Badmovies.org Forum

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjYieeQofR4#)

I thought this was an interesting video.

I wanted to know how many of you guys rate movies and how you do it.

I don't have a metric I just kinda go with my gut. Much like YMS I start at 5 and increase or decrease the score over time.

My scale is used for movies, games, music, and all other mediums.

10 - An all-time favorite.

9 - Fantastic.

8 - Great.

7 - Mostly Good.

6 - Good, but flawed.

5 - Average.

4 - Bad.

3 - Awful.

2 - Hated it.

1 - This is one of the biggest pieces of s**t I've ever seen.

One of the keys is whether you assign your scores on a bell curve or on a flat scale. I think it makes the most sense to use the bell curve, so for me a 10/10 or a 1/10 is reserved for the top or bottom 4% of movies I see. In an average year I would expect to see from one to three 10/10's, and hopefully no 1/10's.

Someone rating on a flat scale would think a 10/10 score would represent the best 10% of movies, and would be far more generous handing them out than me.

On my website I no longer give star ratings. I give rare "must sees" for movies that I think everyone should see, "recommendeds" for a lot of movies I think people should strongly consider seeing, and "bewares" for a very few. Most movies get no rating, which means if the subject matter, style or personalities involved interest you, you'll probably like it, and if they don't you'll be safe skipping it.

I still think number ratings are useful and fun.

Here's another system I sometimes use to determine a sort of baseline ?/10 rating:

Assign 0-2 points for the script and originality
0-2 for the acting
0-2 for the visuals/music
0-2 for the artistic value.
Add these up and then add 0-2 as a fudge factor for how much you personally liked it.

The system above has the advantage that your own personal preferences only account for 20% of the score. So if I'm reviewing a historical drama or romantic comedy or other genre I don't really like, but I recognize that it's well written and acted with great cinematography, it still could get an 8/10 even though it left me cold.