Giving Movies a Rating

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“I was cured, all right!”
I used to have the same problem, I stoped the 1 to 10 rating system cause it was driving me nuts.
I watched one film, and then there was the issue: So, 7 is good right? But 8 is also good... 6 is more or less? What is a more or less movie? Not sure how do I feel about rating art this way...

So I created something for me and I'm ok with it:
◘ Atrocity
★ Very Bad
★★ Bad (Sometimes interesting)
★★★ Good
★★★★ Very Good
★★★★★ Great
★★★★★ Masterpiece

It may look a bit stupid but... yeah! I feel better rating like this.
Even in my Letterboxd I'm using this system. No half stars anymore.



movies can be okay...
I used to have the same problem, I stoped the 1 to 10 rating system cause it was driving me nuts.
I watched one film, and then there was the issue: So, 7 is good right? But 8 is also good... 6 is more or less? What is a more or less movie? Not sure how do I feel about rating art this way...

So I created something for me and I'm ok with it:
◘ Atrocity
★ Very Bad
★★ Bad (Sometimes interesting)
★★★ Good
★★★★ Very Good
★★★★★ Great
★★★★★ Masterpiece

It may look a bit stupid but... yeah! I feel better rating like this.
Even in my Letterboxd I'm using this system. No half stars anymore.
This is great. This is what I'm gonna start using, minus the atrocity and additional 5 star grade. Those stupid halves are too stressful for me mate hahaha.
__________________
"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



“I was cured, all right!”
This is great. This is what I'm gonna start using, minus the atrocity and additional 5 star grade. Those stupid halves are too stressful for me mate hahaha.

haha
I perfectly understand.



I feel like I could reduce the rating system to 3 or 4 stars. I like to think of it this way....
a near perfect rating is 'You need to go see this no matter what',
an average rating is 'If you feel like watching a movie, this one isn't bad',
and below that would be 'Don't even waste your time'



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Since I've been on here, I notice while watching having a number in my head (and changing as the movie moves on along)... I thought about just putting the title and poster, but then I'm sure I'd grade it on IMDB to keep a record.. It's beneficial because a high score might encourage people to watch certain movies. I've probably watched 100 movies because someone will give a great score. I probably had that movie on my watch-list anyway, but with so many choices, every comment pushes it up.



The question as well is do you rate it purely on your own enjoyment? If you don't like sci-fi but you watch a sci-fi that's a great example of the genre, what score do you give it?

I like Halliwell's star rating, in the sense that the majority of films have no star at all- a lot of films are fine but forgettable:
One star- Worth watching, has something to recommend it
Two star- Very good, more than one thing to recommend it.
Three star- Excellent, well-made
Four star- masterpiece, important piece of cinema
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You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)




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.
Yeah fair play, I can see the other side of the coin. I think it's probably an OCD thing of mine. I like to have a meticulous list based system. Even fi I have to reorganize it every 24 hours.

Sean Baker is an interesting Director to follow on Letterboxd. He logs movies he's watched every day - but never rates any of them as he says it detracts from the actual text he writes about the film and gives the overall review a slightly distorted feeling. (I also expect he doesn't want to rat on other directors when he wants to give a film 1 out of 5)



The Bib-iest of Nickels
I used to really hate the rating systems, in-particular, I disliked allowing myself so much "wiggle-room," especially when I look back and see a film and think, "I liked this film more than this, but not more than THIS," etc. as far as consistency in my review database. What I do now is: -

Perfect
Great
Very Good
Good
Above Average
Average
Below Average
Bad
Very Bad
Horrible
"You Tried"



OP says he hates to rate movies. (His emphasis.) Solution: don’t rate them. End of.
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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



I just seen this thread. So how do I rate movies? By however I feel. Hopefully someone will read what I wrote about it and that will say more than the number of popcorn barrels. I give this post a



movies can be okay...
I used to really hate the rating systems, in-particular, I disliked allowing myself so much "wiggle-room," especially when I look back and see a film and think, "I liked this film more than this, but not more than THIS,"
Exactly. At this point, the usual grading system ( /5, /10, etc...) tends to lose its purpose more often than not, but one's gotta work with what they've got



movies can be okay...
OP says he hates to rate movies. (His emphasis.) Solution: don’t rate them. End of.
You don't say...



movies can be okay...
I just seen this thread. So how do I rate movies? By however I feel. Hopefully someone will read what I wrote about it and that will say more than the number of popcorn barrels. I give this post a
You've never gone back through your ratings, and noticed contradictions? The latter is the issue for me, especially since I'm compulsive when it comes to achieving order and consistency.



movies can be okay...
(I also expect he doesn't want to rat on other directors when he wants to give a film 1 out of 5)
Yeah, we all know it's more of this than anything



You've never gone back through your ratings, and noticed contradictions? The latter is the issue for me, especially since I'm compulsive when it comes to achieving order and consistency.
Yup I've done that of course. There's a couple of movies that I might have been way too harsh on and I bet with a rewatch my review rating would go up. But, once you do a review that's logged into the MoFo data base, you can't change the rating. You can change it on your post but it won't change it in the data base....and I wish the rating could be changeable.



One of these days after I hit 1000 reviews, I'm going to go back and proof read all of my reviews. So many spelling and grammar mistakes in them...not to mention missing photos from the ones I hot linked.



movies can be okay...
Yup I've done that of course. There's a couple of movies that I might have been way too harsh on and I bet with a rewatch my review rating would go up. But, once you do a review that's logged into the MoFo data base, you can't change the rating. You can change it on your post but it won't change it in the data base....and I wish the rating could be changeable.
I actually remember this happening to me way back when I first joined the forum. Funny enough, it was with my hall of fame nomination; Benny's Video. I even remember messaging Yoda, complaining about it all



Also answers to Jabba
I go by what I call the IMDb standard. Essentially, I rate a film from 1-10 (.5 included) and the explanation would go something like this:
1-5 very bad
5 bad
6 mediocre
7 good
8 very good
9 exceptional

I never give a 10 because I am not a fan of extreme ratings. Same goes for 1. Only rated one film that low



Keep your station clean - OR I WILL KILL YOU
Yeah, I feel the same way, normally I do ratings to compare films, there's many films I like, but numbers are an easy way to visually see which one I liked more and how much I liked them, instead of keeping convoluted tabs on my brain. Maybe it defies the purpose of enjoyment, but honestly I'm addicted to it as well.

I agree with @ScarletLion I feel like people throw around perfect ratings too easily, obviously not here, but if I go to the movies with friends and they enjoy the film, they'll just give it a 10/10. I don't think I've given a movie a 10/10 this year, but Lean on Pete came pretty close (watch it yo!)

I do 100 point scale, very specifically as well, sometimes I'd give films like 72/100 or something stupidly specific like that.