What does it take for you to rate a movie 5 stars?

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Permalink Reply by Microwaved on April 16, 2008 at 9:28am

Boobs!

I'm kidding (kind of), no but really a five star movie for me is totally different than a lot of other peoples five star movies. While I understand the criteria to make a great film. Direction, acting, cinematography, story, editing, pacing, lighting etc, sometimes all it takes is the heart in the right place for me to fall in love with a film and give it five stars.

Maybe I'm too easy on movies, or maybe I just know too much about what goes into them to judge them too harshly, or maybe I'm just far too in love with movies in general I don't know, but I'm a pretty liberal five giver.

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Permalink Reply by Slappy on April 16, 2008 at 2:14pm

Maybe I'm too easy on movies... or maybe I'm just far too in love with movies in general I don't know, but I'm a pretty liberal five giver.

You and me both. I am extremely liberal with the 5's but I lean that way period, you have to be one piss poor movie to get below a three with me. You already have to be a rather meh movie to get a 3, even 1 star movies can squeeze a 2 out of me if they had just one, absolutely one redeeming quality. Basically if I enjoyed a movie it gets a 4 because if I enjoyed it we are already at really liked, so yeah doesn't take much to say oh I loved it.

1 star = burn it, melt it, just don't shoot it into space I would be embarassed for the aliens to know it was made here. My eyes will stop bleeding right?
2 star = same as one star but one joke was funny...
3 star = meh
4 star = got a kick out of it, enjoyed myself
5 star = I talk about the movie the rest of the evening, or call someone to tell them to watch it ASAP and this is actually a big deal I despise the phone with a passion borderlining a psychotic episode.

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Permalink Reply by JWnPooh on April 16, 2008 at 9:33am

A great discussion thread. To me a 5 Star movie is one where I don't even realize I'm watching a movie. Touching to the heart strings is a plus but not necessary. If I know I would enjoy a movie more than five times watching it gets a 5 immediately.

Another aspect is if I find myself having an ephiany or even a 'That is an Almost Me' moment or character. Where everything comes together and just works (acting, plot, directing etc.). I don't find myself being lenient in my ratings, I probably am more of an emotional rater.

There are several reasons to me than just the actors or directors or genre, athough with some actors I do give more of a credit to than the overall movie. An example is my rating of Waterworld The story was a bit of a stretch but Kevin Costner in this role to me was excellent whereas he got bad reviews of his performance.

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Permalink Reply by clockwork983 on April 16, 2008 at 10:30am

My criteria is often dependant on how old I was when I fell in love with the movie.

I am 25 now, and there are certain movies that my Mom recorded off of HBO for me when I was a kid that I would watch over and over again. Movies like Legend, Labyrinth, BeetleJuice, Willow, and Big Trouble in Little China, that some might find silly or flawed, get 5 stars because they have had a life changing impact on what I love in movies today.

As I've gotten older, I find myself drawn to visually stunning or stylish films, unconventional plot progression, and films that have layered meaning or depth. Movies like A Clockwork Orange, Edward Scissorhands, Pulp Fiction, Seven, Snatch, Dark City, Memento, The Sixth Sense, Mulholland Dr. and, most recently, No Country For Old Men, get 5 stars because, although, once again, some might find them flawed, they totally blew me out of my seat by the time they were over.

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Permalink Reply by Birdy08 on April 16, 2008 at 10:50am

Wow, everyone so far has pretty much explained it as I would. I don't care about how any of the 'components' of a film rate with me. I only care about how it moved me. Did it get under my skin? Did it make me think about life differently or more intensely? Did it speak to me? It is a lot more about the feeling I have after watching it than anything I think about it.

My age, my life experience has a great deal to do with my rating too. I give 2001:Space Odessey five stars because it was the first of it's kind when I saw it and it moved me greatly. Would it be a five star movie for me now? Probably not because I've seen so much more since.

Like a wine that I consider a 'fine wine', a five star movie is a personal and intimate experience. I don't care what anyone else thinks of it, if my experience is awesome and overwhelming, it gets five stars. I don't think I rate movies with five stars easily. I have quite a few on my list but I've been watching movies for over half a century so in that respect, I'm not overly generous.

