Trevor

I imagine this has been brought up many times before, but....

I read (and even sometimes participate in) the "review" threads for each movie that I see in the theater. I enjoy our banter, and reading the myriad of opinions. In many of the longer threads, where the opinions are quite mixed, it is often hard to tell the overall DVDtalk consensus.

Why don't we have a poll attached to each "review" thread, giving us each the option to rate it? I'd prefer the A thru F scale, but I'm sure others would want a 4 star or 5 star scale.

I see it taking nothing away from the current threads, we'd all have the option to vote or not vote of course. But the ability to see the value ratings of potentially hundreds of votes would be a nice bonus.

Groucho

Not a bad idea. I usually don't like to read the review threads since spoilers tend to spill out all over the place, so a nice concise poll at the top would be helpful.

JPRaup

This would be a great addition..althought I prefer 10 options since we can do that and just do

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1


but then again, there are those movies that deserve 0 stars...

Matthew Chmiel

I like stars.

Trevor

Groucho, you're slipping. When I saw that the first reply was from you, I expected a snarky reply. I was actually disappointed to see that you agree with me.

Trevor

One problem that I've always had with star reviews is that some people and websites use the 4 star scale, and some use the 5 star. Keeping track of the difference is not something I want to clutter my mind with.

A thru F is universal, or USA-versal at least. 0-10 is even more universal, but a bit cluttered looking perhaps.

Just my input, any scale would be better than nothing.

flixtime

Including a poll in review threads is an excellent idea! Kind of odd that the thought never came up earlier.

Just to add my two cents for what sort of a scale to use...I'd be in favor of the following:

Excellent
Very Good
Good
Average
Fair
Poor
Shyamalan's THE HAPPENING

Okay, so maybe we can leave out that last option.

The Bus

I don't rate movies on letters or numbers unless I have to (IMDB). I'd vote for something even simpler:

Drexl

Make it a scale from 1 to 10, with 6 being the highest.

Groucho

A variation on the Victoria Jackson system would be awesome.

1 = Pretty good
2 = I liked it!
3 = For fans of the genre only
4 = My kids liked it
5 = I fell asleep
6 = Best film ever!
7 = Pretty bad
8 = Worst film ever
9 = So-so
10 = Not bad

Trevor

That could work. I'm looking for a current movie without a reviews thread, so we can put this into practice.

Of course, the best case scenario would be for a mod to like the idea and agree to add the poll to threads as they turn into the "official review thread". That's a fairly easy thing to do, right?

JPRaup

I feel we should be a little more systematic about reviews too

We should have official thread titles too, something like this. It may be going to far..but let me know what you think

Before the Film is Released
Film Title (Year, Director, Actors) Pre-Release or Hype or Anticipation Thread
ex. The Dark Knight (2008, dir. Nolan, Bale, Ledger) Anticipation Thread

or we could do something as simple as:
ex. The Dark Knight Anticipation Thread

- These would include, any prerelease talk, posters, trailers...anything really..
- It could also include a poll to engage how excited one is for the film for a scale to 1-5 or any other type of grading system

Film Release Threads
A week or so before a film is released we can have a new thread made:

Film Title (Year, Director, Actors) Review Thread
ex: The Dark Knight (2008, dir. Nolan, Bale, Ledger) Review Thread

or simply:

ex: The Dark Knight Review Thread

This would include all reviews, and impressions and in-depth discussion after viewing the film. It can also include the poll we were talking about.

This would clear up alot of mess and duplicate threads...


What do you guys think?

mdc3000

Good ideas overall. I think the seperate hype and reviews threads are a good idea and like when people do that... I also think a poll in the reviews thread is a good idea (why didn't I think of that when I started the Indy 4 reviews thread!)...but I think the STAR scale is the way to go.... not too sure but the most common thing I've seen around here (of course, personal bias is playing into this as well) is the good old 5 star scale.

The Bus

I think that's a format we are more or less following. The thread title idea I actually got from a Criterion Forum and slightly modified it to this:

Movie Title (Director, Year of Release) — Actors/Tagline/Etc

So, for example, Hellboy II would be:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Del Toro, 2008) — The Reviews Thread

or what have you. The em dash (the "—" ) is typed by holding the ALT key and typing 0151.

Polls in a pre-release and a reviews thread would be useful.

Some smaller, limited release movies will not need a hype thread.

Humble suggestions for those who start threads:

• Link to the movie's IMDB page
  
• Link to the trailer (in HD, such as Apple or Yahoo). Failing that, embed a YouTube trailer.
  
• Put the release date somewhere.
  
• Put in a photo or poster from the movie. These can be found using Google Image Search or, if the movie is close to release, from Rotten Tomatoes.
  

As long as the thread title has the movie title and the director information (as well as any actors, if they are big name) it will make it easier to find the thread when searching.

Trevor

A standard format like the above would be great.

Until everyone gets the hang of it, a mod willing to make the subtle changes to make each new thread compliant would be great. Too much work?

rabbit77

I've always liked the 4 star scale thanks to the years and years of reading ebert's reviews.

4 stars
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
Zero stars

riotinmyskull

awesome ideas, i really hope some format will be set in the near future.

TomOpus

It's funny that I've been thinking about this for the past week or so. I wondered why adding a poll had never caught on. It would give a better snapshot of what people thought of a movie.

Some of our more shy members can feel like they're part of the thread.

We should have a poll to determine the poll format...

Trevor

here