10 Movies That Don't Deserve Their 100% Rotten Tomatoes Rating

4. 3 Idiots

Aamir Khan's status as one of the giants of Bollywood was secured well before the release of 3 Idiots, the huge comedy-drama hit which went on to become the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time upon its release. Framed as a coming-of-age road movie it certainly possesses the necessary ingredients for such enormous ticket sales, marrying popular stars with a snappy, colourful plot replete with a string of exotic locations.

Khan stars as Rancho, one of the three "idiots" who attended university with his friend Raju and Farhan who reunite many years later to fulfil a promise they made as students. Their characters also fulfil certain archetypes more than familiar to anyone with a basic grasp of the rom-com/adult "coming-of-age" drama, including the thrill seeker who hasn't learned how to grow up and the studious workaholic discovering how to take life a little less seriously.

Despite the cliched set up, the leads invest plenty of personality into their characters and 3 Idiots is an engaging, sometimes very funny movie. Weighing in at nearly 3 hours' running time, however, it's also overlong and sometimes overwrought, throwing in one too many subplots and secondary characters who really should have ended up on the cutting room floor.

After a strong opening act it also makes the mistake of sinking too quickly into simplistic melodrama, by which point the laughs start to disappear and become replaced with maudlin sentimentality, as the audience starts to watch the clock in anticipation of the closing credits.

What It Deserves: 78%