Comment on Martin Scorsese just dumped three tons of bricks on Rotten Tomatoes

Martin Scorsese (Credit: Getty/Anthony Harvey) Acclaimed Oscar-winning film director Martin Scorsese, who has made a series of critically beloved masterpieces from “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” to “The Departed,” took to The Hollywood Reporter to denounce the growing influence of critical aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Scorsese framed the rise of Rotten Tomatoes as part of a larger trend of quantifying movies that “has no upside whatsoever.” After detailing the downsides of the cultural obsession with box-office returns and the growth of market-research firms like CinemaScore, Scorsese turned to Rotten Tomatoes, which he argued has “nothing to do with real film criticism,” despite its ability to make or break a movie. “They rate a picture the way you’d rate a horse at the racetrack, a restaurant in a Zagat’s guide, or a household appliance in Consumer Reports,” Scorsese wrote.