ROTTEN TOMATOES: Golden Tomato Awards: "Casino Royale," "The Queen" Best-Reviewed of 2006

Golden Tomato Awards: "Casino Royale," "The Queen" Best-Reviewed of 2006

by Binh Ngo | January 10, 2007

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The 8th Annual Golden Tomato Awards were announced today, and "Casino Royale" and "The Queen" are the best reviewed wide and limited releases, respectively. The worst-reviewed movie was "Basic Instinct 2," Sharon Stone's attempt to re-capture past glory.

With a new actor in the role of James bond, as well as a grittier, back-to-basics approach for the 007 franchise, "Casino Royale" has been overwhelmingly embraced by the critics, one of whom opined that the movie "is everything you could ask for in a Bond movie, and more." It scores an impressive 95 percent on the Tomatometer. "Die Another Day," Pierce Brosnan final movie as a double O, scores 59 percent in comparison.

New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Will Shortz with his Golden Tomato trophy for "Wordplay." Photo credit: Kevin Tachman

Dame Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen are perfect in their roles in "The Queen." The movie is near perfect on the Tomatometer as well, scoring 98 percent. Mirren and Sheen anchor a movie that illuminates what goes on behind the scenes in Buckingham Palace at a time when the royals faced a crisis of confidence from the populace. New York Magazine's David Edelstein calls the film "a small masterpiece."

No puzzle here. RT's Senh Duong hands writing/directing team Patrick Creadon (left) and Christine O'Malley their well-deserved Golden Tomato trophy for best-reviewed documentary, "Wordplay." Photo credit: Mieke Kramer

Here's how some of the award recipients responded to their Golden Tomato recognition:

"Critical acclaim is the lifeblood of a quality independent film like 'The Queen' and it is a dream come true to be recognized as the best reviewed film in limited release by Rotten Tomatoes," said Daniel Battsek, president of Miramax Films, which distributed the film. "The award will take pride of place in the Miramax trophy cabinet and will hopefully be joined by many more in the future. Long live 'The Queen!' May she be forever fresh."

Guillermo del Toro, writer and director of Foreign Film winner "Pan's Labyrinth," was equally pleased with his win: "The positive response to 'Pan's Labyrinth' has been overwhelming. I can't tell you how many times I have clicked onto Rotten Tomatoes and been bowled over by our positive rating. Rotten Tomatoes provides a much needed, though nerve-wracking service, to all filmmakers. I am proud and honored to accept this award on behalf of 'Pan's Labyrinth.'"

Neil Marshall, writer and director of "The Descent," winner of the Golden Tomato for Horror had this to say about his win, "This is by far the coolest award I've been lucky enough to receive!"

Director Michel Gondry cherishes his Golden Tomato trophy, but wishes it was a pen instead. Photo credit: Kevin Tachman

Michel Gondry, writer and director of the Golden Tomato winner for Romance, "The Science of Sleep," demonstrated that he can sling barbs as well as any critic when he said, "I am thrilled by this Rotten recognition of the critics. Although, one of them said I should not be allowed to hold a pen, so I wanted to know if I could be offered a Rotten Tomato pen as a trophy that I would gladly present to this critic to place in a not so romantic location."

Other major winners include "Borat" for Comedy; "The Departed" for Thriller; and "Cars" for Animation.

The Golden Tomato Awards honor the best-reviewed (as well as worst-reviewed) movies of the previous year by tallying critics' reviews using a weighted formula to account for the variation in the number of reviews.

2006 Winners Complete List:

BEST-REVIEWED WIDE RELEASE:
"Casino Royale"

BEST-REVIEWED LIMITED RELEASE:
"The Queen"

BEST-REVIEWED ACTION/ADVENTURE:
"Casino Royale"

BEST-REVIEWED ANIMATION:
"Cars"

BEST-REVIEWED COMEDY:
"Borat"

BEST-REVIEWED DRAMA:
"The Queen"

BEST-REVIEWED HORROR:
"The Descent"

BEST-REVIEWED KIDS/FAMILY:
"Lassie"

BEST-REVIEWED ROMANCE:
"The Science of Sleep"

BEST-REVIEWED SCI-FI/FANTASY:
"Children of Men"

BEST-REVIEWED DOCUMENTARY:
"Wordplay"

BEST-REVIEWED FOREIGN FILM:
"Pan's Labyrinth"

BEST-REVIEWED THRILLER:
"The Departed"

MOLDY TOMATO (Worst Reviewed Movie of the Year):
"Basic Instinct 2"

Click here to see the runner-ups.

