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What's the difference between a 62 and a 63? Do you use some sort of system where you rate different aspects of the movie and then end up with a score out of 100? Do you just pick a number after you watch a movie?

JohnnyDavid wrote:What's the difference between a 62 and a 63? Do you use some sort of system where you rate different aspects of the movie and then end up with a score out of 100? Do you just pick a number after you watch a movie?

well... i likely screwed up my rating system - i was thinking of rating things like school grades... but the problem is, there aren't too many F's and it's a very wide range (0 to 59).

So my system was basically A - 100 to 90, B 80 - 89, C - 70 - 79, D - 60 - 69, F (under 60).

But it ended up biting me in the ass because movies i thought were decent and gave a middle C (about 75ish) started to fall into the lower tiers and end up getting a poor rating description.

of course i'm already @ 1100+ ratings and am not in the mood to start over and fix it.


If i was to start over, i'd do Middle C @ 50... start with a movie you know is in the middle and use it as a "datum" and compare everything to that... start using multiples of 5 and when you add a new movie that you think is in between, you'll have some numbers to choose from.

I rate out of 100, but I only use intervals of 5, specifically to avoid having to distinguish between a 62 and a 63. I have a hard enough time deciding if a movie should be a 60 or a 65.

I can't put it into words, it's just a gut feeling. I admit that most of the time there isn't much difference between a 62 and a 63, but sometimes there totally is.

My ratings are completely arbitrary, even to me. I can't meaningfully quantify how much I enjoy something. It blows my mind how effectively Mike D'Angelo employs the 100 point scale.

Well, I like the more detailed scores because I like to be able to say which movie I prefer over another. So, ideally, I like all of the movies that have a 63 more than a movie with a 62. There probably is a margin of error of about 5 points, though, so I also try to distinguish WHY I like a film once the score gets above about a 60. So I alternate more artistic films with more fun films about every two to four points.

For example, movies with a 66: Basic Instinct, Dawn of the Dead (2004), Jurassic Park, Team America
And some movies with a 67: Frankenstein, Gran Torino, King Kong, Primer

It's a pretty weird system, but it works for me, and I like the range of control it gives me.

My ratings aren't close to perfect, because I rated them in a rush to have them on here. But, they will be perfect when I find the time to adjust them.
Anyway, I work off of the imdb rating system. Using '6' as an example:

On imdb, 55 would be the lowest rating that would warrant a '6', and 65 would be the lowest rating to achieve a '7'. So, deciding whether the movie is closer to 5 or 7, I work my way up from 55, or down from 64. Kind of like a horse race: 64 just missed '7', and 63 follows right behind, ...
I sound like a mad woman, but I hope this makes a little bit of sense.

FitFortDanga wrote:I can't put it into words, it's just a gut feeling. I admit that most of the time there isn't much difference between a 62 and a 63, but sometimes there totally is.

This. I follow whatever my gut says it should be. Occasionally I've modified my ratings to better fit my tiers/changing opinion over time, but not all that often. Still have a lot of films I want to rewatch.

Anomaly1 wrote:

FitFortDanga wrote:I can't put it into words, it's just a gut feeling. I admit that most of the time there isn't much difference between a 62 and a 63, but sometimes there totally is.

This. I follow whatever my gut says it should be. Occasionally I've modified my ratings to better fit my tiers/changing opinion over time, but not all that often. Still have a lot of films I want to rewatch.

Ditto on both counts. Honestly, when I get really bored I go through a random page in 'all my rankings' and make sure the films "line up", as it were: according to my gut. And while it's really hard to compare a Hollywood '30's RomCom, J-Horror and Bergman film, sometimes they have the same ranking, anyway.

It takes time. I have probably messed with my ratings half a dozen times in the first year or two on here. Once I found my groove, it goes by my gut, like others said.