Numerically, or with stars. Or with thumbs up, or thumbs down. Or any scale you prefer. Celsius, Fahrenheit, whatever.

I used to post on a forum (in my own language) and whenever i wrote reviews of movies i saw i'd always rate them on a scale of 1 to 10. And it got to the point where i gave ratings like 7.3, and such. but i was young, and when i took a step back i realized how stupid and meaningless it was.

So i stopped rating movies altogether. If two movies have 7/10 or 3/4 stars, that means that they are numerically equal, but the two movies are in NO way connected. So i find it to be irrelevant to compare movies on such as scale, or to rate them at all, as it's hard to quantify a movie, or any other work of art.

When i write reviews, i know people won't read them, or if they're long, not all of them, so i write them as short as possible, telling only what you would need to know.

Par example:

Underworld - Pure fun and gun action. Beckinsale is hot as hell in that tight leather.

Maybe not the most eloquent example. But i find it to be much more efficient that a review that grades the movie, so i should know whether it's bad or good, and that than goes on for 2 pages. Esspecially in a forum type situation. I'd rather have no numeric value, and a short description. I'd be more inclined to to read short reviews to FIND OUT if they liked the movie, than long review seeing WHY they liked the movie.

We can't all be Berardinellis.

Those are my two cents. Anyone?

p.s. like i know most won't read this post because it's two long.

I rate a movie with 1-10 and 5 stars scales cause they are the same thing to me. Also, if you don't want to read the review the scale is there for a snapshot. That's just me though

Star ratings - sometimes the bane of my existence but mandatory from a visibility/credibility/commercial standpoint. I would lose 1/3 of my traffic if I abandoned them.

For those who want to know what I think star ratings mean, Go to this ReelThoughts.

It's several years old but most of what I write there continues to represent my thinking.

I started rating movies on a 1-10 scale at about 11 or 12 years old.

I too used to struggle with comparison so I went the opposite way and started a half point scale!

In my teen years and at college I then started to split the rating in half. A score out of five for enjoyment and a score out of five for merit. these were combined for an overall score.

At some point in my twenties I realized that all this was ridiculous and went back to a straight ten point scale.

I actually do like the rating system for several reasons. It enables me to look at my favorite movies of a year or period on my spreadsheet. it also enables me to look at my scoring versus my 2 fave critics (James and Ebert) and compare with Rotten Tomatoes.

I don't think that the ratings are absolute or linear. I have noticed that there is a gulf between 8 and 9 out of ten and an even bigger one to reach 10.

I have seen over 10,000 movies and the scoring breaks as follows:

10 - 0.4%
9 - 2%
8 - 7%
7 - 15%
1- 2%

My average score is 5.2

i am always curious when i see people giving multiple 4 star ratings for recent movies. i think that award should be a rare and cherished moment. But that's just me. I'm not sure what all of this tells me apart from the fact that I'm a filmspotter

Rob

I use star ratings similar to James from 0 stars to 4 stars in increments of 0.5 stars.

My most recent 0 star film was in 2008: The Hottie And The Nottie
My most recent 4 star films were also in 2008:Wall-E, The Dark Knight.

I'm actually responding to multiple posts but i felt i should quote someone none-the-less.

Like i said, we can't all be Berardinellis, cause he and Ebert and the likes can write long ass reviews and we'd still read them (except the first two paragraphs which i usually skip, seeing as how i probably already know the plot of the film).

But more through the perspective of a film forum, were people don't read other people as much, not trusting their teaste and so on.

In my ideal review system, if i'd were to RATE a movie, i'd do it on a non-numeric basis, and go for an abstract syntetization. As much as possible. Have different emblems to mark a movie, like Interesting, Thrill ride, Groin-Grabbingly Good! or Rather die than watch this again.

That's if i was a man like J.B., and wrote ample reviews, but still wanted or needed to evaluate films on SOME scale.

The numeric system is handy (or whatever scale you prefer), but it the long run, it says nothing about movies, and i for one avoid it.

So TRY my NEW scale of AWESOMENESS!!! Call NOW, and you'll receive such AWESOME stamps of approval and disapproval like Interesting, Thrill ride, Groin-Grabbingly Good! or Rather die than watch this again. Only 9.99$!!! Call now and get a FREE T-SHIRT*

*offer available only outside the US. While stocks last. We have no stock... So, sorry.

Yeah, sounds like tags and clouds.
Very complex to set up and maintain and you will need to write reviews
Rob

I think you're thinking about a system. But i wouldn't go that far. Just improvise a "tag" for every film, depending on the movie.

And i write reviews every now and then. But not in english. Who'd read 'em? I write in my own language on my blog (yes, i have a blog, I'm ashamed enough as it is). And i never rate. And the reviews are generally short. If someone wants to strike up a analytical conversation about any movie, i'm more than open, but why waste my time writing an in depth review for, well, me. That's why i signed up on this forum, cause i like discussing movies, and everything related.

I like a 4 star scale, since that's what most of my favorite critics use.

