It's been really fascinating watching the rise and fall of Netflix no.1 series and movies on a weekly (if not daily) basis in recent months. It was just this week that I finished watching Bodies, the superb eight-part Netflix Original, which has taken viewers by storm for its mind-bending brilliance and great cast (and was no.1 in the UK until recently).
Now let me avert your attention to the new Netflix no.1 movie (in the UK at least): it's a guilty pleasure for sure, originally released 23 years ago, and as you may have guessed from the stills throughout this article it's... Miss Congeniality. That's right, the Sandra Bullock-starring movie originally released in 2000 is currently riding high for whatever peculiar reason.
It might be top of the charts from a Netflix perspective, but Miss Congeniality is anything but highly rated on the score-aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics' score is a mere 41% (and I highly doubt that's going to change given the movie's age!).
On the flip side of that, however, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score is a far more respectable 69% because, like I said, this 2000 classic (if I dare call it that) is one of those out-and-out guilty pleasures. Surely everyone's already seen it once before now? And, if not, here's your opportunity to jump on the current trend wagon and rewind the clock.
Having rewatched the movie myself I remain unimpressed by the flick itself, but I've got to say there are some great cast members in among the mix! William Shatner (yes, Star Trek's Captain Kirk), Michael Caine (in many top-drawer movies for decades now), Ernie Hudson (love him in Ghostbusters) all take on respectable roles here.
Now the clocks have turned back and the nights draw in quicker, I can see the appeal of slapping on a guilty pleasure rather than digging into another high-brow series, so perhaps Miss Congeniality does earn its spot atop Netflix's UK movie chart... for as little time as that'll last anyway. All goes to show why Netflix's diverse content library makes it among the best streaming services, that's for sure...