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Permalink Reply by peganne on April 16, 2008 at 10:54am

I give no 5 stars unless I LOVE everything about the movie..I LOVED No Country For Old Men and Apocalypto but didn't LOVE Atonement or American Gangster..I feel powerful when I give stars. :)

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Permalink Reply by spiderpig on April 16, 2008 at 11:32am

I'm definitely stingy with my 5 stars. To me 5 stars means exactly what it says when you hover over it "LOVE IT". So yeah, it's a movie that I love. Love it so much I wanna marry it! Um, not exactly, but love it enough I want to buy it so I can watch it over and over.

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Permalink Reply by Baff on April 16, 2008 at 11:47am

I give 2 sets of movies 5-star ratings. If I absolutely love a movie, it gets 5 stars. If I like a movie a lot and it has exceptional production quality, it gets 5 stars.

A while back I calculated the percentages for each rating I give:
5-stars (11%) Loved it
4-stars (32%) Liked it
3-stars (43%) Meh, its was ok
2-stars (13%) Didn't like it
1-star (1%) Hated it.

This is a bit skewed because I have seen and forgotten a ton of 1 & 2 star movies. If I could remember and rate all those movies, it would probably look more like: 10/25/35/25/5%

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Permalink Reply by dmahaffey on April 17, 2008 at 7:08am

I think this statistic is extremely helpful in determining how to assess a friend's or fave's ratings. Members who rate the majority of their titles 5 stars are clearly not using the rating system the same way I am. Their ratings can still influence my choices, but I look at them in a different context. I spend a lot of time looking at my friends' and faves' ratings, lists, and reviews to try to get a sense of their rating style. For instance, my mother rates almost everything either 1 star or 5 stars. Everything is either the greatest thing ever or the worst.

Here's how my ratings percentages work out for 1600+ movies:

5-stars: 3%
4-stars: 19%
3-stars: 10%
2-stars: 30%
1-star: 18%
Not Interested: 20%

I re-evaluate my ratings periodically, which usually leads to demotions, not promotions. Despite a conscious effort to prune my 5-star list of 80s sci-fi/fantasy nostalgia, several of those titles are still there. The 1980s and 2000s are tied for the highest number of 5-star ratings, with the 1990s not too far behind. There are only 6 from before 1980...I need to see more pre-1980s classics, obviously :-)

Since Netflix considers a 3-star rating as neutral, and I use the ratings system to generate recommendations, I try not to rate many titles at that level. If I think about it for a few minutes, I have "neutral" feelings about very few things I've seen. I was surprised how many "Not Interested" ratings I had given...a lot of bad TV, music DVDs, and pro wrestling choices I don't even remember rating.

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Permalink Reply by Headcheese on April 16, 2008 at 12:26pm

As long as I love it, and I mean love it, want to rewatch over and over throughout the years then quality for the overall picture is not as important. In general a lot has to come together for me to rate the 5 stars but it certainly doesn't have to be perfect and I do rate appropriately to the genre. Again this is why The Evil Dead can have 5 stars with me along with All About Eve or some of the classics.

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Permalink Reply by Moviez5 on April 16, 2008 at 2:49pm

Here are an example of movies.
1. star- John Tucker must die. (this movie must die)
2. stars- Home Alone 3. (not as good as the previous 2)
3. stars- The Longest Yard. (just ok)
4. stars- The Bourne Ultimatum (great plotline, cool action scenes, awesome ending e.t.c.)
5. stars- Crash (beautiful movie that truly inspires)

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Permalink Reply by jampony on April 16, 2008 at 4:25pm

I rarely rate something one or two stars unless I truly hated it. I give out mostly threes (and to me that means "it was okay"). Fours and fives are pretty much the same it my head ("loved it!", "awesome!", "fun and exciting!") except fives would be the movies I tell my friends to watch. And sometimes I give out fours and fives undeservedly if I want Netflix to recommend more titles like it. Did I absolutely love Stargate: Ark of the Truth? Kind of in my own way, but not because it's some great work of art or anything and I don't think I would recommend it to anyone except for other geeky scifi girls like me, but I would love it if Netflix could find more tv shows/movies that are similar to it so it gets four stars. I probably make a horrible Netflix friend, don't I? None of my ratings make any sense. :)

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