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Why Are Movie Reviews so Freaking Useless?

From our man on the spot, Estaban DeGolf:

In a couple of recent movie reviews I’ve noted my dismay at some bad-to-mediocre movies’ high ratings as well as my search for a movie review source I can rely on.  At this point, “Rotten Tomatoes” is about the best option I’ve found, but only when I use the audience’s ratings, not the critics.  Interesting thing, that, the hoi polloi seem to be a better guide than the experts – (Libertarians rejoice)!.  In this article I’m going to discuss a few observations and pet peeves.
In addition to the current ratings that warn people about sex, violence and language I wish there one for PC crap.  I’ve found it impossible to enjoy quite a few otherwise good TV shows and movies due to the barrage of PC crap they find it necessary to stuff in, everything from Global Warming to “if you don’t want your teenage daughter to share a locker room with a man who says he’s a woman today you’re evil”.  Let me be clear, I have a decent tolerance for this stuff (if I didn’t I’d have to move to a cabin in the mountains, it’s impossible to avoid), but somewhere around the 5th time in the first 10 minutes of a movie we get a blatant slap across the face with the cold, wet PC mackerel I just can’t sit through any more.  I’ve searched for “conservative movie reviews” and unfortunately they all seem to be from a religious perspective and are far more concerned about foul language, sex and nudity than I am.  They do however, tend to ID messages antithetical to free markets or that are pro-PC, so they are of some use.
A second topic I’m interested in lately is the cases where the critics at RT differ significantly from the audience.  A few examples I noted this morning:
 
Movie
Critics’ Rating
Audience Rating
Black Panther
97
79
Death Wish
15
85
Annihilation
87
66
Last Jedi
90
48
Samson
27
66
15:17 to Paris
25
44
Phantom Thread
91
70
 
What is one to make of these differences?  Let me start by postulating a couple of reasons why they happen.  First, movie critics (like other journalists) are left-wing, probably even more than the average being artistes at heart.  Many of the differences above are due to politics. Consider that “Death Wish” scored 85% from audiences but only 15% from critics.  I contend that if you go to a movie that you know is about self-defense and seeking justice when law enforcement fails to do so and can’t stomach the very idea you shouldn’t be reviewing it.  I’m pretty sure that I would excuse myself from reviewing a hagiography about Barack Obama on these grounds.
A second reason for the big differences is that critics aren’t trying to help audiences find movies they’ll like as much as they are releasing their inner artiste.  The audience may love a straightforward action/adventure story, but the critics will lament its lack of nuance.  Consider “Annihilation” (which I have seen) – I thought it was a decent Sci-Fi flick until the end, which is a confusing, totally unexplainable non-wrap-up. Critics apparently liked that, anything for nuance I suppose.  The movie also featured four women in the combat roles, something I don’t care about but it probably added 10 points among the critics.  I’m actually mystified how the audience gave this a 66% favorable rating.
One other example, if I may.   “12 Strong” is a story about a dozen U.S. special forces who were the first to enter Afghanistan following 9/11. The critics’ commentary notes its “lack of depth or nuance”.  Obviously the movie didn’t find a sympathetic terrorist or complain about George Bush, it just focused on the heroism of U.S. soldiers.  I do think that movie critics in general and especially at RT have a hard time judging a movie from the perspective of its audience.
Movie critic: “this is a truly dreadful Pinot Noir”
Audience member: “it’s an IPA you t**t, this is a beer tasting”.
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nr
nr
6 years ago

all the more reason to have a dedicated reviewer on here. it seems anything made by the bbc can automatically be given full demerits for pc (see. brittania/troy) as can anything to do with money or economics on netflix.

moqifen
moqifen
6 years ago

Even worse – The Orville tv series which i enjoyed – looking forward to series 2.
Rotten tomatoes – critics 21% Audience 93%.-https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/orville/
I know it stars Seth Macfarlane – but he’s dialled down the obnoxiousness and in some episodes hardly appears at all. One of the greatest disconnects between critics and audience i can think of

moqifen
moqifen
6 years ago

Addition – anything enthusiastically reviewed by Peter Bradshaw at the guardian is probably rubbish. He once reviewed a Japanese film Sweet Bean https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_bean completely missing the main plot of the movie – spoiler alert- that the old woman had suffered from an illness that led to her spending many years in an isolation hospital. He completely missed the core of the movie. In fact he doesn’t get Asian movies at all from his reviews. Man’s a fool.

Tommydog
Tommydog
6 years ago

Movies of a particular genre tend to attract audiences that like that genre. You would reasonably expect that they’d be more favorably disposed toward rating a movie higher than critics who are expected to watch and review everything whether they like it or not. Audiences also, generally rate a move based on whether they enjoyed it or not. They often don’t even notice the picayune details that might cause a critic to pan a film.

Hector Drummond
6 years ago

Movie critics are also pretty useless for silly kids’ films. They’re okay for classy kids films like Lego Movie. But you can’t trust them for anything more low-brow but fun. Like the recent Wimpy Kid movie, The Long Haul. The critics treated it like some dogshit had got on their shoes. But it’s a good laugh, and a minor classic of the genre.

Mr Ecks
Mr Ecks
6 years ago

Movies and TV are infested with CM shite.

The “Elementary” US series had leftist bollocks in its early shows but not too badly so. However the CM shite has got deeper until with the 5th series I watched 5 or 6 shows and then quit. The stories are now contrived to peddle leftist bullshit and are full of nasty loser leftist jibes against anything the scum of the left don’t like.

A promising idea fucked up by leftism. The same as the British “Sherlock” except Gatiss and co managed to mess it up quicker.

Geoffers
Geoffers
6 years ago

My go to reviewer for films is James Berardinelli of Reelreviews.
I don’t always agree with him, but he almost always manages to separate the quality of the film-making from the subject matter.

Even when I don’t agree with him, it’s a good, informed read

moqifen
moqifen
6 years ago

@ Mr ECKS agree about Elementary – disappeared up it’s own arse.

Bloke in North Dorset
Bloke in North Dorset
6 years ago

I aggravated and old back problem and spent most of January on my back and started watching the Elementary box set on Sky. I agree with Ecksy, it’s decline went in to freefall round about the start of series 5. Fortunately by the time I got there I was a bit more mobile.

Andy in Japan
Andy in Japan
6 years ago

Simplest solution solutions is to ignore professional reviewers in the msm, are plenty of blogs Andy YouTube channels that give a more honest take.

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