IMDb

Warper · 03-02-2012 11:26pm #1

I used to respect IMDb for movie reviews until I saw they had Source Code at 7.5. Wow, that is one bad movie. Do people rate IMDb? They are gone off my radar after that.

The King of Moo · 03-02-2012 11:35pm

It depends what you use it for.

I personally don't even look at the ratings as they're pooled from user votes so you're getting an average from lots of different points of view.
I prefer to use more specialised news/review websites I know and trust to find out if a film'll be good.

As a source of information and useless trivia however, it's fantastic.

Sad Professor · 03-02-2012 11:42pm

I visit IMDb several times a day. I couldn't live without it. I also like many of the new features they've added in recent years, like the Watchlist. And the user-created lists are pretty good for getting recommendations.

I do rate most films as I see them. It's a handy way of keeping track of all the films I watch throughout the year.

DjFlin · 03-02-2012 11:45pm

I generally go by my own reaction to a film. Not all that interested in whether or not I should like it because a website told me to.

Irish Aris · 03-02-2012 11:48pm

yeap, I also find it a very useful database, lots of information in there.

The ratings are not to be taken for granted all the time, but usually when a film has a really high/low rating from many users, it could be a sign that the film is good/bad.

MagicMarker · 03-02-2012 11:58pm

If I'm looking for something to watch and come across a movie I don't know much about then I will usually check it on IMDB to see what kind of rating it has. If a movie has a lot of ratings (10-20k plus) then imo the rating it has is generally a good indicator of how good the movie is. If it only has a couple of thousand votes then I wouldn't really pay attention to that rating.

Put it this way, I'm bored, wanna watch a movie and come across one I think sounds interesting, if it turns out to have a 5/10 rating on IMDB with 10k votes, chances are I'm gonna give it a miss.

Corkfeen · 04-02-2012 1:05am

I generally check Rotten Tomatoes to get an overall idea of if a film is any good. This can show rather skewed figures too but I find it to be a bit more accurate. By the way, I thought Source Code was a rather good film.

WatchWolf · 04-02-2012 1:19am

You'll be really pissed off when you see what Rotten Tomatoes gave it.

Precious1 · 04-02-2012 1:20am

I visit IMDB frequently and do give some credence to the ratings, taking into account how many viewers voted on it, and how many user reviews and critics reviews there are. Good stuff often just jumps out and I just glean over the description for fear of spoilers. Getting a quick overview in the New York Times movie section also sometimes alerts me to stuff. Got good heads up on Driver, Melancholia, Bellflower, and Driver, among others, that way. After I've watched a flick I really dig, I love going back then and reading user reviews in IMDB, and more in detail in the New York Times. and Rotten Tomatoes is good too. :]

Goldstein · 04-02-2012 1:29am

Always have to remind myself not to even look at the comments - it's almost as bad as youtube. I've had a couple of movies spoiled by happening to glance at the titles of some of them. "Please explain the twist at the end". AHH YOU ****ERS!!! *Spends entire movie subconsciously predicting the twist*

I'd love if you could filter the raters. Say, exclude votes from people under 18 (Just an example) or include/exclude ratings from various geographical areas - e.g. Let the right one in is an 8.0 overall but let's see what only the Swedes thought of it.

You could do it site wide or for a particular film whose page you happen to be viewing. Similar sidebar to carzone would do it with sliders and a simple bar chart showing the distribution of each criterion. A rating curve would also be useful in that it tells you a lot more than a single number can (Similar to Amazon but more graduated). Knowing the distribution gives a lot more insight - there's a big difference between a divisive 6.5 and a unanimous 6.5.

don ramo · 04-02-2012 2:08am

Goldstein wrote: »

Always have to remind myself not to even look at the comments - it's almost as bad as youtube. I've had a couple of movies spoiled by happening to glance at the titles of some of them. "Please explain the twist at the end". AHH YOU ****ERS!!! *Spends entire movie subconsciously predicting the twist*

I'd love if you could filter the raters. Say, exclude votes from people under 18 (Just an example) or include/exclude ratings from various geographical areas - e.g. Let the right one in is an 8.0 overall but let's see what only the Swedes thought of it.

