this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 109 points 2 months ago (9 children)

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 45 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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 29 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Nazi snowflakes deserve jobs too! /s

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[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 30 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

for boston they had a craigslist post asking for people to go and be paid for launch night

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[–] blattrules@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

The only people buying tickets for this are maga morons, so this makes sense.

[–] Gargantuan@piefed.social 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

Probably the equivalent of publishing companies buying thousands of copies of books so that they are best sellers.

[–] Encephalotrocity@feddit.online 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months 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.

[–] ConstableJelly@piefed.social 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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.

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[–] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 58 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Why would anyone go watch a movie about an imported prostitute?

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

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 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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

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[–] yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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?

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We need tariffs on imported prostitutes, support the domestic sex worker industry!

^/s^ ^but^ ^kinda^ ^not^

[–] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Trump would probably support the sex worker industry but they are all too old for him.

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[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] mech@feddit.org 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

RT looking almost as bad as RT.

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[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] you_are_dust@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 13 points 2 months ago

Conservatives are bootlicking morons.

[–] flamingleg@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

what is the deal with your neighbour?

[–] jasoman@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago

Someone at RT is in the epstine files.

[–] derry@midwest.social 31 points 2 months ago

"applauding the lack of nudity and profanity."

Hmmm wonder if they ever saw the prequel?

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] eatCasserole@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] Nihilistic_Mystics@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Rotten tomatoes has always been shit, always gonna be shit

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months 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 9 points 2 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Hollywood manages to successfully astroturf reviews most films for at lest a couple weeks after release.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 2 months ago

And yet we won't get a How Did This Get Made episode about F1, making it completely worthless

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[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

90% swing between critics and public? WTF? Has there ever been a movie with so many fake reviews?

[–] Nihilistic_Mystics@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] teft@piefed.social 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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

[–] prettybunnys@piefed.social 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] derry@midwest.social 5 points 2 months ago

🤣 reeks of "I have a " fill in the blank racist stereotype "friend!"

[–] HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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?

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

RT owned by Fandango, mostly NBC. You might be thinking of IMDb where the film has been listed as #1 movie in america all week, with a 1.3/10 rating.

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 10 points 2 months 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.

[–] Sludgeyy@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Either bots or poor people from developing countries are paid to make positive comments of the movie.

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

What if she's Krasnov's handler and this tripe is to ensure she looks vapid and uninteresting when the feds remember their mandate?

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