Just Seen a Bollywood Movie "Badla" and Is Rotten Tomatoes Biased?

So, guys- I don't normally watch Bollywood movies- mainly because I go back to the old Bollywood movies and think they're all about dancing etc. However, someone told me they have changed the whole Bollywood genre. So, I decided to watch "Badla", a mystery thriller movie. I do like thrillers- I've seen Get Out, Shutter Island, Identity etc.

Badla has scored 63%- which is very disappointing on Rotten Tomatoes as I would not have watch it based on that- however in my opinion it better than Get Out and Identity. Almost I would score it 100%.

Anyway- would recommend others to watch this movie on Netflix and see what your thoughts are.

Poll Options

  • 15
    Yes seen it I would vote >90%
  • 56
    Yes seen it but agree with the 66%

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Comments

  • +5

    7.8/10 on imdb for what it's worth

    • +1

      I usually rely on imdb more than rotten tomatoes. based on a 7.8, would give it a go

      • +9

        Rotten tomatos is the % of people who liked the movie, but the score doesn't tell you how much they liked it.

        A bland 6/10 movie that most people like would score 90% + on rotten tomatos.

        A 9/10 movie that touches controversial topics would score much lower, as more people would dislike it, even though the average score of the movie would be much higher.

        I would also watch this movie based on IMDB

  • +40

    I guess that's a good lesson about forming your own opinions rather than relying on others.

    • +20

      Im not sure how to feel about that statement…

      • +1

        Want me to tell you want to feel about it?

      • +8

        I'm giving that statement a 5/7. Perfect.

        • +1

          Thanks Brendan!

        • 6/7 with rice.

  • +6

    What bias are you suggesting may apply?

    • confirmation bias…

    • +3

      If anyone wants to talk about bias when it comes to foreign films, don't even get me started on RRR. Yes it was enjoyable but the internet is in love with this movie. IMO its a fairly-standard over-the-top Indian movie (yes i know its not Bollywood) with some great music, but I don't think it offered anything incredibly different or special. Acting was fine, story was fine, CGI was not fine, the last 30min was idiotic

      Anyways, that's like my opinion man

      • +6

        I saw Dabangg 2 in Jaipur when it was released back in 2012.

        It was one of the dumbest movies I'd ever seen. Just Indian cops being pricks and consistently knocking over fruit stalls and oiling themselves up before fighting each other.

        I recall the locals in the cinema however loved it…

        • +1

          Lol the funniest synopsis of Dabangg I ever read :)

    • The herd.

  • +3

    On Prime the ratings for Bollywood films are a lot higher than non . I'm assuming a large Indian following on that platform .

    • +5

      This is true.
      Rotten Tomatoes is absolutely not worth looking at for the critics score (kind of like the Oscars). The audience scores used to be reliable. But there's a lot of fake 5-star scores, very obvious to see. And there's a lot of "neggers" where they review bomb it with 1-star scores.

      That's one of the reason why YouTube has blown up with people watching their favourite personalities/reviewers give them a score without spoilers. And for those disappointed there's Pitch Meeting.

      PS: the trailers aren't good indicators either. Most give away the plot and spoil the movie for you. Some are just weird trailers. Others are almost false advertising.

      For instance, Brad Pitt in Ad Astra and Matt Damon in Downsizing. Both great films going by the trailers. But some of the worst things my eyeballs have seen, not because it's bad it's just so FLICKING boring and waste of your precious lifespan.

      • +1

        Pitch Meeting is the way to go

        • +1

          A reply, oh wow… wow, wow, wow.
          I agree Pitch Meeting is tight. And the video viewing is super easy, barely an inconvenience.

      • +1

        Downsizing must be the most egregious example of trailer bait-and-switch i have ever seen. It's like the movie started promising, but then turned into garbage.

  • +6

    Maybe a few got disappointed by the lack of dancing etc?

    • Agreed, I'm often disappointed with Bollywood flicks these days as they are losing some of the best parts that made them worth watching. That said I did enjoy RRR though. Quick review here.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKN6FAKjFPU

      • RRR was incredible! Reminded be a little bit of Hero (2002) which I also love.

        • Was that the Jet Li movie or a different one?

  • +1

    I decide to watch a film based on how good the plot sounds or who is in it.

  • Some negative reviews could be:

    • English Captions for Indian audio

    • Shitty English dubs

    • Ad breaks on the viewing platform

    I haven't seen the movie though.

    • Dubs were good and is on Netflix so no ad breaks

  • +3

    Maybe because it's copy paste Contratiempo?

    • It's a remake though…. it's expected

  • +5

    Just Seen

    Just saw

    • +1

      Just sawn?

    • +1

      Pretty clear that they missed out at least the "I" or "We" from that sentence, which is really common in casual speech. Just as likely to also have missed out the "have" which would make "seen" grammatically correct. Why overlook one omission but ignore the option that there were two?

      • Hey m8 - simply because it grates my ears to hear "I seen" instead of "I've seen" etc.