You could do it site wide or for a particular film whose page you happen to be viewing. Similar sidebar to carzone would do it with sliders and a simple bar chart showing the distribution of each criterion. A rating curve would also be useful in that it tells you a lot more than a single number can (Similar to Amazon but more graduated). Knowing the distribution gives a lot more insight - there's a big difference between a divisive 6.5 and a unanimous 6.5.

click on the amount of votes and it give you a break down,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0945513/ratings

also Amazon own IMDB

johnny_ultimate · 04-02-2012 2:20am

IMDB is a place to go to for facts rather than opinions. Better used for trying to find out who the cinematographer on *insert film here* was, what films *insert name here* key gripped on or how much *insert film here* cost to make (always find that fascinating).

The more mainstream a film is, the less you can trust the IMDB populace and their ratings / opinions. Really is full of some obnoxious, infuriating people. Like here, really

don ramo · 04-02-2012 2:25am

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

IMDB is a place to go to for facts rather than opinions. Better used for trying to find out who the cinematographer on *insert film here* was, what films *insert name here* key gripped on or how much *insert film here* cost to make (always find that fascinating).

The more mainstream a film is, the less you can trust the IMDB populace and their ratings / opinions. Really is full of some obnoxious, infuriating people. Like here, really

ah johnny this is a safe haven compared to that rough ocean:D
,

Goldstein · 04-02-2012 2:28am

don ramo wrote: »

click on the amount of votes and it give you a break down,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0945513/ratings

Cool, can't believe I didn't see that before, very handy.

davestar · 04-02-2012 2:30am

Warper wrote: »

I used to respect IMDb for movie reviews until I saw they had Source Code at 7.5. Wow, that is one bad movie. Do people rate IMDb? They are gone off my radar after that.

First of all I'd like to say that I very much agree with you. Source Code is overrated. However, in certain cases like this one, these are usually films which has got only a few votes, for example an obscure film having a group of friends as its fanbase, who decide to rate it 10. Or perhaps those who were seduced by the films' 'Blockbuster status'. For example, The Shawshank Redemption, a great movie, has a rating of 9.2, as voted by 706, 207 users. Source code, scoring 7.5, as voted by only 125, 734 voters.

don ramo · 04-02-2012 2:42am

davestar wrote: »

First of all I'd like to say that I very much agree with you. Source Code is overrated. However, in certain cases like this one, these are usually films which has got only a few votes, for example an obscure film having a group of friends as its fanbase, who decide to rate it 10. Or perhaps those who were seduced by the films' 'Blockbuster status'. For example, The Shawshank Redemption, a great movie, has a rating of 9.2, as voted by 706, 207 users. Source code, scoring 7.5, as voted by only 125, 734 voters.

quick count 126 of the top 250 films have less than 125,000 votes,

no rating system in the world can count for one persons particular taste, i dont like the godfather films, yet there highly accliamed and are hughly popular and fair play to them, but i myself dont see the appeal, seen them once years ago didnt think they were anything special,

ratings are only a guide for you and others, they reflect how much a film is liked across a broad range people,

S.M.B. · 04-02-2012 2:47am

I find their scores to be quite accurate although I obviously don't always agree with them.

I've yet to see Source Code but this is a film that got quite a poor reaction from general cinema goers but the critics seemed to like it (and some like it a lot).

A score of 7.5 reflects this critical enthusiasm.

Underdraft · 04-02-2012 3:21am

Warper wrote: »

I used to respect IMDb for movie reviews until I saw they had Source Code at 7.5. Wow, that is one bad movie. Do people rate IMDb? They are gone off my radar after that.

I love IMDB (the site). With regard to the scores I will defo use the low-end values as source of information (eg if a film has less than 6 I'll take that on board and will probably influence my decision to avoid it). However just on the other end just because a movie (esp a new movie) has a high score that won't in any way influence my decision to watch it.

04-02-2012 1:47pm

imdb is the greatest tool a film fan can have. Can't count the number of times while watching a film I've stared at a member of the cast thinking to myself, I know him from something. 30 seconds in imdb and I have my answer. That you can click on a name and get a near complete list of every film someone was involved ir find out what that song was, etc makes it invaluable.

Like all good things it does have its draw backs. The message boards are like the wet dream of somewhat racist 13 year old anarchist with an IQ barely into double figures. It's as bad as YouTube and is best avoided. The film ratings are hard to take seriously at times, more so in the past where people could vote on films still in production. Meant that each Uwe Boll film would have a couple thousand ratings of 1 the week it was announced while the new Batman would have thousands of 10 rating three years before it opened. Theyve changed that now but it dies mean that many ratings are still ridicolous.

