Wednesday, January 14, 2009

WALL-E, Man on Wire top Golden Tomato Awards


Critics loved a love-struck robot and a tightrope-walking Frenchman in 2008. The sci-fi romance "WALL-E" and the documentary "Man on Wire" took top honors from the 10th annual Golden Tomato Awards.

The awards honor the best-reviewed films of the year as determined by the Web site RottenTomatoes.com, which compiles reviews from critics to measure the percentage of favorable critiques.

"WALL-E" won the Golden Tomato for wide-release with a "Tomatometer" score of 96 percent. "Man on Wire," a film that recalls Philippe Petit's tightrope feat between the World Trade Center towers in 1974, scored 100 percent and won the Golden Tomato for limited-release films.

"Man on Wire" is only the second film in the first decade of the Golden Tomatoes to earn a perfect score. Pixar's "Toy Story 2" is the other.

"WALL-E" is the fifth Pixar film to rank above all others. "Ratatouille" was the best-reviewed film of 2007, along with the lauded Irish romance "Once." ''Toy Story 2," ''Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" are Pixar's other Golden Tomato winners.

"Pixar has won more Golden Tomatoes than anyone else," said Rotten Tomatoes Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity. "They're not quite batting a thousand, but they're pretty close. Ever since 'Toy Story 2' came out — which is still one of the highest-rated films of all time on Rotten Tomatoes — they've just had this series of really critically loved films."

The Moldy Tomato — given to the worst-reviewed film of the year — was awarded to the horror film "One Missed Call." That movie had the unfortunate distinction of not finding a single positive review, earning a goose egg on the Tomatometer. - AP

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