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What does it take to get a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes? I watched 'War of the Worlds' to find out.

What does it take to get a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes? I watched 'War of the Worlds' to find out.

Yahoo3 days ago
Ice Cube stars in a modern adaptation of the alien invasion story, which the internet turned into a meme.
I wasn't planning on watching the straight-to-Prime-Video remake of War of the Worlds set entirely on the computer screen of a government security analyst until I saw footage of Ice Cube screaming at a young man via video call as he shakily records an alien invasion. It's so bad, it demands to be seen.
The new movie, released July 30, debuted with a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that it had been panned by all of the critics who took the time to watch and review it. (It has since been elevated to 3% as of press time, thanks to a contrarian review from Entertainment Weekly.)
Scoring in the single digits for any amount of time is not an easy feat on the review aggregation website, which considers critics of varying levels of prestige in its 'Tomatometer' scores.
Without such widespread disdain, 2025's War of the Worlds might have been forgotten — slipping into the depths of Prime Video's expansive catalogue. Instead, it became a lightning rod on social media.
There's something magical about a movie that tried to be good and ended up being bad in so many ways that thousands of people still took the time to investigate the extent of its failure. I myself was intrigued by the widespread condemnation of what seemed to be a real movie with a budget and familiar actors — surely, it can't be that bad! — so, for 89 unhinged minutes, I sat down on my couch and watched it for myself.
So, what happens in this movie?
Ice Cube stars as William Radford, a grizzly 'domestic terror analyst' who spends his days stalking his pregnant biologist daughter, Faith (Iman Benson), and underperforming video game streamer son, Dave (Henry Hunter Hall). As an employee of the Department of Homeland Security, he has access to seemingly every camera and technology in the Washington, D.C., area — he hacks his daughter's fridge to monitor what she consumes (too much soy milk, apparently) and frequently right-clicks on flashing targets on his computer to select a menu option that says 'Commandeer Drone.'
Luckily, William was just starting his workday as aliens invaded, though he frequently declines calls from 'Sandra NASA' (Eva Longoria) and ignores Microsoft Teams messages from his DHS boss (Clark Gregg) in favor of yelling at his son for buying new video games and hacking his daughter's computer to see what her baby daddy, Mark (Devon Bostick), an Amazon delivery driver, is telling her about their upcoming shower that William is not invited to.
I know that the goal of this movie is to show how, in the 2020s, the response to an alien invasion would be mostly online.
Unlike the 2005 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning, we wouldn't be fighting invaders on the ground as much as we'd be watching clips of the chaos unfold on X and Instagram. I did wonder, though, how aliens who initiated their invasion of Earth by blowing up NASA satellites so they couldn't be surveilled and immediately began destroying data centers as soon as they landed left our internet intact. The world may be ending as we know it, but because Microsoft Teams and Google Sheets were still operating, some people still had to work.
Ridiculous alien movie logic aside, the fact that 2025's War of the Worlds anticipates that the apocalypse will be somewhat mundane feels appropriate for our dystopian times.
Unfortunately for this movie, any new take on War of the Worlds — and there have been dozens since H.G. Wells's original novel was published in 1898 — would have to stand in the shadow of the most interesting adaptation: the 1938 radio drama that sparked nationwide hysteria after being misinterpreted as a real broadcast of an invasion.
By standing out — though it's for being absurd, poorly acted and ridiculously edited — the 2025 version has accomplished something amazing.
Is it actually bad?
While watching the film, I made a list of the dialogue and plot points that made me laugh out loud. Here are a few:
As the star of a movie about a guy sitting at his computer, I don't envy the work Ice Cube has to do here. God forbid a camera ever record my looking-at-my-laptop face, let alone amid an alien invasion.
There are so many references to Amazon made throughout the film, it might as well be an ad.
So bad it's good
My list only scratches the surface of the chaos. To take a moment to jot down something that made me laugh meant tearing my eyes away from the screen, where ridiculous things were happening in such rapid succession that even three seconds of dwindling attention meant I might miss an editing failure or a bizarrely worded Teams message.
Even though I was on my couch reading posts about it online, my viewing experience was less like watching a movie and more like attending an event. I'm grateful for the social media dogpile that inspired me to watch War of the Worlds in the first place, but because of the way social platforms seem to reward negative opinions, scoring a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes might not be a rare feat for much longer.
Dan Green, director of the Master of Entertainment Industry Management program at Carnegie Mellon University, tells Yahoo that the collective panning of the film reveals how audience review websites like Rotten Tomatoes 'have been transformed into a competitive exercise in disdain, reflecting a gamified culture of online critique.'
In other words, watching movies and making fun of them on social media and review sites now feels like a community activity. For a moment, people were so united by the intrigue of a 0% score that War of the Worlds reached the No. 2 spot on Prime Video's U.S. movie rankings.
It's now part of Rotten Tomatoes' unofficial Hall of Shame, among the few dozen widely reviewed and panned films of all time, like 2018's Gotti starring John Travolta and 2014's Left Behind starring Nicolas Cage. After the fun I had watching this one, I think I'll make my way through the list.
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Series of concerts at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park draws music lovers despite traffic, noise complaints
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Series of concerts at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park draws music lovers despite traffic, noise complaints

