4 of 10 for Shawshank? Ken is your real name Armond?

I want to click "like" just for the ability and satisfaction of following it with "unlike".

Forum, check it out. Ken's rating scale has to be read to be believed. It's a 10 point scale, but the weighting isn't the kind you're familiar with.



He gave Shawshank Redemption a 4!

I dig the new look Ken, but what of all the old writing? Gone forever? Say it ain't so!

Rough scaling.

Yeah, it seems too narrow, it sounds more like the scale should be 1 to 5.

I think Ken's doing his best Armond White impersonation over on his blog. You won't find me openly touting any of the films you've reviewed, and I do enjoy your writing, but come on. Inception and American Beauty are rated as a 1 and 2, respectively? Anything below a 6 is an abject failure according to your scale. Those 2 movies are that bad?

What would you rate an actual bad movie like The Blind Side or Macgruber? -5? -20?

I second that question. Also, I take a little offence that The Shawshank Redemption is 2-3 points better than those movies....is all this some sort of social experiment?

Yeah Ken your reviews really just don't make sense. Not because I disagree with you on your 3 reviews so far, but because of the scale you set up and the 3 ratings you've given thus far. You establish that a 6 is absolutely horrendous. You gave Inception a 1, which would imply that you really don't think a movie can get worse than that. If I made a movie about me taking a shit for 2 hours, and you reviewed it for some strange reason, you would either somehow think it was better than Inception or you would think it was about the same quality. I feel like your overreacting to movies that you think are overrated and thus you give them horrible ratings to show how overrated they really are, or you are simply just over exaggerating your dislike of these movies. There is no way American Beauty and Shawshank Redemption are several steps below "6 is abject failure. Anything you and your collaborators did was done very, very wrong. A 6 represents the rock bottom of talent in any given field. Audiences suspect anything this bad of being some kind of deliberate prank upon humanity, because it boggles the intellect to imagine that anything this awful could have happened accidentally."

Ken has to be joking, he hasn't made it a secret of his complete and utter hatred of a rating system

Have any of you actually read what he wrote?

I have, his reviews are plenty legitimate(I agree with everything he's said so far, especially in the case of Inception) though i'm sure the ratings system itself is probably a joke.

Yes, I actually read all 3 of his reviews, hence me stating that I enjoy his writing. Did you actually read what I wrote?

He gives valid reasons for not liking any of those movies. I have no issues with the content of his review. I'm just trying to figure out what he's trying to accomplish with whatever he's trying to do with his ratings system. I think the huge majority of people, even those who didn't like any of those films, would still rate them quite a bit higher, especially on a scale that has a 6 as a complete failure.

My initial question remains, what would he do with a truly horrible film? He could say he'd also give it a 1 or 2, but he would lose a ton of credibility if he honestly thought Inception or American Beauty was as poorly made as Macgruber. Ken's smart, he can differentiate between mediocre, bad, and despicable. He's up to something here.

I think it's a fair question to ask when a bunch of people are jumping on his dick for something like a rating system. If I ever became a teacher, I'd probably grade similarly.

In any case, this part of my continuing series where I simultaneously want to hug and punch Ken.

I have also read all 3, although I admit to just skimming American Beauty. His points are mostly valid, but he did regurgitate that whole Inception should look more dream-like thing. I never quite understand that particular complaint since the entire spinning top at the end hinges on the viewer not being able to differentiate dreams from reality. The character on which they're performing Inception must also not realise that he's dreaming so the whole thing is, by design, not meant to be dream-like.

In any case, I don't think we'll be getting much answers from Ken-doll here. He's ignored several questions so far and I can just imagine him giggling like a schoolgirl while we debate what he's doing. Me? I'm sticking with my social experiment theory.

First I must say that I do agree with the sentiment that some of your ratings seem a little intentionally edgy/unflattering (which is not a comment on the writing, which is good and thoughtful, but the numerical ratings themselves).

That said...I think you're spot-on here. AHX deserves a deriding rating because it's an awful, insulting, woefully simplistic film. Norton is good (not great) in it, but that's where the good points stop. As you pointed out, Danny Vinyard's "conversion" is almost laughable.

You should review a movie you enjoyed one of these days. Change it up a bit, ya know?