'Paddington 2' No Longer Has to Share Rarified Space with Lesser 'Citizen Kane'

By Dustin Rowles | Film | April 28, 2021 |

By Dustin Rowles | Film | April 28, 2021 |

Listen, I have nothing against Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. It’s a fine movie. A classic, even. It’s the best movie ever about a sled — besting Eight Below by a mile — and it’s probably the third or fourth best Welles movie, which is saying a lot given the company (Third Man, Touch of Evil, The Stranger).

But I think we can all agree that it’s no Paddington 2. Finally, Rotten Tomatoes agrees, too. Paddington 2, as everyone knows, has a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, because not even Armond White would crap on the most delightful movie of all time (Armond White recused himself from Paddington 2, actually, but the contrarian critic is responsible for single-handedly robbing Toy Story 3 and Get Out of their 100 percent ratings).

Meanwhile, thanks to a recently unearthed negative review of Citizen Kane, the Welles film has plummeted into 99 percent territory.

Rotten Tomatoes literally dug up an 80 year old negative review of Citizen Kane and now the movie no longer has a 100% fresh rating pic.twitter.com/0I8cxvuGdd

— Screaming Pectoriloquy (@Caulimovirus) April 26, 2021

It’s a real scorcher of a review, too. “Mae Tinee” (brilliant pun!) slammed the film by suggesting that it “may not be the greatest movie of all time.” Ouch! You don’t see anyone saying that about Paddington 2, which has survived 244 reviews without a single ding (meanwhile, RT critics have only taken 116 stabs at Citizen Kane).

Upon hearing the news, Paddington Bear was respectful, as always.

I do hope Mr Kane won't be too upset when he hears I've overtaken him with rotten tomatoes.

— Paddington (@paddingtonbear) April 28, 2021