        • I'm the same, but you've imagined something to get worked up about in this instance.

  • So, guys- I don't normally watch Bollywood movies

    There are many awesome movies. There is an old movie called 3 Idiots which has 100% on Rotten Tomato. Probably the best comedy i have seen in the last few years.

    • old movie called 3 Idiots

      Wow 2010 is old now?

      • Well an iphone which is more than 2 years old is also considered old now. But the main point is that it is a good show.

  • Yes seen it but agree with the 66%

    What is the 66% a reference to?
    I followed the link and the film is showing as 63% Tomatometer and 76% Audience Score

    • What is the 66% a reference to?

      Law of Averages.

  • 7.4 user rating on Metacritic. That is pretty decent.

  • +2

    63% is above average - you're letting your own subjective opinion bias how you view this.
    And art of any kind (movies, TV, games, music, images, etc.) is subjective.
    That 63% is a combination of everyone's submission to the site. I'm sure there's high ratings on there as well as low ratings.

    If you enjoyed the movie, then don't care what others say, including review sites.

  • +4

    do you understand how rotten tomatoes scores work OP?

    • +2

      I am surprised at how many commenters dont seem to understand the aggregate percentage

  • +5

    RT is an aggregate of how many % of critics scored it positively, not individual scores for the movie.

  • Your Poll needs more options:

    Yes I've seen it, and would rate it <40%

    • I've not seen it and would rate it 30%. I personally prefer shorter movies to not watch.

  • 63% is "certified fresh", exactly the same as 100%.

  • +10

    Didn't/won't watch this movie

    But with RT

    If "Critics" review is high and user reviews are low; it's usually a crap movie.

    If "Critics" review is low and user reviews are high. It's usually a good movie.

    • -6

      Haha, yep - got to love the woke critics!

    • +2

      If "Critics" review is high and user reviews are low; it's usually a crap movie.

      If "Critics" review is low and user reviews are high. It's usually a good movie.

      IMO, reverse it. Lots of A24 movies (especially with Robert Eggers but to a lesser extent, Ari Aster) get lower audience scores vs RT, but are usually quality, vs crowd-pleasing trash that scores highly on imdb but are immediately forgettable.

    • It is a wonder these 'critics' actually have a job when they are so out of touch with the public opinion on media.

      • +10

        It's not the critic's job to mirror popular opinion.

      • -1

        It's their job to ramp the product so they can get goodies from the studios. Let's face it though, how many times do we have to get scammed by a crap movie/TV show to learn our lesson?

    • Professional critics are all cultural Marxists. They only rate movies highly if they align with their ideology. If you want great reviews, stuff your film with gays, transsexuals and non-whites, and rant against evil mining companies and automobiles. For instance, Michael Moore documentaries all score over 90% on Rotten Tomatos.

  • .com rating site, scoring indian movie low…

    even cocaine bear got 70%

    time to make a rival site, rottten carrots!

    • +1

      The thing with RT is that, like with weird horror movies a lot of reviewers who don't like horror movies won't bother watching or reviewing it and most of the reviews will be from reviewers that like horror movies. So a horror movie the average person wouldn't like can score very high just because the only people who review it are hardcore horror fans.

  • Ill never understand why people take any notice of the critics score, they almost always seems to crap of movies vs user scores which are almost always higher.

    • example - The Wandering Earth . so over hyped due to ………reasons.

  • +3

    wheres the option for I have no interest in bodgywood movie in the poll….?

  • For what it's worth I thought "Ludo" and "Monica Oh my Darling" were very good Bollywood movies as well and differ from the typical boy and girl meet through a "hilarious" misunderstanding, girl plays hard to get but boy is a goofy but charming rogue that eventually wins her and her disapproving family's approval.

  • -7

    Badla has scored 63%

    That's from "woke" critics, you are much better off looking at "Audience Score" (76%) as that reflects the general population far better ;)

    Now days, critics mark down movies that are not "woke" enough … plenty of examples already out there!

    • +1

      Don't give us all the insight and gold-tier thinking all at once, save some for your podcast and all the fans, dude!

  • +1

    Doesn't Rotten Tomatoes just aggregate scores from other sources? It's possible the reviews it's aggregating from are biased, but that doesn't make Rotten Tomatoes biased. I suppose if it weights the scores then it's possible the weighing system might be racist and biased towards white reviewers against indian reviewers or something, but looking at the list of reviews for that movie, they're pretty much all Indian reviewers so that kind of weighting wouldn't make a difference.

  • +1

    The most important thing is, did you enjoy it? Yes? Great!

    Don't let others spoil your enjoyment.

  • +1

    RottenTomatoes is heavily biased and left-leaning. If it's a movie that deals with LGBT or racial issues you better bet it's getting a score of 90+

    IMDB has it's own biases too. Films I've really liked score all over the place on review sites while there's some questionable films that score really well, I just avoid movies where they're scoring 40/100 across the board.

