Rotten Tomatoes collects reviews from professional critics and condenses them into a single score: the Tomatometer. A film is "fresh" if enough critics liked it, and "rotten" if they didn't. The site also shows an audience score based on user ratings, which sometimes diverges sharply from the critic score. This dual-score system gives a quick sense of whether a movie is broadly liked, divisive, or panned.

It's useful when deciding what to watch, but the score is not a perfect measure of quality — some great films have low scores, and some mediocre ones score high. The site also covers TV shows, and there are lists, news, and trailers. For a quick gut check before committing two hours to a movie, it's one of the fastest tools available.