Giving Movies a Rating

Wait, you've only seen 80 films ever? xDDDD

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I've only seen 29, and I'm still struggling to rate them

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"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."

- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke

Porn doesn't count. ;)

Fine...13...

Friday the 13th doesn't count as 13 movies!!!

I think every film will have specific aspects that will be positive or negative for a viewer, and these things won't necessarily be the same across genres. How can you compare a comedy and a thriller relative to each other on every level?

I used a kind of rating system when I did my Top 100 but ultimately it came down to the film's meaning to me personally; and its quality – often the former overrided the latter.

YOU GOT ME! I haven't seen any movies, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't sleep at night, because of the lack of meaning in the ratings I give to these movies I haven't seen. You feel me?

Nope. Let me take off my gloves.

With my ratings, I try to reach a balance between the "objective" values of a film, and my personal liking for it. Of course, my personal feelings will always override, and be more important than these "objective" values. But I think at its core, the problem that I have and that I always fall in, is that after some time, and after the rated films have accumulated, these ratings and grades start losing their meaning. The latter makes every upcoming rating more and more confusing, until I reach the point where I'd like to start over again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Oh yeah. Your feeling about them evolves. With me it's regularly as a result of losing touch with films and not seeing them for a long time. A case in point, Le Bossu was in my Top 10 when I joined Movie Forums but I currently have it at 23.

See, at least you know what number it is. I can't ever even get together a Top 50, let alone a Top 100 films, despite me seeing more than that. I'm incapable of ranking movies with similar quality, their experience has to be somewhat fresh in order for me to do so.

I have no problem with grading movies unless they're half-good half-bad (e.g. Interstellar) or their appeal is hard to pinpoint (e.g. Taxi Driver). Otherwise it's pretty easy. For example:

Fight Club - 100/100
The World's End - 83/100
Thor - 46/100
Back to the Future - 89/100
Kill Bill vol. 1 - 33/100
Kill Bill vol. 2 - 80/100

I just came up with these scores in a second and I'd say they accurately represent what I think.

This is a great thread...I never actually stopped and really thought about what criteria I often use to base my ratings of movies on until just now. It is surprising to think of it as being so simple and yet seeing how it can also be so complex.

That being said, I think what I look for in movies varies depending on the type of film I'm watching...Like, watching Black Swan is so good because it spirals out of control and the movie gets more and more insane over time making you feel much different to say, watching Step Brothers. Totally different movies, but equally as great in their genre in my opinion.

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"It's too bad she won't live...But then again, who does?" - Gaff

I really don't care that much with my ratings. I usually only change my ratings after a re-watch of the film. It doesn't bother me if I start to think less highly of a , or I find that I now consider a film forgettable and another one a masterpiece.

My WAY of rating movies on the other hand is an absolute mess. Any movie I give less than a is basically boring af.

First I have the same issue as the OP. I think it was one of the main reasons why I never really got into rating all the films I saw in IMDb (or some other site). The moment when I felt the need to redo all of my ratings came quickly and I just decided it was easier to stop. I'm hoping that writing actual reviews somehow prevents that and gives me more perspective on the issue.

I've come to completely opposite conclusion. The wider scale of ratings actually seems to create more issues because it forces you to rank the films ever more accurately in comparison to each other and that's exactly what drives me nuts. Once I start new Movie Diary next year I'm kinda considering of changing my rating system to full popcorn only.

I would go crazy with a scale of a /100. I would be going back on my grades every second. Glad you could make it work though.

Pretty much. Although, it got pretty tiring for me, after attempting to write a review on every film I was seeing.


Agreed. On letterboxd, I saw a nice style that some people were using, which was abandoning the halves, and only utilising full stars. I think I could work with that just fine.

I took a peek at your letterboxd. What can a movie do to earn a low rating out of you?

Be boring, confusing or if I'm totally apathetic towards it and its constant praise confuses and annoys me. I probably have an interesting story behind each of the films I gave a really low rating.