I would watch it, but I feel pretty confident I would be disgusted by a terrible person getting humanized and being reminded by the awful destruction of the United States that weighs literally zero on her conscience.

        There is no way to square her actions with anything but a soulless money-hungry void where a human is supposed to be. She may be most remembered by her explicit choice to wear a jacket reading “I really don’t care, do you?” When visiting a prison for immigrants. And if that turns out to be the case, it would be fair. She’s a fucking monster, and every day she doesn’t kill or divorce Trump is a day she proves that

        • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          Oh yeah you’re not wrong and there’s about a dozen caveats to me actually wanting to watch it. It needs to be objective and fact based. It needs to be produced independently. It needs to include an actual investigation, with interviews of friends from the old country. And so on.

          But I stand by that there is at least a unique, albeit horrifying, story there for someone unaffiliated to uncover.

      • yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        To be fair, though, she’s a psychopath, so it’s bound to be ugly and boring. Imagine the life of that soulless zombie-esque creature. What is there to watch?

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Would an imported prostitute (not that there’s anything wrong with that) be given an Einstein visa?

    • artyom@piefed.social
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      3 days ago

      They’re not supposed to. It’s just shameless bribery. I bet the whole thing is just about DJT from her POV anyway.

    • Axiochus@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Wow, or we could drop the misogyny and just dislike her for being part of a fascist dynasty. No need to berate sex workers, either.

      • Janx@piefed.social
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        3 days ago

        I didn’t detect any judgement. “Why would anyone go watch a movie about an imported wife?” and “Why would anyone go watch a movie about an imported cashier?” both sound about the same as the original sentence to me…

  • Crackhappy@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Man, this looks very bad for RT. If they don’t course correct on this, they are going to lie any remaining trust or faith.

    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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      3 days ago

      They’ve been obvious shills for at least a decade. All you have to do is look at any new release. They rarely get below 80/90%. Every single fucking movie can’t be the citizen Kane they claim it is.

      • hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        If only people who buy tickets can leave the initial reviews, that kind of makes sense. Their system selects for people who are interested in the premise of the movie.

  • you_are_dust@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    How can you even have a documentary about possibly the most uninteresting person on earth? I’m not sure that I’ve even heard her speak before. A documentary about my neighbor would be more intriguing.

    • mlg@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Its actually wild seeing the critic reviews sitting at 8% with the “verified user” score at 99%.

      Usually they pay off both groups lol.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      I came to that conclusion after paying money to see Brad pitt in F1 following 97% scores.

      They took the exact plot of Stallone’s Driven, to date the worst movie ever made about racing, or anything else.

      • nosuchanon@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I like Driven. It is definitely a cheesy movie but it is actually more believable in some ways. No way any driver just steps into a modern F1 car and starts winning.

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          Uh…oh nevermind. Netflix ruined F1.

          Driven was originally supposed to be an F1 movie, but when Bernie Ecclestone got wind of that stupid plot he kicked Stallone out of Europe.

      • Nihilistic_Mystics@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I actually make perfect sense given recent changes RT made. In order to leave an audience review and be counted towards the score, you need to be a verified viewer. Like, someone who has paid for a ticket through an RT partner like Fandango. The reason for this recent change was to prevent review bombing, like what happens on every movie conservatives hate. It obviously has some major drawbacks, like we can see for this movie’s verified audience ratings, as only bootlickers would ever watch this garbage fire propaganda. So we only see their ratings here.

        However, we can still see the all-audience ratings by clicking on the score and selecting that option. It’s currently sitting at 29%, and that’s even after a Republican campaign to boost the score.

        So, we have critic scores at 10% (as of this very moment), which makes sense because the movie is trash and only the Republican culture warriors are giving it a thumbs up. Then only ticket purchasing viewers have their score taken into consideration for the “Verified Audience” score, so you only get bootlickers and of course they’re all giving it a perfect score.

      • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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        3 days ago

        All you gotta do is check out the people leaving positive reviews. They either don’t exist anywhere but RT, or are obvious bots/paid shills.

  • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Just read the reviews compared to a normal reviewed movie like toy story 2.

    “I I really enjoy this sequel” - 3.5 Stars Good B

    Good B is a harsh critic for sure. But nothing like that for Melania. What are the chances two humans use double exclamation marks right after each other? How many people use hyphens? 50% of people like in the 4 sample size for Melania?

    • Nihilistic_Mystics@lemmy.world
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      For obvious propaganda pieces like this, that’s how “Verified Audience” reviews will always be. In order to be counted you need to have purchased a ticket through one of RT’s partners, so it’s self-selecting. No sane person is going to buy a ticket to this bribe masquerading as a documentary, so it’s only insane Republicans being counted towards that score.

      You can select “All Audience” if you want to see everyone. It’s at 29%, even after Republicans’ review boosting campaign.

      • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Yup. Giving it a positive review is basically saying “I support Trump” since nothing involving him could ever be bad in any way to them, and of course 99% of the people who actually paid to see it will be Trump supporters.

      • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Given everything we’ve learned in the last few years, the chances are extremely high that at least half those purchased tickets don’t correspond with a living person actually sitting in a cinema seat.

  • teft@piefed.social
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    3 days ago

    The users commenting appear in the overwhelming majority to be first-time posters, for whom Melania is their first review.

    Critiques in the “all audience reviews” section tend to derive from accounts with a deeper prior engagement on the site, and include assessments such as “I thought it would have been based on her actual life, good and bad. There was no emotion, drama or depth. It’s just a bad reality show,” and “Hot garbage. Don’t waste your time or money.”

    Gee, that doesn’t scream bots at all. /s

  • HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth
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    3 days ago

    Is rotten tomatoes not own by amazon the same company on which half the AI review ( sometimes not even about the product where the review is posted ) show verified purchase?

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    3 days ago

    They had a round table of reporters who watched the movie talking about it on npr. One guy said he stood up before the movie and asked anyone in the audience who was not a reporter to raise their hands and two people did. Later he was asked if it was propoganda and he was like. It was more like an informercial. He also pointed out they had a scene of trumps inaugural which does not line up with actual video of his inaugural.

  • Sektor@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    It’s only so that Narcissist pedo think she’s doing great. They show him 99 and put the thumb over the 9 %.