I think someone's opinions of movies reveal a lot about who they are. When you talk movies, you learn a lot more than you would talking about almost anything else. People are passionate about them. For two hours, people make an emotional connection to a movie, and those connections are a window into their psychology. So let's talk movies. I don't want to know what movies you liked or hated, I want to know why you liked or hated them.



It's hard to rate movies objectively. Sometimes you're having a bad day, sometimes you want to see violence. Sometimes you're happy or drunk, and a comedy really works.

I did my best to come up with a ranking system for movies. It creates a pretty good spread, with most "average" movies falling into the "B" range. It's a bit harsher than the common rating systems in magazines and such, but I like it.

Letter Grade	Netflix Rating	Number Rating	Long Description	Short Description	Viewings Before It Gets Old
A+		10	A magnetic, memorable film with unbelievable impact. Captivates me, touches me, or turns my world around. Leaves me speechless.	BEST EVER	5+
A		9	Really great, well-made movie. Gut-wrenching emotion.	FANTASTIC / AWESOME	5+
A-		8	Very enjoyable. Keeps you entertained throughout. Slight nail-biting. Something special. Touched me. Taught me about life. Better than I think I could ever do as a filmmaker.	GREAT	5+
B+		7	Very good and enjoyable movie, but missing that one little thing.	GOOD	3-4
B		6	I like it. No big deal if you miss it. Worth renting. Lowest rating I'll endorse or see again. Maybe you look at your watch a few times.	PRETTY GOOD	2
B-		5	Not worth the time. All right. Fun to see if a friends pays for you. Barely worth seeing a second time. A tiny bit of it was entertaining. Lots of little flaws or one big serious flaw.	ALL RIGHT / DECENT / NOT BAD / OK	1
C+		4	Not too much fun. Almost decent. Hard to find something good about it. A few boring sequences.	NOT SO GREAT	1
C		3	A desperate time killer. Definitely not worth the money or time to go to the theatre.	NOT GOOD	1
C-		2	Bordering horrible. The lowest film I could tolerate watching.	BAD	1
D		1	Not worth it. Even for free. Really bad movie. A trace of a story, maybe kind of interesting to look at. Maybe a good song or something. Almost sleeping.	HORRIBLE	0
F		0	An unfortunate waste of film. No redeeming qualities. No story, totally uninteresting to watch. I won't want to watch the movie. I'll either leave or try to sleep.	DISGUSTING	0

Probably one of these reasons:

1. These reviews are for me, and that they in no way represent your opinion or the concensus of the American public. Some may be shocked to see a movie like The Secret of My Success rated higher than Star Wars, but that's the way I see it.

2. The reviews are probably best suited for reading after you have seen the films. I believe that people are better off watching movies ignorant and unbiased, and I wouldn't want them clouding your judgement of a film before seeing it. And besides, my reviews will often have obscure references and jokes which won't make any sense unless you've already seen the movie.

3. You won't find plot summary (i.e. what lots of other people call a review) here. There's no need for every reviewer in the world to summarize a movie, because they're basically saying the same thing a million times over. Plot summaries only need to be written once. Try the Netflix or IMDb for summaries. They seem to do a decent job.

4. Some people might rate old, silent films like The Great Train Robbery or revolutionary films like Star Wars higher than they should be, based solely on their impact in film history. Because they introduced a new camera angle or revolutionized special effects, some historians argue that these cutting edge movies deserve all the credit in the world and a higher rating for their originality. I don't.

5. Some people feel justified giving movies like The Godfather or Star Wars a higher rating based on their social impact at the time of their release. They say that since Star Wars captured the American imagination, it deserves a higher rating. First of all, a film's social impact is highly subjective. Secondly, most people probably don't remember when Voyage to the Moon opened in nickelodeons nationwide, so they can't really say what kind of social impact that one had. I try to judge every film I see based solely on what I see on screen. If it captured the American spirit like no movie before it, great, I might mention it in my review. But I'm not going to consider it a better movie.

Got a beef? Is there a movie I should see? E-mail me.