Rate the latest movie you've seen.

[Shiranu]

Selma - What an incredible film. I believe this movie should win Best Picture.

My only problem with the movie, and this is a historical gripe rather than a knock on the movie (it probably helped the movie) is how LBJ is shown as being an opponent... LBJ was a supporter of MLK and was one of the few in Washington who asked him to keep on doing what he was doing. I think it's one more piece of media where LBJ is slandered, which is sad since he was one of our better presidents.

But again, that is nitpicking at the historical accuracy rather than the quality of the movie itself as a medium of entertainment and conveying an idea.

[Hydra009]

X-Men:  Days of Future Past  (or as I call it, X-Men: Second Class)  7/10

I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but I was pretty disappointed in this one.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible, but there were a lot of things that didn't really work in this one.

I liked the doomed future scenario and Kitty Pryde's team under attack, but we could/should have seen more of things falling apart, so there's more of an impact when they do the whole Timetraveler fix gambit.  Starting the movie right at the last stand is a nice in medias res, but at the expense of tension.  That and it's hard to feel for people we have never seen before.  I also have no idea why we have to see the doomed future slowly doom even after Logan has been sent back in time.  When you send someone back in time, your timeline effectively ceases to exist.  I realize that in this movie, timetravel doesn't work exactly that way somehow, but whatever.  Honestly, I wouldn't have shown any more of the future timeline after Logan goes back because it doesn't matter anymore.

I didn't like most of the first half of the movie at all.  If it had stopped at the assassination attempt, I honestly would've given this a 5/10 or a 4/10.  We see Logan adjust to the 1970s, which was about as entertaining as it sounds.  It was really bizarre seeing Logan as Mr. Calm and Collected and Xavier as the who doesn't have his act together.  Then they gather the gang.  I freakin' loved Quicksilver, especially his slo-mo takedown scene. Pure awesomesauce.  Mystique was great as always.  And Peter Dinklage was good, but I don't think Trask's character was very accurately represented here.  This guy had a personal hatred for mutants and feared for the future of humanity, so he made it his life's goal to protect humanity from mutants.  It's a very twisted sense of heroism.  Instead, we got someone apparently with no grudge who, bizarrely, even expresses admiration of mutants.  *shrugs*

I also didn't understand why Magneto couldn't have just used the sentinels to terrorize the humans after taking them over.  As long as you're not standing right next to them, everyone would just assume that the sentinels had gone haywire, and in the aftermath, Trask and the Sentinel project would've withered on the vine.  And while it wouldn't exactly bring about human-mutant peace, it would set back anti-mutant initiatives, which would be a big win for mutants.  Instead, he stands right next to them so it's obvious that it's his doing, shouts at the camera that mutants are a threat, and tries to assassinate the President.  It's like he's deliberately trying to get mutants wiped off the face of the Earth.

And speaking of squandered opportunities, Mystique could have sabotaged the hell out of stuff like this instead of operating as an assassin.  She can masquerade as anyone.  She could ruin this guy's career - hell, his whole life if she wanted without firing a shot.  She could touch off a series of gaffes and scandals that could ruin anti-mutant organizations.  Instead, she's focused on killing just a single guy.  And honestly, killing him after he's already developed sentinels doesn't really accomplish anything, so what's the point?

And Logan gets to have this crowning moment of awesome where he saves the day.  Or drowns.  Whichever.

Bottom line, the action scenes are really good, but the story is lackluster and the characters are bland; it's really hard to feel for any of them.  The movie felt very restrained and ultimately, boring for much of its runtime.  I honestly think that First Class was better.  Or even the X-men cartoon two-parter of the same name, which is really sad because I was really hyped for this movie.  I badly wanted it to be freakin' amazing and it was just okay.  Its saving grace was that it retconned X-Men 3 out of existence.  Hallelujah.

[Hydra009]

You know, after reviewing this thread, I've realized that I consistently rate movies lower than most of you guys.  Stuff that mostly gets a 10/10 or 9/10 from the crowd gets an 8/10 or a 7/10 from me.  I almost never give a movie a 9/10 or 10/10, so on the rare occasions that I highly praise something, I really mean it!

I also overanalyze stuff, which tends to magnify small flaws.  That and I might just be really hard to please.  Dammit, I'm going to give a movie a 9/10 one of these days, it just has to earn it!

Also, I used to be funny.  :(

[SGOS]

I've realized that I consistently rate movies lower than most of you guys.  Stuff that mostly gets a 10/10 or 9/10 from the crowd gets an 8/10 or a 7/10 from me.  I almost never give a movie a 9/10 or 10/10, so on the rare occasions that I highly praise something, I really mean it!

I think a lot of people, myself included, often use a rating scale that that seems to range from 7/10 to 10/10, so ten simply means above average.  When 0 to 10 is used, a score of 10 would be rare indeed, and would occur about as often as a 1 (a score of 1 has probably shown up once or twice here, whereas a 10 is quite frequent). 

It's not like only 1 out of every 10 movies normally would reach a score of 10 either.  Movie scores would normally form a bell curve, with the vast majority hovering around 5, with 1 and 10 representing rare extremes, maybe on the order of one out of a hundred or less.

I guess I've had to forego my love of the bell curve in order to communicate with others about movies, which obviously I really like doing.  I remember giving a 6/10 to a movie long ago and being asked why I didn't like it, which was not what I was saying.

