Overall Rating
This is the rating I have applied to every given movie that I have watched in full. It is the only rating that appears directly on the Movie Database itself. This rating is a standalone rating, NOT an average of the individual ratings.
When I sit down to assign a rating for a movie, I typically will give every movie a starting point of a 70.0. I'll then try to re-play the movie in my head, remembering how I felt while watching it. The more great moments I can come up with, the higher the score goes. The more faults I find, the lower it goes. Because of this, the majority of movies in my database end up in the 65-75 range.
As a general rule, the overall ratings for a movie can be associated with the following recommendations:
- 100-90: "One of my all-time favorites, can't recommend it enough!"
- 89-80: "It's really good, you should watch it."
- 79-70: "It was decent, had a few cool moments. You should probably rent it."
- 69-60: "Meh. It wasn't terrible, but definitely wasn't good."
- 59-50: "Ugh, that was bad. I'd avoid it if I were you."
- 50-: "I feel like 2 hours of my life just got time-raped. I hope I don't have any memories of that."
Individual Ratings (All on a 1-10 Scale)
Enjoyment Factor: This factor encompasses the overall "fun" experience of the movie, including the "re-watchability" factor, and weighs more on the Overall Rating than any other single rating. Was a comedy actually funny? Did a serious drama go too far in it's emotional string-pulling to make you not want to watch it ever again for fear of a mental breakdown (looking at you "Revolutionary Road")? To me, for a movie to be enjoyable it must perform at least one of the 3 following criteria:
- It must be entertaining. Whether through funny scenes, some eye-candy, or a huge 'splosion, there needs to be something to keep the audience awake and involved.
- It must be educational. Most notably for period pieces or documentaries. Sure, you'd like a movie to be both entertaining AND educational, but sometimes learning about a subject you are interested in is the entertainment itself.
- It must make you think/feel. There are some movies you walk out of feeling changed. Every now and then you come across that movie that has an emotional pull, where something happens to you that stays with you forever.
Dialogue: The meat of the movie. A well-written movie that is executed on screen by the actors can turn a good movie into a great movie. In a comedy, it can be the delivery of the jokes. In a drama, it's usually what earns you an Oscar. There's a reason why you can probably quote your favorite movie from start to finish.
Acting: Some people say the actor makes the movie. Not always the case, but in most instances can be true. Take Kevin Spacey out of "American Beauty" or Daniel Day Lewis out of, well, any of his films and you'd be left with a shell of a movie. An actor can't do it alone though. For a great acting performance, you often need great....
Direction: In my eyes, there's no more important person on a movie set than the director. For my reviews, however, I'm including a number of people's jobs into the Direction rating. In short, this rating includes how the film was shot, what angles were used, was it well lit, was everything cut properly and in a good flow in the editing room, etc. Essentially, how the final product was presented to us, the audience.
Audio/Visuals: This rating encompasses everything specific you see and hear on the screen. The CGI, the art-direction, the set design, costume design, sound design, soundtrack etc. You know, all those awards on Oscar Night that the casual observer doesn't care about. Sometimes, a little visual excitement can bump up a sketchy movie into a tolerable one.
