Movies News Talk
Cate Blanchett's 2024: From Borderlands Bomb to Rumours Roast?
Cate Blanchett is a powerhouse. Seriously. But even A-listers can have box office stumbles! Borderlands (2024) was one such stumble; a critical and commercial flop. So, Rumours was supposed to be her 2024 comeback; but did it work? Rotten Tomatoes suggests...not really. That audience score for Rumours sits way, way below that of Borderlands.
Rumours is this darkly hilarious political satire—the premise sounds awesome: Powerful world leaders are hopelessly lost in the woods facing truly insane horrors. It's got a fantastic cast – Cate Blanchett along with Charles Dance and Roy Dupuis! It got praise from some critics but really didn't click with the average viewer, proving some very specific problems, highlighting the unpredictable aspects of any large-scale release, such as movies. And that Rotten Tomatoes audience score is seriously alarming – significantly lower than that surprisingly successful (compared to what many other people expected, at least!) Borderlands!
Prepare yourselves; it’s about to get crazy. Rumours' audience score on Rotten Tomatoes? A shocking 20%! Borderlands? A way better 51%. That’s more than double! Now, while Borderlands got crushed by critics (a measly 10%), Rumours surprisingly sits at a respectable 79%. What a difference, especially when the audiences really do strongly disagree with those critical consensus. A HUGE gap. The disconnect? Total craziness. It clearly shows just how seriously problematic this specific approach towards the overall production might just become.
Rotten Tomatoes reviews for Rumours reveal why audiences disliked this. Many labeled the movie as just “too weird.” This dark comedy about those specific themes of leadership – these leaders caught in this absurd, truly hilariously dangerous situation is meant to be bizarre and incredibly darkly comedic; resulting in that very intense and shocking humor; a high level of dramatic exaggeration found only in this particular context! But apparently, the awkward pacing and offbeat humor simply wasn’t fun for average viewers.
It didn’t help that Borderlands is easier to consume: this film is much more straight-forward than Rumours, While some audience members seem surprised by critics hating it, these viewers generally liked it.
Rumours and Borderlands showcase how diverse Cate Blanchett's career actually is and clearly displays why she remains such an incredibly versatile and popular actress, but these critically different movies clearly appeal to different viewers: One's a big-budget action movie, the other a dark comedy about some highly politically charged individuals in an unusual situation! Those completely distinct aesthetics; these really impact those audience expectations – these clearly created the resulting disparity seen through both critic's scores and the widely diverse range between audience's evaluations, for better and for worse.