An interesting observation on movie reviews

**[AK]Clay** · 02-08-2005, 04:06 PM

Movie reviews are a very subjective thing. For example, the Academy awards occasionally go to a movie that most of your peers will agree completely sucked. Professional critics can be a little misleading at times. But what are you going to do, it can be even more unreliable to ask the general public.

I've found a handy trick.

Yahoo.com lists movie reviews. They give a ranking from professional critics as well as user submitted rankings. This is where it gets interesting. If the critics say a movie is bad (C-), but the views all say it was pretty good (B+), that means the real people who are actually interested in seeing this type of movie really liked it. That's likely you too, since you clicked on it. But more importantly, if the critics say the movie was fantastic (A), but the views all say it was just pretty good (B), that's a HUGE red flag. This is particularly true for drama/romantic comedy fair.

I've gone back and checked this system against some absolute dog's that I rented and it almost always works. Interestingly, I've never had this system flag a good movie that I actually liked.

So in conclusion, while each review score is useful in it's own right - the real information is in comparing real viewers reviews to the critics. Be very suspicious of any move that the critics rate higher than the views, even if the difference is slight (A to A-).

**[AK]Abaddon** · 02-08-2005, 04:39 PM

So, when you say "general public" you mean me, right?

I find that www.rottentomatoes.com is a pretty good guide.

**[AK]Clay** · 02-08-2005, 05:25 PM

I wasn't sure how to spell Abaddon at the time, but when the wife goes "why do you listen to John, he has horrible taste in movies", then yea, I mean you!