MFF Special: A Closer Look at Movies That Feature the Words Best, Great, Perfect, Good and Fantastic in Their Titles

I love random data that has no real world importance for several reasons.

1. I love the look on people’s faces when I tell them movies that feature jet ski action scenes have a 29% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
2. The data can focus on pencils, movie poster explosions and Foghat.
3. The stupid data puts a smile on people’s faces (or really annoys them because they just spent time reading about data with no real world importance).

When looking to further my journey into random film analysis I became inspired during a viewing of Best in Show.  I began to wonder which group of movies that boasts big things had the best critic/user average. The following post averages out the Rotten Tomatoes Critic score and IMDB user score of 101 movies that feature Best, Perfect, Good, Fantastic and Great in their titles. For instance, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Great Gatsby, A Perfect Getaway, Good Burger and Best in Show.

The movies needed at least 20 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and 2,500 ratings on IMDb. If I had to include every single movie it would’ve killed all my free time and the data would’ve been a sham.

Are movies that feature the word Perfect actually perfect? Are Good movies any good? Can something be the best and still take third place? Are dog shows really that competitive?

Sidenote: If a movie had a 7.6 IMDb user score, I switched it to 76.

5. Perfect

RT/IMDb Average – 53.56

Best: A Perfect World – 78

Worst: Perfect Holiday – 29.5

There are very few things that are perfect in this world (The Thing, Islay Scotch, JCVD spin kicks) so I wasn’t expecting a grouping of movies to equal out to 100%. However, I was kinda shocked that movies featuring the word Perfect had a 53.56 average. The Perfect Man (30.5), Perfect Stranger (34)  and Perfect Holiday (29.5) hurt the average bigtime and negated the positive contributions of Pitch Perfect and A Perfect World.

John Carpenter’s The Thing is legit perfect.

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4. Fantastic

RT/IMDB Average – 60.43

Best: Fantastic Mr. Fox – 85

Worst: Fantastic Four – 26

Going into this post I assumed Fantastic movies would have the highest average. Movies like The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Captain Fantastic and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them have solid numbers and I figured they would buoy the low scorers. However, I forgot that the 2015 Fantastic Four had a 9% RT average. Since there were so few Fantastic movies the 9% dragged everything down and Fantastic movies took fourth place.

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3. Good

RT/IMDb Average – 60.68

Best: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – 96

Worst: Good Luck Chuck – 30.5

Third place isn’t great or bad. Third place is good, which is sorta perfect for Good movies. The 60.68 score narrowly edged out Fantastic movies and placed it in the middle of the pack. If it wasn’t for A Good Day to Die Hard, Good Luck Chuck and No Good Deed, Good movies would’ve overtaken Great movies. If you get a chance make sure to watch The Good, The Bad & The Weird and In Good Company because they are really good.

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2. Great

RT/IMDb Average – 66.36

Best: Great Expectations – 90

Worst: Barney’s Great Adventure – 25.5

The Great movies did their best to take first place but they were hindered by Barney’s Great Adventure, The Great Raid and The Great Wall (AKA The Ponytail Epic). The 66.36 average was a decent jump over Good and Fantastic films and was almost enough for a first place finish (I blame the ponytail). If you haven’t already I totally recommend you watch  The Great Dictator, World’s Greatest Dad, Great Expectations (1946) and The Great Beauty.

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1. Best

RT/IMDb Average – 67.87

Best: The Best of Youth – 90

Worst: The Best of Me  – 38

“Best” movies are the best. The Best movies blew away the competition and were propelled by We Are the Best, Best Worst Movie, The Best of Youth, The Best Years of Our Lives, Best in Show and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The only weak link was the Nicholas Sparks written/produced The Best of Me (9% RT). The Best of Me is actually the worst of all the Sparks films (I’ve watched them all) and I think the 9% is generous.

In honor of the best here is another hilarious Best in Show clip.

There you have it! Best movies are the best!

Here are the movies by the way.

Perfect, Great, Good