It's not that useful - just for comparing between movies and getting an immediate feel for whether the reviewer thinks it's worth seeing or not.
Star ratings are useless on their own if not accompanied with an explanatory review though.

Five star with halves like 1.5 or 3.5. The reason I like this is because I always think .5 is really bad, 1 1.5 bad, 2 2.5 kind of bad, 3 3.5 kind of good, 4 good, 4.5 great and 5 masterpiece. It's kind of lame but its easy.

I wonder if JB has ever considered letter grading? For me, they're more versatile and maybe more credible than the star system. In a perfect world, though, I do think he'd be fine if he just dropped the ratings/grades altogether. A lot of times the stars seem way arbitrary and it stinks when the rating doesn't even accurately represent the seven paragraphs of review that come after it. And maybe the biggest problem with rating/grading is that it rewards generic, mediocre stuff with low ambitions while something that misses a higher mark gets penalized, even if it's trying for more. It all seems pretty dumb and counter-productive. I say let Metacritic and whatnot sort out the exact numerical worth of a review and concentrate on the writing instead, JB

But doesn't Metacritic draw on the various snap-shot rankings to make it's final number?

Yeah, but metacritic determines (on a 100 point scale) what a given review is "worth." Some reviewers don't attribute ratings to their reviews so metacritic, based on the tone and content of a review, decides where that review places the movie on their 100 point scale

I use the 4 star rating(.5 stars at a time), it doesn't matter what your rating system is as long as the reader understand your opinion of the film.

The last film to earn a 0 star rating is : Kickin' it Old School
The last fiom to earn 4 stars rating is: Gone Baby Gone

This week i should get back into the habit of writing my review for you. Go to last movie watch and look under corpen 11's post.

If you have any questions, just ask.

The same way I would express myself if i told the meaning of a 2 star movie at loud to someone.

I like to rate movies because I find it much easier to keep track of what I like. My system is simple: I use imdb 10 point system and try to assign something for each movie.

What I'm not too sure about is if I should share my ratings with others. For instance, I know what it means when I give a movie an 8, but will that mean anything to anyone else? Perhaps a little, but it isn't as instructive as my actual thoughts on the movie.

After reading James for so long, I've really gotten used to the 4 star system. When I think about it, the 10 point system makes more sense, but the 4 star one seems much more approachable. The 10 point system usually gets me to feel bad if its below a 5. 4 point system is much more ruthless. And I don't like 5 point systems that much because its harder to do a middle of the road score. I don't feel right with halves here... I blame Netflix.

At work (public school) we rate the movies and also music using a 10 point scale, and we ascertain very very firmly, that a 5 is really really average. Not bad, not great, worth matinee dollars, but not a full price evening show,

I find that many times my high school students tend to always give 7-8 ratings all the time, and it takes a few months on current pop music and movies and good discussions that they get into the habit of understanding that a 5/10 isn't a death rating,

For example, this past few weeks I watched Departures (8), Whatever Works (7) Harry Potter (7), Away We Go (7), Moon (8), Bruno (4) my students will freak at that rating, they, I am sure, will love Bruno., and to give a sense of scale, Mouchette (8), Bicycle Thief (10) Gattaca (9) Tokyo Twilight (10) Sansho (9) Doubt (9) Lives of Others (9) viewed in the last couple of months from my own library.

I am lucky, I pretty much avoid the 1-3 rating films through word of mouth although I will go see one if my students prod me enough to see a certain film.

I tend not to rate movies and I'll used La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini to describe my reasoning.

I recently watched the aforementioned movie and quite frankly didn't like it. In fact it was a bit of a chore to finish the whole, nearly three hour long movie. In my mind the film was needlessly bloated, lacked any sort of structure and had very little to actually say. When it was over I felt somewhat annoyed that such a revered classic could do so little for me. Afterward I went online and read up on the movie and why it's so loved and admired. I began to understand that there were things that went over my head (i.e. the perceived lack of structure) and intricacies that I didn't pay fair enough attention to. In other words I saw why other people saw La Dolce Vita as a classic. With that said, my opinion didn't change much and I have little urge to revisit it.

Now, if I were to rate it I'd give it a 5/10 or two stars, right? Not necessarily. Even though I didn't enjoy the movie I don't believe it's a mediocre film. I refuse to disregard other people's opinions, especially when said people know more about film than I ever will. To me, calling it a two star movie would be ignoring its influence, which is entirely independent of my viewpoint. Though the movie didn't touch me the way it did others I can't see how it would be accurate calling it mediocre or a failure, which it clearly is not. So if I decide not to rate a movie based on my own perceptions but instead on the movie's impact (i.e. I didn't like it but it's a four star film in the grand scheme of things) it would pretty much defeat the purpose of giving any review. Thus, I decide to leave ratings out completely.

Basically, I dislike to rate movies because I feel like I am quantifying something that cannot be quantified and objectifying something that is naturally subjective. Of course, that's just how I feel and I don't have a problem with others rating movies.

I actually do like rating movies as it enables me to go back to my database, pick an ear and sort on zero or >7
Rob