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SYFY WIRE Rotten tomatoes

A mixed 80-year-old 'Citizen Kane' review just made 'Paddington 2' the highest-rated movie ever made

By Josh Weiss

Note to self: childhood sleds have nothing on marmalade sandwiches. Citizen Kane — Orson Welles' 1941 indictment of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst that is often considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made — just lost its perfect 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes thanks to the addition of an 80-year-old review. 

Its near-perfect rating of 99 percent now places it one point below an unexpected victor...2017's Paddington 2.

*Drops snow globe in shock* 

Originally published in a May 1941 edition of the Chicago Tribune (formerly the Chicago Daily Tribune), the octogenarian review was penned by Mae Tinee, which, as The Morning Call points out, is merely a clever pseudonym that recalls the word "matinee." The true identity of the writer is unknown, but their thoughts on Citizen Kane most certainly are. "It's interesting. It's different. In fact, it's bizarre enough to become a museum piece. But its sacrifice of simplicity to eccentricity robs it of distinction and general entertainment," reads the snippet added to Rotten Tomatoes in early March of this year.

Like it or not, Rosebud must now play second fiddle to Ben Whishaw's talking bear — something the official Paddington Twitter account acknowledged Wednesday morning: "I do hope Mr Kane won't be too upset when he hears I've overtaken him with Rotten Tomatoes."

"It's extremely lovely to be on on any list, which includes Citizen Kane, but it is obviously quite an eccentric list that goes from Citizen Kane to Paddington 2, so I'll try not to take it too seriously," Paddington director Paul King told The Hollywood Reporter.  "I won't let it go too much to my head and immediately build my Xanadu. But I have been cooking up a model just in case."

King went on to joke that if Welles had been able to utilize 21st century filmmaking technology, he might have been able to make a film that was "nearly as good" as Paddington 2 . "But he had to make do," the director said. "He had mustered his meagre talent into merely knocking out Citizen Kane."

Of course, Paddington 2 isn't the only movie with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. The aggregation website has an entire page dedicated to the rare cinematic gems that were able to accomplish the nigh-impossible feat of drawing universal acclaim.

David Fincher recently chronicled the production of Citizen Kane through the eyes of its co-screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz, in Mank. Now streaming on Netflix, the film (shot in the style of Golden Age Hollywood, it stars Gary Oldman in the title role) took home two Academy Awards this past Sunday.