Arts and Entertainment

Unearthed review ruins the 100% Rotten Tomatoes score for ‘Citizen Kane’ — knocking it below ‘Paddington 2’

By Brittany Shammas
April 28, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. EDT

The reviews for “Citizen Kane” were universally glowing: The 1941 classic was “a triumph,” “a power play of startling brilliance” and “one of the most arresting pictures ever produced,” critics raved in write-ups compiled by the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. ... Enter Mae Tinee of the Chicago Tribune: “You’ve heard a lot about this picture and I see by the ads that some experts think it ‘the greatest movie ever made,’” began the pseudonymous critic. “I don’t.”

The 80-year-old review, recently unearthed by Rotten Tomatoes and added to the “Citizen Kane” compilation, single-handedly ruined the celebrated film’s perfect score on the site. In a development met with glee on Twitter, that meant “Paddington 2” — a live-action animated comedy about a marmalade-loving bear — suddenly carried a higher rating.

A thousand memes and jokes were born of the news that the talking-bear sequel’s score of “100 percent Fresh” had bested the “99 percent Fresh” now assigned to the film widely hailed as the greatest ever made.

“please don’t misinterpret the adjusted Rotten Tomatoes rankings to mean that ‘Paddington 2 is now the best movie of all time.’ Paddington 2 *already was* the best movie of all time,” quipped David Ehrlich, a senior film critic at Indie Wire. “thank you.”

{snip}

Brittany Shammas Follow https://twitter.com/britsham
Brittany Shammas is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. She previously worked for the Miami New Times and the South Florida Sun Sentinel.