    • +1

      RottenTomatoes is heavily biased and left-leaning.

      No it's not. The RT score is made up of many reviews from different countries and publications. The only bias is that critic reviews tend to score B grade movies quite harshly.

    • -1

      You'll probably find that talented and promising directors and other creatives are more drawn to LGBT and racial issues than they are to the plight of right wing incels, and audiences are too. Audiences are drawn to right wing things like Clint Eastwood movies, insofar as they are "right wing" and not just "bad ass".

      • +1

        Eh I still see it. For context I am also left leaning and sympathetic to LGBT and racial issues. S**t I have more LGBT people in my circle than straights. There are some average films that score too well and I know they’re average because I’ve watched them.

  • -1

    Review bias for movies is usually reserved for when the alt-right trolls use their multiple fake accounts to downvote movies which they don't like. Ones which have a progressive character or storyline of some form that makes them feel insecure.

  • -2

    The land of mass shootings a diverse and open place, no racism there.

  • +3

    The RT score is based on the percentage of how many reviews gave it a positive review. The percentage itself is not a rating out 10 or 100. So a score of 63% means that most reviewers gave the movie a positive wrap. Some reviewers may have given it 100% and thats reflected in the 63% score.

    • +2

      You seem to be one of the very few people here who understand this.

      It may be that a movie scores 98% for critics on RT, but is seriously mediocre as its actual ratings average for all of its reviews may be 6/10, or 2.5/4 stars.

      • +1

        Honestly I am surprised that so many people have not understood the scoring system.

        Anyway, I find that sometimes the audience score is more reliable, especially if it's a silly crowd pleasing blockbuster style movie.

  • OP why do you think that their score is biased and what sort of bias do you feel the score may be reflecting?

  • As with most digital media, Rotten Tomatoes has become nothing more than hyperbole and people trying to make names for themselves.

    Some of the headlines that these critics spout is hilarious.

  • Off topic, but Get Out is overrated. It have a good moments, but doesn't make much sense if you see the big picture.
    The indian population is huge, IMDB score could be artificially boosted, by a dedicated fan base. In general IMDB is not accurate.
    My best advice find a curator you agree with and watch every movie that curator and reviewer recommends.

    • +1

      Get out is one of the dumbest movies of this century. How anyone can think that is a good movie is beyond a joke

  • +2

    It's funny how Get Out has a major plot point about how white people virtue signal and laud the accomplishments of black people to try to not appear racist, and despite being an average film white critics laud it as one of the best films ever to try to appear to not be racist.

  • :D

  • Almost I would score it 100%

    Username checks out

  • +1

    I would ahve scored it more rotten tomatoes. All Bollywood movies are crap . I would rather watch cheesy Aussie dramas than Bollywood crap

  • Who takes Rotten Tomatoes seriously anyway? 76% fresh score for Avatar: The way of Water, seriously? One of the most boring movies in recent times. It's like watching a computer screensaver for over 3 hours non-stop.

  • +3

    My partner picks movies based on Imdb ratings🤪, many times the movie 🎥 is terrible but in his mind a 7.0 or above means good. I have found lgbtq and mostly coloured movies rate high even when they are substandard. I assume that those who support those group’s make sure to rate them high to promote them.

  • +5

    anything bollywood or indian on netflix it's a huge pass for me

    • +3

      OP needed to add on poll… "no because bollywood is sh^&"

  • With foreign films unless you speak that language your experience may be very different from reviews.

  • +2

    There are critics and there are critics. Find one whose taste corresponds with your own.

    At least critics are better than algorithms. I used to be insulted by the trash Netflix thought I would like until I learned to say I disliked everything.

  • To be honest I don't trust Rotten Tomatoes any more for a multitude of reasons. It's owned by Fandango which is run by a former Disney executive (there's been shenanigans with some Disney movies), reviewers have admitted that they'll give movies from the bigger studios a "pass" so that they retain their access, it's critics scores do tend favour more "arty" or agenda driven topic movies rather than movies that are purely for entertainment. The audience scores have become a battle ground with both positive "boosting" and negative "bombing" review campaigns. You can literally find 5 star scores with comments like "just to stick it to the haters", similarly with negative reviews. IMDB scores are a joke too, IMDB lets fans rate a movie even before it's released and you'd be surprised how many 10 star audience reviews are there before release. Metacritic is probably the best of these review aggregators but still not that trust worthy.

    Like a lot of people I've found a number of independent YouTube movie reviewers who pay for the ticket themselves, don't do all the press junket stuff and generally I find my take on a movie lines up with theirs. Those are the reviewers I trust these days. Plus Ryan Georges Pitch Meetings & How It Should Have Ended are excellent after the fact or for stuff that I don't watch and those tend to confirm that I was right by not watching it.

  • I remember when the elite movie critics were saying Bran Nue Dae was a masterpiece… it is the worst film I have ever seen….. dont stress too much what others say…

  • watch the invisible guest
    that is the original movie
    Badla is a remake

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