How do you formulate your ratings system? I have seen ratings out of 4, 5, 6, 10, 100 etc.

Personally, I rate films out of 5 stars. I do this for two reasons. Most importantly, because it is easiest for me and secondly, the web site I write reviews for uses a 5-star system as well.

I use five star since a three gives me a nice even "average" rating.

If a review HAS to have ratings, five stars all the way. I hate the popular american critics' "four star" rating. I'm sick of "2 1/2 stars" ratings - it looks sloppy to me.

I like the english mags... nice, five stars.

Though, really, I don't like the idea of a review being summed up in a star rating. It screams "don't read my well-written review, I've already summed it up for you with a meaningless graphic rating!". Also, a lot of critics don't even do star ratings - but their editors do. And they don't always agree!

(An instance of the above happening was Rolling Stone's four-star review of Filter's album "Title Of Record", which began with the line "the new Filter album is crap.")

Usually out of five stars, but when I get into ****1/2, I'd rather just say 9/10.

Five stars:

***** Absolute classic. One of the best movies ever made. I can't imagine I'd give this to more than 200 movies total.

**** A great movie. Enjoyable on almost all levels.

*** A good movie, with flaws (bad script, plot holes, poor casting, what have you)

** A movie that has few redeeming qualities, but not a total waste of time.

* A movie I regret having seen. (This is rare).

If you were to look at my ratings in the "Rank them as you see them" threads, the scores would not be distributed 'normally'. Hopefully by this point I end up picking movies I'm going to think are good.

4 stars:

**** (pulp fiction, kill bill, 8 1/2, rear window, raising arizona, It's a wonderful life, good will hunting, etc.) These movies cant' just be fun either or a movie that i really really enjoyed. I have to take into consideration the main elements of a good film (direction, photography, acting, plot, pace, etc.)

*** (Donnie Darko, Swingers, Memento, most horror films, etc.) These movies are great films that I love watching, but just aren't the caliber of classic films such as casablanca or citizen kane. They are missing some elements that don't make them CLASSIC.

** (DareDevil, Spiderman, Snatch, Big Lebowski, Almost Famous, etc.) Some of these movies are just plain fun to watch. Some of them i find myself watching more than a lot of 3 and 4 star films. However, it usually isn't for cinematic experience. It has to do with fun factor. These films are missing a lot of basic elements (plot structure, acting, too long, dull at times, scenes that could be done away with, etc.

* (The Matrix Reloaded, Scary Movie 2, Full Frontal, Tomb Raider, etc.) These movies just couldn't be considered great or even good films for any reason. They are done for the simple purpose of making money (of course most films probably are), but many of the 1 star films contain elements that make them groundbreaking (the cgi in matrix). These films are usually worth a one time viewing, but never usually more than that.

0 stars (Life of David Gale, Halloween 3, vanilla sky, etc.) There really isn't too many of these films (or maybe there are). These are movies that you want to turn off or walk out before they are over. These movies are a mockery of the film industry and you seriously want money/time back after you watch these.

that's my system.

It's all about the Letter Grade system.
A = Excellent ( Everything clicked with me )
B = Good ( Well done, but had some small problems )
C = Average ( Some good things outweighed by bad things )
D = Bad ( Poorly made all around )
F = Trash ( Extremely hard to watch all the way to the end )

Star ratings systems are so 20th Century.

I can't be the only one that uses this system:

Chick Flick - avoid at all costs. Things like "Legally Blonde"

Date Movie - Movie that I can tolerate if I have a date. Example - "The Family Man."

Then the price rankings - evening show, matinee, $2 show.

Then the rental ratings - wait for it on DVD, wait for someone else to rent it on DVD.

I go with:

* Fully hard
* At 'Half Mast'
* Kind of limp
* Completly flacid
and
* not even viagra will help

Exactly! That's is exactly how I like to rate movies. But you gotta be able to throw in a plus or minus sometimes.

over on hometheaterforum where they moderator of the 2003 Film List mandates everyone rates what they see I have adopted the 'Film Comment' ratings

**** - excellent
*** - good
** - of interest
* - mediocre
- bomb

it's broad and vague . In my 2003 list here on DVD Talk, I have just placed the movies I have seen in the order I have liked them.

I use a four-star rating system. Quite frankly, this is a big pet peeve of mine. I used to rate movies and write reviews when I was in high school with a good friend of mine who preferred to use a five-star system and I had a lot of sleepless nights because of it...well, not quite. The world would be a much better place if we would all adopt to a four-star system.

Just my .02

to ****.

i go with 5 for my ratings

When i did professional reviews, I rated movies on a scale of 1-10 in 3 categories:

By yourself:
With a group of guys:
With a date:

Good.
So-so.
Bad.

I use 0-10, but I also use fractions, and in my database I recalculate ALL ratings to their relative value 0-100. A 7.9 for me becomes 79, an Ebert "***" becomes a 75, an Entertainment Weekly "A" becomes, well, I think it's a 94.

My database includes as many as 15 different ratings for each movie, and gives the average, so it's nice and well-rounded.

so good I want to buy it on DVD

ok, might watch it if it was on TV

avoid if possible

I use a 17 star rating, which gives me a lot of flexibility along with a median point.

Pay Full Price
Matinee
Wait for Video (Rent it)
Wait for TV (HBO, whatever)
Don't Bother

I use a 1-10 rating. Gives me a lot of granularity, and I don't feel so bad when a movie I personally enjoyed doesn't get a 'high' score. Basically, it breaks down like this:

10 : A movie that excels on all levels. No flaws.
9 : A movie that's nearly perfect.
8 : A movie with minor flaws, but I can still recommend to most.
7 : A movie that I personally enjoyed, but I know has flaws.
6 : A movie with serious flaws, but that I still thought was worth watching.
5 : Average, normal movie. Nothing exceptionally good or bad.
4 : A lot of bad, but worth watching if nothing else is on.
3 : Horrible, but might have some redeeming features, or might be fun to watch as an example of a bad movie.
2 : Horrible on all levels.
1 : A movie I won't even watch on a bad movie night. Pure torture.