Related Items

Movie:	Awards Tour 2006
	Lassie
	Pan's Labyrinth
	The Queen
	Casino Royale
	Wordplay
	Children of Men
	The Science of Sleep
	Cars
	Basic Instinct 2
	The Descent
Celeb:	Michael Sheen
	Michel Gondry
	Helen Mirren
	Will Shortz
	Christine O'Malley
	Patrick Creadon

(1-12 of 12 posts) | Reply

wiggins writes:
on Jan 10 2007 05:27 PM

hey binh, your headline says "casino royales" instead of "casino royale".

(Reply to this)

Binh Ngo writes:
on Jan 10 2007 05:31 PM

In reply to this comment (#852710)
Thanks for the heads up, Wiggins. Probably just me looking forward to the next one, I guess.

(Reply to this)

Mr. & Mrs. B writes:
on Jan 10 2007 05:52 PM

[b]Horror mishap[/b]
correct me if I am wrong but Slither has an 85 on the Tomatormeter and The Descent only 84 plus The Descent is much lower in the cream of the crop. Which would make the much better and more entertaining Slither the winner of the Golden tomatoe for 2006 horror.

(Reply to this)

loner_xtreme writes:
on Jan 10 2007 07:53 PM

In reply to this comment (#852712)
[b]hmmm....[/b]
do you think the number of critics were a factor in choosing the best? slither had 118 total and descent had 140. maybe including user ratings too? i loved both movies...so i would've been happy if either one won.

(Reply to this)

brian1121 writes:
on Jan 10 2007 09:56 PM

yeah, it has to have something to do with the number of reviews instead of the percentage because pan's is at 99%, the queen is at 98% and casino royale is at 95%. with it being weird with the percentages, they should say what their methodology is.

(Reply to this)

bolo_bao writes:
on Jan 10 2007 11:22 PM

[b]# of Reviews Factored In[/b]
From "How It Works" on the feature front page...

"We use a weighted formula (Bayesian) to account for variation in the number of reviews per movie. The winners are determined by the rankings, designated as the "adjusted score," after applying said formula:

(r � (r+m)) � t + (m � (r+m)) � a, with "r" representing the number of rated reviews, "m" the minimum number of reviews needed for a movie to qualify, "t" the Tomatometer score, and "a" the average Tomatometer of all the qualifying movies."

(Reply to this)

Vitamin M writes:
on Jan 11 2007 07:08 AM

AHHHHH! MATH!!!! Now that's scary.

(Reply to this)

brian1121 writes:
on Jan 11 2007 09:57 AM

That formula is no good unless it says somewhere what "m" is, as it should be a fixed value, right?

(Reply to this)

RT-Matt writes:
on Jan 11 2007 10:23 AM

In reply to this comment (#852717)
It's on the same GTA index page the formula above was taken from:

� A movie must have 50 or more rated reviews to be considered.

(Reply to this)

warsaw writes:
on Jan 11 2007 01:41 PM

wheres the best reviewed movie of the year...period..... award?!

PANS LABYRINTH DESERVES MORE RECOGNITION!

(Reply to this)

jehall writes:
on Jan 11 2007 07:58 PM

This system is questionalbe since Crossover is considered the 3rd worse film and Basic Instinct is crowned the worse. I'd rather see a film that went 10 for 130 in the review department rather than one that went 0 for 59.

(Reply to this)

unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Jan 12 2007 07:28 PM

How the hell isn't Zoom the worst reviewed film of the year?

(Reply to this)