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Malin Åkerman and Her Husband, Jack Donnelly, Knew Each Other 4 Years Before Dating
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Malin Åkerman and Her Husband, Jack Donnelly, Knew Each Other 4 Years Before Dating

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Leighton Newberry, founder of Recruitment Ready, says her client base is still strongest in Texas, Nashville, Charlotte and California but she opened a New York branch last year to meet demand. 'Families up North want to learn Southern etiquette and the style around it,' she said. Her services range from free online resources to private coaching packages costing up to $4,000. This year she worked with 300 clients. Consultants also note that Southern schools are luring Northern students with high scholarship offers and a warmer climate. - - - Rush prep starts long before move-in day For many hopefuls, the work begins years before they set foot on campus. Stacia Damron, founder of Hiking in Heels, and her team won't take more than 500 clients a year, and Damron says families try to sign up far in advance. 'We have people try to sign up as early as sixth grade,' she said. 'You do not need to sign up as early as sixth grade.' Damron works mostly with high school seniors, plus some college freshmen and sophomores. 'You can't just show up, look cute, and have good conversations. That's not how recruitment works. … They hear people say, 'Oh, just be yourself, trust the process, get your cute outfits ready.' That won't get you a bid. The most successful people start preparing six months to a year in advance.' Her offerings range from a $3,975-to-$6,000 one-on-one coaching program to a $349 online course titled '60 Days to Sisterhood,' which includes hours of coaching and 50 templates for everything from thank-you notes to conversation starters. She also advises parents and family members about how to handle contact with a sorority member or affiliate 'fishing' for information about a candidate. Newberry begins working with high school juniors but also offers a mentoring and etiquette program for girls as early as their freshman year. 'Moms want their daughters to feel polished and confident,' she said. - - - Instagram is part of the rush résumé Rush coaches say their clients are more aware than ever that what they post can affect their chances, and they've noticed many are posting less to protect their image. But coaches warn that going quiet is a mistake and to get noticed, you have to post often and with purpose. Damron shows clients exactly whom to follow. 'I walk them through who's building the bid list and making the decisions in the back room during recruitment,' she said. 'A cute Instagram profile is not going to help you if the right people aren't looking at it. There's so much you can do algorithmically and strategically to get in front of the right people.' Following these decision-makers also helps clients research engaging talking points during rush. She tells clients to share moments that show dedication, personality and a sense of sisterhood such as photos from charity work, winning a sports championship or planning a friend's birthday party. As for no-nos? Alcohol, 'revealing' swimsuit photos and too many individual shots. Stefanelli encourages her clients to post consistently throughout their senior year of high school and into the summer. 'The girls in the sororities want to see if a potential new member is a cool, fun girl to hang out with,' she said. 'They want to see her interacting with friends, doing homecoming, prom pictures, graduation, Mother's Day brunch, whatever.' But in the weeks before recruitment, Stefanelli is strict about what not to post. She bans her clients from posting any RushTok-style content. 'The last thing the girls in the sororities want are clout chasers,' she said. - - - Rush week is a mental marathon Coaches are typically on-call for their clients at all hours during rush. They have to know each school's ever-changing rules (for instance, Southern Methodist University is allowing the women to carry rush essentials such as notebooks and deodorant only in Ziploc bags this year) and prep girls for each round. Leslie Cunningham, owner of Sorority Prep, says for some girls, not getting the exact outcome they pictured can feel crushing. 'I think we deal with a lot of girls who unfortunately have baggage they're bringing into their college experience, and I wanted a way for them to process that in a healthy way,' she said. This year, she partnered with three mental health counselors to run 'intensive workshops' for clients and their moms, covering tools and strategies to handle rejection. 'This is really a life skill,' she said. Stefanelli, the New York-based consultant, travels to Tuscaloosa every year for the University of Alabama's recruitment. This year she's working with 10 girls there, meeting her all-inclusive clients at an off-campus cafe to debrief after each round. 'I always like to focus on the positive things of each house,' she said. 'It's so much more than cute outfits, chants and the pretty house. I want them to really see the sorority for who it is beyond the aesthetics.' That's important, as Hines, the woman who rushed in 2020 with the help of a coach, learned. She didn't love her sisterhood experience and dropped her sorority going into her senior year. 'Part of that did have to do with the fact that it was covid,' Hines said. 'You don't get to meet the girls in person as often. Everything was scheduled and then you kind of just have to show up to an event alone and try to make a friend there, which can be really intimidating. Now I don't mind it as much. Back then, it was horrifying.' She said she has no regrets about rushing and hiring a coach was worth it for her, but she admits it's not for everyone. 'I probably needed a therapist but a rush consultant was cheaper,' Hines said. --- Video Embed Code Video: Sorority rush season has become so competitive that some young women spend thousands on coaches to perfect applications, curate social media and style outfits. According to the consultants The Post spoke to, the amount of prepping takes several months.(c) 2025 , The Washington Post Embed code: Related Content Ukraine scrambles to roll back Russian eastern advance as summit takes place Her dogs kept dying, and she got cancer. Then they tested her water. D.C.'s homeless begin to see the effects of Trump's crackdown Solve the daily Crossword

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