There have been eighty two films which have opened in wide release so far this year and this past weekend's opener "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" is currently the best reviewed of them according to Rotten Tomatoes.
'Virgin' polled in at 88% positive reviews, holding it a few points above its three nearest competitors - "Cinderella Man" at 84%, "Batman Begins" at 83%, and the just opened Wes Craven thriller "Red Eye" at 83%. Upon closer examination the film also had a superb average review score of 7.4/10 which is also one of the year's best. Here's a closer examination at the ten big winners this year in terms of wide release film reviews:
Film Title (% of Positive Reviews, Average Score of Reviews)
- The 40 Year-Old Virgin (88% positive, 7.4/10)
- Cinderella Man (84% positive, 7.7/10)
- Batman Begins (83% positive, 7.7/10)
- Red Eye (83% positive, 6.9/10)
- Star Wars: Episode III (82% positive, 7.3/10)
- Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (82% positive, 7.2/10)
- The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (82% positive, 6.8/10)
- Hustle and Flow (81% positive, 7.3/10)
- Sin City (78% positive, 7.4/10)
- Crash (77% positive, 7.3/10)
Also doing well have been titles such as "Wedding Crashers", "Land of the Dead", "War of the Worlds", "Hitch", "Sky High" and "Unleashed".
Of course films in limited release have certainly fared better amongst the critics. Sitting above all wide releases so far have been the small runs for the likes of "Murderball", "March of the Penguins", "Grizzly Man", "Saraband", "Broken Flowers" and "2046". Faring well enough to near equal the top wide releases have been titles like "Howl's Moving Castle", "Aliens of the Deep", "Mad Hot Ballroom" and "Mysterious Skin".
It's only fitting that a weekend that released two of the best reviewed films of the year also released one of the worst. "Supercross: The Movie" didn't even crack the Top Ten this weekend, no surprise though considering the lack of attention.
The film however did win the title of the third worst received film of the year with only 3% in the way of positive reviews. This puts it behind "King's Ransom" (0%) and "Alone in the Dark (1%) but above the likes of "Son of the Mask" (4%), "The Perfect Man" (6%) and "Elektra" (7%).
