How do you, personally, rate a movies?

[John Morgan]

Thumbs Up or Down, number of Slimes or Stars, we all have seen rating systems to indicate how good a movie is.  But there has to be some criteria to come to that rating.

For some people, it's simple. ("They how a bunch of naked women jumping up and...")

For some people, it's more involved. ("The directors use of Shakespearean dynamics to show the...")

For other people, it's based on other things.  For me, I rate a movie on how I got to know the characters.  Think about it.  A movie has a task of introducing a bunch of people to you in a short time and get you to identify with at least one of them.  If I leave a movie and feel that I have known the characters "all my life," I feel the movie has accomplished its task and was entertaining.  IF I am constantly asking, "Why is he doing that?" or "Why did they want to do that?" I don't enjoy the movie.

Example:  My wife and I just got through watching "Rat Race." In the first 10 minutes, they introduced 8 or 9 main characters.  They ran through the movie.  But at the end, I felt I didn't know anything more about any of the characters than I did at the beginning of the movie.  It was not that good of a movie to me. (Even though it was entertaining)

Example: "Cannonball Run" (to keep with the race theme here) They introduced a bunch of characters at the beginning.  (Some Stereotypes) But by the end of the movie, I felt I knew the characters for a long time.  It was a good movie to me.

Now this system will not work for everyone.  One person may feel a movie did develop the characters while another person may feel it didn't.

How do you rate a movie?

[Neville]

Three main criteria:

1) Fun factor. That is, was it entertained, or at least made forget about real life during its running time?

2) Equation intentions / results: A movie may be vary bad, but, what if that was exactly what the authors wanted? Needless to say, many big important films fail here, since they generate more expectations than many others.

3) Was it intelligent? Did the movie contain any good ideas (developed or not) in which you found yourself thinking later? The kind of films that rate high here can make you think for ages, no matter if the film itself was good or not.

[AndyC]

Aside from all the elements one would normally consider (plot,  characters, etc.), expectations play a big part in whether I think a movie is good. That is why I usually find a movie I really like in the winter dumping ground, and find the summer season to be one disappointment after another (as far as I'm concerned, there hasn't been a really good summer movie season since 1996). If I reluctantly see a movie I didn't think I'd like, I'm often pleasantly surprised. It exceeded my expectations.

I think advertising campaigns go a long way toward wrecking a movie for me. On occasion, there is a well-hyped and eagerly anticipated movie that lives up to it's own ballyhoo, but it has to be damn good. Most of them don't. It's worse when the trailers and ads are edited together in a misleading fashion, with lines and scenes out of context, or they give away the surprises ahead of time. In some cases, the trailer is put together much better than the movie.

In contrast, movies that get no fanfare, that I know little about, are often enjoyable. In that respect, I think I understand the people who don't read the back of the box when they rent videos. Even that can sometimes detract from the enjoyment.

[Lord_Humungous]

The way I rate a movie(or TV show for that matter) is pretty simple.

1) Does it make me uncomfortable or not?

I don't mean "Does the subject matter makes me uncomfotable" but rather "Do I feel embarrassed for the people involved in the movie?"  If a movie is stupid but the actors display clearly that they know they're in a crap movie I'm usually OK.  If a movie is completely ludicrous, but takes itself too seriously I usually wind up squirming in my seat and shouting obscenities at the screen.

[ssvegita]

I rate on how much i personally liked the film and enjoyed it, when looking at components I look at how they fit and if it obstructs the flow of the movie.

[Pete B6K]

I don't think i've got a criteria that covers all films, but one thing that can really make a film great for me is quotable lines. 'Big Trouble in Litte China' is, in my opinion the daddy of quotable films.

And with regular comedies theres a lot i can sit through, without really getting bored, but never actually laughing properly, just smiling at the jokes that the writers probably thought were hilarious. Definite thumb down for smilers.

[Apostic]

I used to objectively quantify my reactions to movies by using the "cigarette scale."  The more times I'd rather go out and have a cigarette than watch the movie, the less I thought of the movie.

But I've quit smoking.  Lately, I've been contemplating filling the void with an "attempted suicide scale."  Haven't put it to the test yet, and given the kinds of movies that tend to come out this time of year, it doesn't seem like a good idea.

regards,

Apostic

[BoyScoutKevin]

I rate movies on five criteria. They are action, cast, character, emotion, and music.
We'll use "Lair of the White Worm" as an example to show everyone what I mean.
Action: does the movie have one or more good action sequences. None in "Lair of the White Worm." No score there.
Cast: I like to see the old familiar faces, so the more people I recognize in a cast, the more I tend to like a movie.  Few if any recognizable faces in 1988. "Lair of the White Worm" No score there.
Character: does the movie create empathy for the characters in the movie? "Lair of the White Worm." I"ve always had a certain empathy for Kevin the Scout (Chris Pitt) in that movie. A score there.
Emotion: does the move generate some sort of emotional response in me?  "Lair of the White Worm" One or two good scares in that movie. A score there.
And Music: does the movie have music that sets the proper mood for a scene? "Lair of the White Worm" "The D'Ampton Worm Song." A score there.
I have yet to see a film that meets all five criteria. And that does not mean that I will automatically dislike a film that meets none of the critieria, or automatically like a film that meets one or more of the critieria, but, the more criteria the film meets, the more likely I am to like the film.
Then, I give each movie a letter grade ranging from A+ to F. If it scores an A- or higher, then I liked the movie. If it scored a B or lower, then I disliked the movie. The lower the score, the more I disliked it. A B+. Usually I liked it, but sometimes I disliked it, and I don"t know why I disliked it. Enjoy!