Getting a perfect Rottentomatoes.com score is a difficult feat. This is a selection of movies that have managed to achieve an almost impossible unanimity — they are all 100% fresh.
Like it or not, RT's fresh-or-not system has become a highly popular way to measure how a movie has been received by both critics and viewers, and it's helpful for viewers to decide if the movie in question is worth a watch. While the infamous Tomatometer gathers reviews — the formula is as simple as dividing the total number of reviews by the number of "positive" ones — to reveal the degree of positive critical consensus, the audience score leaves the matter in the hands of thousands of viewers' votes.
The result provides an easy, visual way to capture an overall reaction to a movie. (Even if many would consider it dangerously reductive, diminishing film critics' standards and devaluing the profession… Just sayin'.)
It seems that's not the only danger. On September 6, 2023, Vulture reported how a PR firm called Bunker 15 managed to improve the negative RT score of Daisy Ridley's Ophelia by paying lower-level critics to post positive reviews. The firm denied the allegations, and the aggregator assured they take "the integrity of our scores seriously and do[es] not tolerate any attempts to manipulate them."
Scandals and all, there's something notoriously difficult to achieve on Rotten Tomatoes, even using tricky tactics: a perfect 100% score. Total positive consensus.
Granted, many movies manage to reach 100% freshness when they are first shown in film festivals, or when there are only a few reviews included, such as has been the case recently with Aubrey Plaza's new movie My Old Ass or last year with Emma Stone's Poor Things (which is now at 94%) or Benedict Cumberbatch's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (now at 96%).
What is truly difficult is maintaining that 100% score for years when all the reviews have been accounted for. These movies managed to achieve the impossible, and we're not surprised to see among them some of the best movies of all time. Even Paddington 2 got a diss.
Leave No Trace (2018)
It's not easy for recent movies to get a perfect Rotten Tomatoes rating, given the sizeable amount of reviews that are taken into account. That makes Leave No Trace's feat even more impressive.
It's the movie with the most reviews featured (a total of 252) to get a 100% score.
Winter's Bone director Debra Granik wowed audiences at 2018's Sundance Film Festival and it quickly became one of the best movies of the year.
The story follows a father (Ben Foster) and daughter (Thomasin McKenzie) who live a perfect life in Forest Park, isolated from society and only following their own rules. However, a small mistake sets authorities after them, forcing them to embark on a journey to find a new home.
Watch now: Amazon | Microsoft Store | iTunes
One Cut of the Dead (2017)
The small zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead became a box-office phenomenon, earning over a thousand times its budget and leaving audiences in a frenzy after each screening.
Critics were also charmed by the movie — as its 100% rating can attest.
Full of unexpected twists and a delightfully absurd sense of humour, the movie written and directed by Shin'ichirō Ueda follows a team tasked with shooting a zombie film for TV. They have to do it in one single take.
However, nothing is what it seems from the very beginning. Brace for a surprise, or two.
Watch now: Amazon | Microsoft Store | iTunes
Toy Story (1995)
To infinity and beyond!
Well, in Rotten Tomatoes infinity ends at 100%, and that's the score Toy Story has managed to maintain for years, proving it's one of the most beloved animated movies of all time.
The Pixar classic introduced us to Woody, a cowboy doll that sees his place as Andy's favourite toy threatened by a newcomer, spaceman hero Buzz Lightyear.
Toy Story 2 also has a perfect score in RT, while Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 stayed in 98% and 97% respectively. Overall, not bad for the animated saga.
Watch now: Disney+
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Singin' in the Rain (1952)
We're not surprised to see that Singin' in the Rain has a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, as it's one of the most heartwarming, cheerful, gorgeous movies ever. It was also released waaaay before the internet, so the reviews on the site are generally written *after* it was established as a classic.
We all remember Gene Kelly singing the titular song while dancing and jumping under the rain, umbrella in hand, but there's more to the movie than only that iconic scene.
Beautiful sets, electrifying choreographies, hilarious gags and adorable romance makes Singin' in the Rain a true Hollywood classic we never get tired of watching.
Watch now: Prime Video | Microsoft Store | iTunes
His House (2020)
Among the best horror movies of the last few years, His House is a clear standout.
Remi Weekes's feature film debut is also a shocking watch, as we follow a young refugee couple from South Sudan (Wunmi Mosaku and Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù) struggling to adapt to their new life in England. As if racism and institutional neglect weren't enough, their new house seems to be haunted by an evil spirit.
