Badmovies.org Forum

For some reason I thought it would be interesting to look up reviews for Caddyshack II.

What turned out to be interesting is seeing the diversity of ratings by sites.


On Amazon.com the reviews are about split at a 50% rating. It makes one wonder who could possibly see that and give it a glowing review of 5 stars.

IMDB has an average ranking of 3.4 out of 10.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 1.9 out of 10 and 26% respectively.


For me, Amazon.com is probably the worst. Reason being that anybody can write reviews, as they can on many of these sites, but bogus reviews do creep in more on Amazon due to sellers trying to upgrade the crap they are selling, or somebody just having by giving a glowing review to something they know people aren't going to like. Then, there are those people who probably actually like it, for whatever reason I cannot understand.


What is your nomination for the worst general movie review source?

netflix. they're just like "movie was stuppid . if you rent this probably you are ugly and a gay". It requires so little effort so people just write a bunch of stuff

Out of the three Menard mentions: Rotten Tomatoes.

I say so for the opposite reason Menard says Amazon is bad; the site only compiles reviews from critics, and then only decides if a review is "positive" or "negative". Of course, it can't pick up on every review, and using such a polar system as fresh/rotten is kind of iffy in my book; what about just plain mediocre films? What about really great/awful films that divide people on whether they're good or bad? (do they get a worse rating than a movie everyone agrees is just slightly above average?)

I think IMDb does it best, that the 10-star system is a just about perfect method for gauging how much the defenders will defend a film against how much the haters hate it. Not to mention, it factors in just about everyone who really wants to speak their mind on a movie.

Worst of the ones you named?  Amazon.com for sure.  Almost everything has a high four star rating.  Usually only people who are willing to buy the product write a review, so of course they skew high.  For low-budget productions, the first couple of reviews are usually five star reviews obviously written by the director/producer/publicist. 

The only good thing about Amazon.com reviews is that if you see something with, say, a 3 star rating, you know it's an abominable stinker. 

IMDB is good, but you have to wait for a couple of years for the reviews to average out.  Almost every movie starts out with a high rating, then sinks.  There's a selection bias in that the people who post first are usually the most dedicated fans who were anxious to see the movie and predisposed to like it.  After it comes to video, people who are more lukewarm on the movie start to show up and rate it.

Rotten Tomatoes does have the theoretical problem Doc Daneeka mentions.  Sometimes, you will see a movie (like, say, EASY A) get really high ratings because almost everybody liked it a little, even though almost no one liked it a lot.  Still, I find Rotten Tomatoes does a better job of giving me a sense for new release movies than IMDB does.  IMDB probably gives you the best idea what the average person thinks of the movie after it has been out for a year or two. 

One thing to remember about IMDB is that 5.0/10 turns out NOT to be an "average" rating for a movie. A movie that gets a 5.0 rating actually sucks, falling in the bottom quartile of all movies rated on the site. Statistically, the average movie on the IMDB gets a rating of about 6.5. An 8.0/10 rating may not sound like an outstanding score at first, but it's good enough to land the film on IMDBs top 250 list. 

I'm less a fan of aggregate/accumulated ratings compared to the individual reviews and ratings from specific reviewers whose style/taste I know.  Sometimes, they surprise me, but mostly I get the best input that way.  The accumulated ratings mean very little to me, since statistics don't represent my own individual tastes.

In other words, I could not care less what the accumulated rating of a film is on Amazon; knowing that a friend, or Rogert Ebert, for example, liked it does mean something.  I have a far better chance "believing" the review or rating within my own taste/context that way, and I've found this works best for me.

All that said, I usually don't read reviews until after I watch a movie.

I agree!

I don't usually read reviews, but I do sometimes like to find out a little more on what a movie is about before watching it (especially since I saw Black Candles :bluesad:).  Trailers and reviews sometimes give away the best parts and ruin it for me.

Not really reviews, but I used to read Fangoria magazine in the 90s and I just got so fed up with them hyping every movie like it was going to be the greatest ever just because it was a horror movie.  I'd get all excited and then I'd go see the movie and hate it!  I know it's a horror magazine so I suppose it's their job to promote what's keeping them in business, but it certainly didn't help them sell to me.

Yeah, that sucks.  I suspect the reason for the hype is actually that they want to keep themselves in good with the production companies so they'll keep sending them exclusive info and access.  Doesn't help the consumer/reader, though.

I'll read user reviews, but I don't take them seriously. I check out reviewers who think a bit more like me. Eccentric Cinema is good, so is Digital Retribution...oh yeah and this site.

 :bouncegiggle:

I can't use netflix since I'm located in Europe but that just cracked me up.

Worst reviews for me regarding horror movies are the ones at my horror forum I hang out. Ironic, since I've been a member there for 9 years.
Basically pretentious crap, well written no doubt, by enthusiastic young students lacking heart and soul. Kind of like lesters netflix example, only worded better.

I'm kind of the same school of thought as ulthar and paquita; don't ever really put much stock in the accumulated ratings, though of the three you mentioned amazon is probably the worst.  I used to really like CHUD until Devin started to go crazy (there was a period where he couldn't write about anything - anything -  without mentioning how he wasn't impressed by THE DARK KNIGHT). 
At this point I don't pay attention to reviews at all unless it's something posted here, or on my friends' blog, Dirty Sprocket, because it's people whose opinions I'm used to/trust.