On what basis do you rate films ?

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andr
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by andr »

I rate a film on the basis of how much I want to see films like this in the future. This may depend of how much I enjoyed the film, how much I learned from it or for any other reason. I rate them regardless of how well they are made. Because the whole purpose of ratings is to get recommendations for me which new films to watch, not to find out which films are the best made.

But of course if someone has another purpose of rating, they should rate according to their purpose.

fra paolo
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by fra paolo »

On what basis do you rate films ?
        On the basis of how much you liked the film ?
Or on the basis of how "good" you find a film ?

... or on another basis altogether ?


My rankings are structured along two axes.

The basic ranking is 'how much do I want to see this film again?'. So my highest-ranked films are those I can watch over and over again because they appeal to my sensibility. The lowest-ranked films are those I found off-putting. Theoretically, that means looking at my list evens out across all ten tiers relative to one another, but I haven't been maintaining the list as well as I could and it's a little bit distorted right now.

Overlaying that is a system based on 'Michelin stars' which reflects how strongly I would recommend a film to someone else. This means that my lowest-ranked 'Four star' film is equal in terms of recommendation to the highest-ranked one. However, the star-categories are not equally sized. There are not many four-star films, a few more three-star ones, lots of two-stars, and the one stars are theoretically equal in number to fours plus threes.

Films at the margins of the star categories will drift up or down between them as I add more films to the list.

My list does not pretend to be comprehensive, and really mostly reflects films I've seen since 2012. Yet I've been going to the movies since the later 1960s!

Suture Self
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by Suture Self »

I go to the "your rating" box and put in a number and then click "submit" hehehehe

90sCoffee
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by 90sCoffee »

I never understood the 'how much do I wanna re-watch it again' thing. If it's a horror film or a film with a twist then once you've seen it, it has far less to offer on subsequent viewings. Or a film like 'Come and See'....great film, high ratings, but I would no way in heck wanna ever re-watch it and I bet many others are the same. Each film is different and does different things, I don't think you can have a rigid set of check-boxes to use to rank them.

It's simple for me, have benchmarks of what an average film is, what a lower end and higher end film is, and assign all the numbers in-between based on that after you're done the film based on where it should fit on that scale or whatever.

Daghan
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by Daghan »

If after the watching I just sit, and can't think of anything except the movie, so definitely it is a good one :lol: So I rank the movies according to my feelings, emotions, I've got

livelove
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by livelove »

fra paolo wrote:The basic ranking is 'how much do I want to see this film again?'. So my highest-ranked films are those I can watch over and over again
90sCoffee wrote:I never understood the 'how much do I wanna re-watch it again' thing. If it's a horror film or a film with a twist then once you've seen it, it has far less to offer on subsequent viewings. Or a film like 'Come and See'....great film, high ratings, but I would no way in heck wanna ever re-watch it and I bet many others are the same. Each film is different and does different things, I don't think you can have a rigid set of check-boxes to use to rank them.

I agree with 90sCoffee here. To illustrate his/her point: On my rankings spreadsheet, I have a separate column labelled "rewatchability factor". It is completely separate from how high I ranked a film and only tells me to what degree the type of film lends itself to being rewatched.

For example, a whodunnit normally has a very low rewatchability factor, because for me the fun/excitement comes from guessing, well ... whodunnit. Obviously this pleasure fades away beyond the first watch. So the film itself can have a very high mark, even 100, and at the same time a very low rewatchability factor.

Code: Select all

My range for the rewatchability factor is 0.1 - 2 (10%-200%).
Therefore:
joy of rewatching = film's score * rewatchability factor

livelove
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by livelove »

BadCosmonaut wrote:my default score for a movie is 5 out of 10. I don't rate a movie unless I watch it to the end. If I watch a movie and it doesn't earn or lose any points from me, I would probably rate it a 5 which is just decent. Some genres have a default score of 4 though, like love stories, musicals, most common types of horror and thrillers, and b movies. Since I don't like most love stories, most will lose at least one point during the viewing, if not more. Same with musicals and horror. I generally like b movies despite them sucking, which is why it's pretty easy for them to stay at a 4.
[…] I'd start at my default score of 5 then probably give it 1 or 2 points for being technically well made.
Thanks for sharing your approach. I respect you having a different method, but just wanted to share that I have the opposite approach:

Why should I give 4 or 5 points "by default"? Films don't get any free points from me, they honestly have to earn them. So for me, every film starts out with 0 points and if there is nothing I like, it simply stays at that score. If you return a blank sheet for a test, you also get 0 points. Same logic. I think that's just fair.

livelove
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by livelove »

To get back to the original topic:

I stipulate that nobody LIKES to be sad.
I further stipulate that most people prefer to feel good than to feel bad/sad.

So
how much can you like a sad film, which will make you feel sad, if you don't like to feel sad ?
how much can you like a depressing film, which will make you feel depressed, if you don't like feeling depressed ?

Folks who rate a film on the basis of film-making craftsmanship obviously don't suffer from this dilemma at all.
But folks who (like me) rate a film just on the basis of how much they LIKE a film, don't they like a film better if it gives them feelings they like (feel good) as opposed to sad/depressed feelings ?

Some folks here (again, this includes me) said, they rate a film based on how much they ENJOY it. But who "enjoys" being sad ?

