Here’s the perfect illustration of how critics and mainstream audiences don’t always coincide. The site Metacritic has posted a list of the top-reviewed films of the past decade, and according to their data, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is No. 1 with a score of 98. Just below it is the Romanian drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (97). It’s a great list, packed with terrific movies like The Hurt Locker (No. 5), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (No. 9), No Country for Old Men (No. 23) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (No. 42). But with the exception of a few titles — Pixar (duh) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy — the list is pretty slim on massive box office hits. Pan’s, for instance, grossed just $37.6 million. Compare that to the most-seen movie of the decade, The Dark Knight, which got a Metacritic score of 82.
Personally, I’m thrilled that Pan’s gets this honor — it’s definitely one of the best movies I saw in the last 10 years. Still, I had more fun looking over Metacritic’s worst-reviewed list, which is topped off with The Singing Forest, a movie I consider myself lucky for having missed, ’cause it’s about reincarnated lovers killed in the Holocaust. (Think about it: Some exec, somewhere heard that pitch and thought, “That’ll make a great film!”) It gets a pathetic score of 1, while the director, Jorge Ameer, earns the dubious distinction of being responsible for two entries on the list: His 2000 flick Strippers is No. 3, with a score of 5. They’re joined by dreck like Battlefield Earth (No. 15), The Adventures of Pluto Nash (No. 22), Glitter (No. 33), and The Cookout (No. 48).
I’m proud to say that of those 50 bottom-dwellers, I’ve only seen three (four if you count the random snippets of Battlefield Earth I’ve caught on cable over the years). But I should get some kind of badge of honor shame for paying to sit through both Glitter and Strange Wilderness in the theater. (I have my brother to thank for dragging me to the latter. Man, that movie is AWFUL!) Click on over to Metacritic and tell me: How many from each list have you seen? And if you haven’t seen Pan’s, you must see it now! Do not pass go!
I definitely agree about Pan’s Labyrinth. It’s on my top 10 list of the 2000′s that I currently have rolling around in my head and that I hope to actually get around to writing down one day.
I’ve only seen 37 out of the top 100 movies on Metacritics list (it’ll be 38 after I watch the “Man on Wire” DVD from the library currenly in my living room) and 6 out of 50 from the list of Worst Reviewed movies.
Nearly stopped reading after the first paragraph. Pan’s Labyrinth isn’t even in English. Do you expect a lot of people to see it in this country?
It is the 4th highest grossing foreign language film in the US anyways. I think that is a success.
Why should we negate Pan’s Labyrinth’s placement on Metacritic’s list just because of the language it was made in? I am pleased to see how highly it rates. Along with The Lives of Others it’s got a firm place in my top twenty for the decade. And that one was in German.
I live in a smallish town and it was available at every video store, so there’s no excuse there. And there’s Netflix, et. al. for those areas smaller than mine.
The Lives of Others was a brilliant movie, loved it.
Maybe if people were less sheltered and predictable. I saw it in theaters. Seeing Broken Embraces the moment it opens here, etc.
I guess if it’s not in English it’s not even worth your time, huh? It must be such a boring task to read subtitles.
32 of the best,73 of the best wide releases, and 8 of the worst…
SOOOO happy Lost in Translation is on this list (34) as well as EW’s Best Movies of the Decade list (9).
I simply adored that movie ever since I first saw it. And kudos to Sofia Coppola, one of the few great female directors who has found success. Although the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when your father is Francis Ford Coppola.
Ugh. I hated Lost in Translation. I couldn’t have been the only one…
45 of the Best, 70 of the Best Widely-released. And none – yay me – from the Worst (though if that list was longer, I might have been shamed).
“Pan’s Labyrinth” is easily one of the best, most disturbing, most thought-provoking movies I’ve ever seen…. I think the fact that it was in another language made it even better. I’m glad it received recognition somewhere.
i loved pans labyrinth and i to agree that the non english helps it…imagine if it was held in spain and they all spoke horrible broken spanglish…def a good job on making it in spanish
I saw 14 of the best reviewed, 25 of the best reviewed wide-release, and exactly 0 of the worst reviewed. I can say that a few of the best reviewed deserved to be on the worst reviewed though, so I paid my dues.
hum I did pretty bad:
only 22 of the best 100 and 54.5 of the best 100 wide released (I was sick when I watched Iron Man… been meaning to watch the end). But at least I can say I haven’t seen any of the worst 50. I will save this list and use it for future movie-watching!
36 on the best (though 61 on the wide-release list). And a pitiful 2 in the bad ones – I’ll have to try harder.
Saw 31 of the best
60 of the Wide Release
and only 1 of the worst
(Blair Witch 2 – only cause I loved the first one)
Pan’s Labyrinth is definitely deserving. Anyone who says otherwise either didn’t get it or hasn’t watched it. It’s mind-blowing stuff.
aw man. saw only 26 of the best-reviewed, though i wanted to see a good dozen or two others on the list. guess that’s what i’m doing over christmas break… watched 58 of the best-reviewed wide release movies, though, and NONE of the worst! thanks for this link, i love lists!
Although it was quite good, there’s no way I would consider ‘Pan’ the best film of the decade, even if it was a critical darling.
I’d be more inclined to go with Wall-E, United 93, or Once.
I’ve seen 50 of the best. Looking forward to the other 50
Hmmm…it looks like I’ve got a lot of DVD watching to do! I’ve only seen 16 from the overall best of list (vs 45 from the wide release one) but thankfully not one from the worst of list.