I don't rate on an especial rule based chart bringing justice to every movie I watch. A movie experience is personal, and what's truly remarkable to one is boring to another. I do rate on two simple rules above all.
1. How entertained was I?
2. How rewarding was it to view?
I first and foremost watch movies to be entertained and if a movie manages to really entertain, I can live perfectly well with its flaws and failures. On the second hand I do enjoy movies who goes deeper as well. Who tells stories dying to be told, who unwraps a mystery in unforgettable ways or who takes on deeper emotional journeys and challenges you as a viewer. These are the kind of often rewarding experiences for me.
There's a lot more to movies obviously. Great acting is always a major plus. Originality can't be underestimated, especially after so many years of movies were it gets increasingly more difficult to be original. Let's face. Most of the obvious ideas have been used a long time ago. Then we always got fresh spins on genres everybody thought was abused to death. And so on and so forth. There's always a lot of small details building the entire movie as an unit worth explore, and it's not easy to get the balance right.
In the end I don't analyze and reconsider every aspect of the movie. I just follow my gut and heart, and rate it accordingly to what it felt like it was worth. Sometimes a lot better than the majority of critics and the public. Other times the opposite, and at least on a couple of genres I'll usually end up with the most common ratings. They are still always mine and personal so they can't be wrong, but they can obviously be far from what you'll get from the same movie. There's no correct answer to how to rate a movie, thankfully.
Anyway. This is the short explanation of my rating scores.
10: An extraordinary experience. One of the very best movies I've ever seen. Perfection, or very close to it. A movie I recommend you go out of your way to watch.
9: A magnificent movie. A must see experience, and just short of perfect. A movie I strongly recommend to not miss.
8: A great movie. A rewarding experience that stands out, but still it falls short of the all time greats like those 9s and 10s are. A movie I think is better and more rewarding than most you'll watch.
7: A good movie worth watching. It got its flaws and is in no way a very rewarding experience. Its still good enough it might be worth watching, especially if you really like the genre, one or more of the actors or the director. A movie that just makes the cut for what's worth the time spent watching.
6: Now we arrive at the average and at movies not really worth the time spent watching them. They can still have entertainment value either within its genre, for special effects, actors or story, but it's not a movie I'll recommend or think you'll regret never watching. A movie killing time, but maybe not worth spending the time killing.
5: Just below average. Not worth its time, rarely have anything special about it that rewards the watch and is a waste of time. A movie you'll be better of not watching.
4: Poor. A movie with major flaws that doesn't manage what it sets out to do. Is a waste of time and money, and would be better of never made. A movie I recommend you shy away from.
3: Very bad. A movie I find painful to sit through. It got so many major flaws and doesn't bring anything to you as a movie experience. A shameful attempt to get your money or time.
2: Extremely bad. How did they manage to make this into a movie in the first place? They are so close to perfecting failure its should be a career ending for the director.
1: Jesus. Did I really manage to get to the end of that? A perfect example of a movie doing everything wrong. Not only should you do anything to avoid watching it. You should probably sue the cinema or video store using space on it.
So I'm happy to say I don't remember any 1s, but then again I do some pre-screening to pick what movies I'm going to watch. It wouldn't be worth much if I still managed to come across a 1. Rarely do I come across 2s and 3s as well. Most movies making it into my viewing should have enough quality of some sort to manage to get above those, and its rare I suffer through that kind of experiences.
On the other hand I don't go crazy with my 9s or 10s either. As of now I've only got four 10s on my list, but I still got a lot of older classics I haven't seen or revisited since I began rating. Classics like the Godfather trilogy, Schindler's List, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Star Wars, City of God, Goodfellas, Casablanca, most of Hitchcock's work and so on and so forth. It doesn't seem like I'm going crazy finding 9s either, but just like with the trashiest of trash, really magnificent work doesn't come along every day.
8s is getting quite crowded, but they make a lot of great movies rewarding your passion for them. Its not easy getting there, especially in some genres, but every time you come across one you forget about all the average or worse work you've suffered through before you watch it, and it reminds you why you watch movies in the first place. They reward your time with a special story, performance or pure entertainment all though still shy of the true quality in the better ones.
7s are handed out most often. They have a certain quality within its genre to reflect the time you spent watching it. They rarely change your world or thoughts in any way, but they manage to entertain you enough. Sometimes that's just what you need, especially when it comes to certain genres like romance comedies, romance dramas or pure comedy. They don't stand out, but they fill your need there and then. Sometimes I'll even revisit a 7 just because I know it manages to give me exactly what I need for a hour and a half, but more often I'll take my chances with a movie never seen before.
6s is unfortunately also handed out quite often. They don't make the cut for entertainment or quality value, but they have enough of something to not deserve being slaughtered. As I don't consider them worth the time spent, I'll not re-watch such a movie without strong arguments from people I respect who say I'm wrong and should give it another chance. The truth is sometimes you run into the right movie on the wrong day, and doesn't appreciate its value like you might have the day before or the day after. Still most movies in this bunch is just not worth their effort, even though they sometimes are very important experience for an actor, an actress or a director, who'll later go on to do magnificent work. And sometimes just because you can recognize such talent in the 6 movie, it was worth watching it despite the movie itself didn't manage to reward the time you spent on it.
From 5s and down there's really no such things to collect. Even if you really like an actor or actress, their performance (or looks if you're shallow enough to just focus on it) can't make it worthwhile. Glimpses of originality, dialogue or anything else that kept the rating from worse than it got, still have no hope of defending the time you must spend to check it out.
I make no excuses for those movies I rate wrongly. They are all rated from my point of view, and if my personal experience from a movie or my personal requirements for what I consider to be good within its genre, differs from yours or the majority's, it still doesn't mean I'm wrong. It might just suggest I got poor taste, or at least a different taste, but I still think the way a movie can seem completely different to people is one of the main reasons to keep making them.
If any given movie connects perfectly with only one of its audience, I think it was worth making it despite what everyone else might think of it. Sometimes I think those people matching perfect with a movie everyone else dislike, really should take the time to write the director, main actors and screenwriter and tell them so. They've had to take a lot of crap for that movie, so they would probably cherish the letter.
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