Perhaps it's the traumatic odyssey they endured to flee from their homeland that is bringing out inner and outer demons...
Watch now: Netflix UK
Before Sunrise (1995)
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke's otherworldly chemistry in Before Sunrise granted it a spot among the most romantic movies ever — and also as one of the few movies with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.
Critics absolutely loved Richard Linklater's movie, which was followed with nine-year gaps in between by Before Sunset and Before Midnight.
It all started here though, when travellers Jesse and Celine meet on a train by chance and decide to spend the day together in Vienna, just walking, talking and desperately falling in love with each other.
Watch now: Prime Video | Microsoft Store | iTunes
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Seven Samurai (1954)
Nobody could fault Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, one of the most influential movies ever made. Seven Samurai perfected the art of 'assembling the team' way before the Avengers.
The movie follows a samurai who answers a village's request for protection from bandits, gathering six warriors to help him teach the people how to defend themselves. When a small army of 40 bandits attack the village, war starts.
Seven Samurai is absolute perfection, with memorable characters and an incredible pace despite having a three-and-a-half-hour runtime. An unmissable classic.
Watch now: BFI Player
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
And the DS award to the saddest movie of all time goes to...
Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies is a devastating watch, though it's also one of the best anime movies of all time.
This Studio Ghibli classic is set in Kobe (Japan) in June 1945, and it's based on the novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. The story follows two siblings who, separated from their family due to the destructive bombings in their city, struggle to survive in utter poverty.
Watch now: Microsoft Store | Prime Video | iTunes
Stalker (1979)
You might need to watch Stalker a couple of times to fully understand it, or you can just get lost in its atmospheric, eerie story and hope for the best.
Andrei Tarkovsky's widely acclaimed movie is still deeply mysterious and melancholic over forty years after its original release in the Soviet Union.
The story introduces a figure known as the Stalker, who is the only one able to move around a restricted area known as the Zone. It's believed that, in that place, there's a room which grants a person's desires, but finding it is no easy feat.
Watch now: Prime Video | iTunes
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Tokyo Story
Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story is still regarded as one of the best movies of all time.
It's easy to see why once we dive in its beautiful images, heartbreaking story and complex characters. Still, what makes the movie so good is how it uses a disarming subtlety, drama-free narrative and judgement-free perspective to really grasp the meaning of life and family.
Tokyo Story follows an elderly couple who travel from their calm seaside village to Tokyo in order to visit their grown children.
Busy with work and worried about their own personal problems, their children don't have much time to spend with their parents, so its the widow of their younger son, killed in the war, who keeps them company.
Watch now: BFI Player
The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day is usually regarded as the most iconic and acclaimed movie of the franchise, but, according to Rotten Tomatoes' scores, the first instalment is the most unanimously praised.
There's no denying James Cameron's sci-fi epic is a total banger, with Arnold Schwarzenegger expanding his legend as a Hollywood action icon.
The actor embodies the titular cyborg assassin as he travels from 2029 to 1984 to kill a woman named Sarah Connor (played by the equally iconic Linda Hamilton), who is pregnant with the person who will lead the revolution against the machines in the future.
Watch now: Prime Video
Still Walking (2008)
Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda has built a truly beautiful universe of movies over almost thirty years behind the cameras, with Still Walking being one of the most beloved.
The story focus on a family reunion filled with loss, regrets and unsaid truths. Twelve years after the eldest son drowned while saving a stranger's life, the rest of the family get together to celebrate life, or try to.
Channeling Yasujiro Ozu's sensibility, Koreeda manages to show us the family dynamics without gratuitous outbursts of emotion, but rather focusing on the small things. Still Walking is about how it's possible to suffer loss, and learn to live with it.
Watch now: BFI Player
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Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Beyond having an iconic poster, Anatomy of a Murder is an exemplary, attention-grabbing courtroom drama starring Hollywood icon James Stewart.
Based on the 1958 novel of the same name, which was inspired by true events, the story follows semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler as he takes the case of a man who murdered another man after his wife claimed he raped her.
An exploration of the American legal system at the time, Anatomy of a Murder is a brilliant, thought-provoking thriller with great performances.
Watch now: Prime Video | Microsoft Store | iTunes
Mireia Mullor
Deputy Movies Editor, Digital Spy
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over seven years, mostly for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas.
Her work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema in the UK.
She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world, and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London.
Now based in the UK, Mireia joined Digital Spy in June 2023 as Deputy Movies Editor.