However, I wouldn't expect the reviews here to represent a normal bell curve either.  The ratings will be skewed high, because people avoid going to stinkers or things that have no appeal for them at all, so you won't see many ones and twos.  Still it seems to me that a score of 10 would be reserved for truly extraordinary movies.  In my opinion, most Academy Award winners wouldn't even come close to a ten.  I think of a ten as being a movie that shows up once every 5 years, movies that you want to watch several times over the course of the next 20 years, and such movies are rare.  Think in terms of your favorite top 5 movies of all time.  Those are the 10s, IMO.

But, I've adapted to the ratings here, and there is a lot of personal taste involved.  When I see a 9/10, it suggests I should probably consider seeing that movie, but it certainly doesn't mean I'm going to think it's extraordinary.

[Savior2006]

Saw Boondocks Saint's. The part where the hitman turns out to be the boy's father and joins them in their spree I was like "Okay?"

Otherwise, it was bloody good fun. 4 out of 5.

My dad keeps talking about how he's got God's Not Dead, and Heaven's For Real. Obviously, I don't have much interest in that, but once he gets that out of his system, there's Fight Club, which I got on Blue Ray from my brothers at Alpha Sigma Phi during a Secret Santa thing.

[Hydra009]

I think a lot of people, myself included, often use a rating scale that that seems to range from 7/10 to 10/10, so ten simply means above average.  When 0 to 10 is used, a score of 10 would be rare indeed, and would occur about as often as a 1 (a score of 1 has probably shown up once or twice here, whereas a 10 is quite frequent).

For me, 5/10 is average, 7/10 is good but flawed, 9/10 is amazing, 10/10 is essentially perfect, and 1/10 indicates that I hated the movie with every fiber of my being.  Like you said, it is skewed towards the upper numbers because I simply won't see movies that I think are horrible.  But I actually have given a 1/10 to Battlefield Earth.  That movie was awful in every conceivable way.  And the first and third LOTR movies are 9/10 with me, The Two Towers is one of my extremely few 10/10s. 

Bell curve, represent.

[Notthesun]

My only problem with the movie, and this is a historical gripe rather than a knock on the movie (it probably helped the movie) is how LBJ is shown as being an opponent... LBJ was a supporter of MLK and was one of the few in Washington who asked him to keep on doing what he was doing. I think it's one more piece of media where LBJ is slandered, which is sad since he was one of our better presidents.

But again, that is nitpicking at the historical accuracy rather than the quality of the movie itself as a medium of entertainment and conveying an idea.

I'm not sure I agree with what you've said. LBJ was on MLK's side in general. But like a politician, he had parts where he diverged. From my understanding this is accurate. He didn't do anything in Selma, and MLK met with him often.

[Deidre32]

I recently saw Into the Woods...it's a story about four fairy tales combined together with a twist. I loved it. I give it a 10/10. If you like musicals, you'll like this. A lot of singing, but it just worked. :)

[Deidre32]

Saw ''The Other Woman'' with friends earlier tonight...it was HILARIOUS. I mean, I was crying I was laughing so hard.
I highly recommend... :)

[Berati]

You know, after reviewing this thread, I've realized that I consistently rate movies lower than most of you guys.  Stuff that mostly gets a 10/10 or 9/10 from the crowd gets an 8/10 or a 7/10 from me.  I almost never give a movie a 9/10 or 10/10, so on the rare occasions that I highly praise something, I really mean it!

I also overanalyze stuff, which tends to magnify small flaws.  That and I might just be really hard to please.  Dammit, I'm going to give a movie a 9/10 one of these days, it just has to earn it!

Also, I used to be funny.  :(

Can you list three movies (all time) you would score 10/10?
I can list a bunch. I realize that perhaps these are just movies I really like for one reason or another and may not technically deserve a 10.


Blade runner 10/10. I've seen this movie dozens of times and I've owned it in almost every format. Lots of hidden storyline.
Forbidden Planet 10/10. Classic Sci Fi. I started watching it when we got our first TV. TV was black and white but it didn't matter. I actually have the Movie poster framed in my rec room.
The shawshank redemption 10/10. Just blew me away. I think I cheered out loud when he emerged from the tunnel of shit.

[the_antithesis]

I recently saw Into the Woods...it's a story about four fairy tales combined together with a twist. I loved it. I give it a 10/10. If you like musicals, you'll like this. A lot of singing, but it just worked. :)

I don't mind musicals, but I can't stand the singing.

[Hydra009]

Can you list three movies (all time) you would score 10/10?

The aforementioned LOTR Two Towers.  The Matrix.  Terminator 2.

[SGOS]

Blade runner 10/10.

Definitely.  I caught it when it came out on cable TV after the theaters had their shot at it.  I'd never heard of it at the time.  It was just something I blundered onto.  Later, I was excitedly telling my sister from Chicago about this great movie I had found.  Of course she knew about it, and said they were holding discussion groups around the Chicago area devoted to Blade Runner.  That movie must be 30 or 40 years old, but it still deserves respect and still holds up to any of today's films.

[Shiranu]

I have tried to watch Blade Runner several times and just couldn't get through it. I will probably try again sometime but... eh...

[GrinningYMIR]

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Blade runner was a good movie, I'd give it an 8/10

10/10's are rare, I agree with hydra about Two Towers, definite 10/10 there. Other movies, Schindler's list would be a 9.5/10. And Empire of the sun would be a 9.8/10, if not a perfect 10