This is what makes it very difficult to rate "not feelgood-films" (feelbad-films),
and even more difficult to compare a feelgood film to a feelbad film and try to give them rankings which fit individually but also stand the comparison against each other ...

For example, Celda 211 is an excellent film IMHO, but not one of which you can say, once it is over: "I enjoyed it" ...
The same holds true for films dealing with rape for example ... who "enjoys" that ?

I have seen an excellent "stalker film", which is so terrifying, frightening and outright painful to watch ... any way you put it, it's not something I "enjoyed". So simply on the basis of how much I "enjoyed" the film, I rated it 60/100. And yet, I feel that it's a bit unfair to the film, because it's a masterpiece and I really think, no film dealing with that subject could be any more "enjoyable", that's outright impossible.

I tried my best to explain my dilemma.
Can you see it ?

ribcage
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by ribcage »

I don't like to be sad; I don't watch sad films. Ergo no tension over what rating to give. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best. I also only listen to the "Inspired by Rednex" station on Spotify because 90s Danish pop song playlists are least likely to get emotional. I'm quite delicate.

To maybe be serious, I totally don't enjoy being sad, and if I stumble my way into a deeply emotional movie, I use my usual gut reaction rating determination, basing the score on the technical mastery or lack thereof and whether I found the emotion to be natural and genuine or if it was melodramatic and manipulative.

Then I scurry away without even trying to write a mini review and rush back to movies that feature death by snails. I know my place.

VinegarBob
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Re: On what basis do you rate films ?

Post by VinegarBob »

livelove wrote:To get back to the original topic:

I stipulate that nobody LIKES to be sad.


I do (when watching movies, obviously not so much in real life).

livelove wrote:I further stipulate that most people prefer to feel good than to feel bad/sad.


Yes, but when I'm watching a film 'feeling good' isn't a priority for me. I've signed up for feeling whatever way the film ends up making me feel. My main priority is that it does it in a way that doesn't seem manipulative. I don't generally care for 'feel good' movies.

livelove wrote:So
how much can you like a sad film, which will make you feel sad, if you don't like to feel sad ?
how much can you like a depressing film, which will make you feel depressed, if you don't like feeling depressed ?


Probably not much. But it depends on your preferences, or what your definition of 'enjoy' or 'like' is.

livelove wrote:Folks who rate a film on the basis of film-making craftsmanship obviously don't suffer from this dilemma at all.


I rate films on the basis of film making craftsmanship in combination with many other things, like how much I 'enjoyed' it, how it made me feel, what it made me think about etc.

livelove wrote:But folks who (like me) rate a film just on the basis of how much they LIKE a film, don't they like a film better if it gives them feelings they like (feel good) as opposed to sad/depressed feelings ?


To me there's nothing wrong with a film that illicits sad/depressed feelings in me. I admire a film that can do this without feeling like its trying to manipulate my emotions. Those films are rare and I value - and rate - them very highly.

livelove wrote:Some folks here (again, this includes me) said, they rate a film based on how much they ENJOY it. But who "enjoys" being sad ?


I do. And depressed. And angry. Negative emotions are fine to feel while watching a movie. Most films that illicit these emotions are more thought-provoking than ones that don't. I value being challenged while watching movies, much more than feeling good or happy or content. That's not to say I don't enjoy those films too - I love all the Coen Brothers films for example - but I generally find 'depressing' or 'sad' films make much more of a deep and lasting impression on me than lighter fare.

livelove wrote:This is what makes it very difficult to rate "not feelgood-films" (feelbad-films),
and even more difficult to compare a feelgood film to a feelbad film and try to give them rankings which fit individually but also stand the comparison against each other ...


Most of my favourites are feelbad films. They have much more substance than feelgood films, and that's what I'm looking for. A lot of the time after watching a very light or easy-going 'feelgood' film - musicals are a good example - I feel like I've wasted my time.

livelove wrote:For example, Celda 211 is an excellent film IMHO, but not one of which you can say, once it is over: "I enjoyed it" ...
The same holds true for films dealing with rape for example ... who "enjoys" that ?


One of my favourite films is Irreversible. It's a masterpiece in so many ways imo. I didn't 'enjoy' the rape scene in the traditional sense people use the word enjoy, but I appreciated how impactful it was, how emotionally devastated and angry it made me feel, and all the things it made me think about at the time, and for long after I watched the film. Films that do that are like gold dust to me.

livelove wrote:I have seen an excellent "stalker film", which is so terrifying, frightening and outright painful to watch ... any way you put it, it's not something I "enjoyed". So simply on the basis of how much I "enjoyed" the film, I rated it 60/100. And yet, I feel that it's a bit unfair to the film, because it's a masterpiece and I really think, no film dealing with that subject could be any more "enjoyable", that's outright impossible.


Stalker's perhaps the greatest example of a film that rewards repeat viewings and perseverance. This film, and many other similarly 'difficult' films, I find to be the most rewarding in the end. I didn't like Stalker the first time I saw it, but like you I could see greatness in it so I watched it again. And again. Now it's in my top 10 films of all time.

Anyway, that's my two cents, for what it's worth. People watch films for a wide variety of reasons. If you only like watching films that make you feel good and rate them highly, and either avoid ones that might make you feel bad or rate them low that's fine. There are films out there for every taste and preference. That's what's so great about them!

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