The NZA Posted January 31, 2002 Share Posted January 31, 2002 Recently occured to me that many of us have our own personal rating systems for movies, judgin by invdividual criteria an such. So, here's mine. I rent DVD's online from Netlix.com, and they use a simple 5 star rating system, so I basically incorporated that idea to come out somethin like this: 5 stars -Movie was amazin - cast, performance, script, plot, entertainment etc - I will definitely buy it on DVD, even if it aint on sale. -Minor flaws at best, easily forgivable by the strong other 90% of its content. Folks who don't enjoy this particular genre will still go for this one. -Elements/ideas of the movie were so original, I had them in the back of my mind days after the flick. -While not necessarily revolutionary, this film had an idea or two with the potential to change the viewer's life. The movie inspires. -Examples: Braveheart, Fight Club, The Matrix, High Noon, Unforgiven, Patton etc. (Personal bias wants me to put The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, possibly Raging Bull, American Beauty & Cool Hand Luke...ya get the idea.) An example of a romantic comedy of this calibur, for me, would be As Good as it Gets. The closest i can think of a possible 5-star comedy would be Snatch. Also, i'm biased towards originality, sci-fi and otherwise, so well done pieces such as Brazil & 12 Monkeys often find themselves either here or 4 stars. 4 stars -Movie was above average, an ejoyable experience. Intriguing, entertaining, perhpas both. -While not good enough to stand outside of its genre, It's at the top of its class. If youre in the mood for an action/comedy/drama etc, this one would come to mind. -I'd possibly buy it on DVD if it's on sale. -This one had potential to be a 5-star, but fell short of grace. More than likely, a scene or two of poor acting/hokey writing kept it from bein great. -In addition, the movie most likely had an original idea or two which, if exectued differently (more detail, perhaps less, or more Pacino), wouldve really solidified it as a classic. -Examples: Vanilla Sky (see the last 2 comments), Dark City, True Romance, Ronin, American History X, Sling Blade, Carlito's Way, perhaps Unbreakable, etc. -For me, comedy has a hard time makin it up here, so i only include the few i saw multiple times & still laughed, like Something about Mary. 3 stars -Average - nothing original, or at least nothing exceptional. -While it wasnt a waste of your time, it wasnt time well spent either - this movie was not very memorable. -Often, this type of flick is saved from lower status by one good actor's performance, or one good action scene. -Your typical summer blockbuster falls here. This movie was made to reel you and your money in, but little or no love was behind the script/plot. -These ones sell well, but I cant see owning one on DVD - theyre a great one-shot, but lil replay value. Unless you left the theatre to go potty, you didnt miss anythin. -Potential was there to be a 4-star, but often, to me, this film is hampered by its own hype: trailers made it look far better than it delivered. damn marketing. -Many comedies fall here: American Pie and such. Funny, but just that one time. -Examples: Starship Troopers, Independence Day, the last few Leathal Weapons, Payback, etc. We've all seen these kinds of film, just not discussed much. 2 stars -Eh...not so good. Mildly entertaining. -Many of these were similar to 3 star flims, just didnt deliver much at all. -These movies are often forgotten during the after-movie bullshit sessions at Dennys, which talk about other movies this one ripped off of, that were much better. -Plot holes, crappily-done action scenes, or just illogical, unblievable moves/transitions in the film werent rampant, but overshadowed the redeeming points of the flick. -Potential for anythin great really wasnt here at all, and hopefully, most folks knew this goin into the movie. -Sequels to 3 star's are doomed to fall here. Also, this is my arena for mildly amusin slasher/horror flicks, or many of Stephen King's movies. Sorry, Jumbie. -If the movie's genre was drama, it didnt make me care; if it was a comedy, it didn't make me laugh, more than once or twice anyway. -If a DVD of this type of flick was given to me, id say thanks, and ask for the receipt. -Most 80's movies fall either here or 1 star, especially if you go back an watch them now. -Examples: Hannibal, Alien Ressurection, much of the Highlander films, Dracula (any of em), Wild Wild West, 8mm, the sequels to Scream, Godzilla, Congo, Mission Impossible 2, etc. 1 star -Crap. This film wasted my time. The theatre owes me five bucks, the director owes me an hour and a half or so of my life back. -Nothin redeemable. Plot, performance, script...there's just too much suckage to single out one arena. -Oh, youll remember it all right, when you think of how movies shouldnt be done, or how you idled away your youth. -These DVD's make interestin coasters. I might buy one for someone i really dont like. If one was given to me, id hurry and exchange/burn it before it infects my collection. -This movie has the potential to tarnish the lead actor's name, as well as the director. These films might possibly lessen the quality of American films as a whole. -Ambition with no direction or flow winds up between here and 2 stars, usually. -I might possibly walk out of this film. It offended me by thinkin id be amused. I prolly ran home & showered. -Steven Seagal, Van Dame, Dolph Lundgren, Shumaker, etc - Im lookin in your direction. -Examples: Batman & Robin, Soldier, The Haunting, Speed 2, Tank Girl, Mortal Kombat Ahnilliation, The Postman, Thin Red Line, I still Know what you did last Summer, those late nite softcore porn movies on HBO, etc. Anyway, that's the gist of it. Artistic has a more complicated system which involves one grade for objective (or as close as one can get to it) opinion on the film's worth, then anohter for entertainment value (Ive seen Batman Returns 6 or 7 times, but it aint very good), so i wanna hear more bout that. Aslo, i try to take my biases into account, but one truth i must admit to is that i admire ambition, and therefore treat the movie that much worse when it fails me (The Postman, Thin Red Line). Also, this scale didnt account too much for chick flicks, much less foreign, as ive only seen John Woo & Akira Kurosawa stuff (surpirse, surprise). So cmon people, lets hear your criteria, and give some examples too. likes :shoot: :railgun: :optimus: :D but not a whole lotta :D :heart: ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumbie Posted February 1, 2002 Share Posted February 1, 2002 Well, my favorite movie review site is www.crankycritic.com and his system is based on how much money he thought the movie was worth. not a purely neumeric system either, but based on whther it's a dateflick or 'wait for video' type thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted February 1, 2002 Author Share Posted February 1, 2002 Yeah, but i always tend to stay away from IMDB and that crankycritic of yours 'cause whenever we went to see movies, you'd always seem to go in with about 1/4 of the movie already spoiled for you; always meant to ask why you never seemed to mind that, despite your efforts to not watch trailers to good movies the last few months before em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JunkerSeed Posted February 1, 2002 Share Posted February 1, 2002 I'd go on the 5 star system, but allow for half stars in there, since sometimes movies aren't absolute classics, but they're not really flawed either, so a 4 1/2 would be a movie that was no Godfather, but didn't have any flaws that kept it form being a classic, it just didn't quite get there. I'd say that at 3, a movie stops being worth watching, 3 1/2 being a decent concept that wasn't carried out well, or some cool scene or character that makes it worth seeing. 2 and below just means that I can barely sit through it. If I were assigning a movie points though, I'd take into consideration why you're going in to see the movie. So, after the 5 star compared to all other movies score, I'd give it a score for how well the movie fulfills it's purpose. I'm not a fan of romantic comedies, but I'd probably rate sleepless in seatle pretty high in this catagory, cause if you volitionaly rented or walked into Sleepless in Seatle, it's probably exactly what you want to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted February 4, 2002 Author Share Posted February 4, 2002 Fair enough, Junker's got some high standards, but he's recommended nothin but good my way. Any other personal systems? Artistic's got an interestin but complicated one, if he ever moseys outside of Billsyl...Fight Club. :darwin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yahve Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 i have a rating system. but under it i do see myself watching one star flicks just for hte hell of it. the only movies i truely plan on never seeing are those that are just not entertaining to me at all.... and thats a personal preference that should be absolved from star ranking. we should start a theme in the movie section to give the pros & cons of new flicks, in hopes of stimulating a greater movie going crowd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JunkerSeed Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 I'm up for that, especially since there's been an assload of good movies comin' out that noone knows about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted February 6, 2002 Author Share Posted February 6, 2002 Hey Darwin's crack baby, slow it on down, i wanna hear more of people's systems. Dammit Artistic, ill get you down here yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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