I would like to see them place more emphasis on updating small aspects such as soundtrack listings, especially for TV shows.

Renn · 04-02-2012 1:49pm

Find IMDB is pretty great for the amount of info that's contained in the forums etc. Obviously has some rubbish users, like every forum out there, but well worth having a look at. Layout of the forums sucks so I'd like to see them improve that.

Galvasean · 04-02-2012 5:39pm

As others have said, as a resource for finding out obscure tidbits IMDb has no equal. Just take the ratings with a pinch of salt and beware of the trolls in the forums.

seanybiker · 04-02-2012 8:00pm

DjFlin wrote: »

I generally go by my own reaction to a film. Not all that interested in whether or not I should like it because a website told me to.

Same as meself. Reviews and ratings from someone else no matter if its a normal Joe soap IMDB user or a paid critic doesn't appeal to me at all. I watch the film and make up my own mind. Don't need to be told what to like and not like.

Don't see why op would lose respect for the site just because other people thought a film was good and he didn't.

humanji · 04-02-2012 11:56pm

The only rating on IMDB that's worth anything is the one for Spinal Tap, which goes up to 11.

But for everything else it's a great site, particularly, as said above, for when you can't remember where you saw a certain actor before. I had a Pro subscription for a while and it was fantastic is you've money to spare and are obsessed with movies. I could spend hours trawling through the lists of upcoming movies.

Galvasean · 05-02-2012 3:12pm

What else does pro membership entitle you to?

sink · 05-02-2012 3:18pm

Galvasean wrote: »

What else does pro membership entitle you to?

It's designed for industry professionals, it allows you to view contact and agent information and allows you to upload your own.

humanji · 05-02-2012 3:41pm

As Sink says, it's aimed at the industry. And you can see the full details of upcoming films (if you don't have pro, it just tells you the info is not available). There's a two week free trial if you want to have a gander.

quickbeam · 05-02-2012 7:51pm

humanji wrote: »

The only rating on IMDB that's worth anything is the one for Spinal Tap, which goes up to 11.

Ha!! That's hillarious, I never noticed that before

OldeCinemaSoz · 05-02-2012 11:58pm

I love IMBd. I love a good laugh.

Straight after watching a film on the laptop
I head there to catch up on the boards. It's
a great place there. Such comments...such
insightfulness...such memories...

You couldn't make some of that stuff up what's
posted on there. Legendary!

:cool:

paddy kerins · 06-02-2012 2:59am

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

I love IMBd. I love a good laugh.

Straight after watching a film on the laptop
I head there to catch up on the boards. It's
a great place there. Such comments...such
insightfulness...such memories...

You couldn't make some of that stuff up what's
posted on there. Legendary!

:cool:

The boards on American Psycho are gas. Just people quoting every line from the film. It's even funnier when there's someone new there who hasn't a clue what's going on

Skinfull · 06-02-2012 12:26pm

I love IMDB for facts, trivia cast and crew info but the ratings are ****e and the boards are hilarious! Mind you I don't really take any ratings from any site into account when deciding whether to go see a movie or not.
The IMDB app on the iPad is one of my favourite apps! The trailer queue especially and now it also has metacritic ratings and parental info so you can scope out a movie before taking your kids to it.

Sad Professor · 06-02-2012 2:21pm

Yeah the iOS app is excellent. Better than the website for casual browsing.

That_Guy · 06-02-2012 2:42pm

As someone mentioned above, I use IMDb for resources rather than opinions. I never go by ratings as I'm more than capable of forming my own opinion on a film rather than being swayed in one general direction.

I like the fact that you can check cinema listings for various cinemas on the one page instead of having to navigate away from the website to check two or three cinemas to find a time that suits.

Ironman76 · 06-02-2012 2:46pm

Have been a big fan of IMDB for a long time. One of the very first websites that got me appreciating the internet. The ratings used to be accurate enough but then you had these little campaigns like "Lets get Shawshank Redemption to number one", which it now is. Also what did it for me was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind getting huge ratings yet when I watched it it was one of the worst movies Ive ever seen in my life, so I dont pay any attention to the ratings.

Having said that as a movie database its class. You could read the movie trivia part for weeks its that interesting. Its also handy for tracking progress of a movie being made that your looking forward to and seeing the budgets of certain movies and how much they made in the box office.

For the record I thought Source Code was excellent

OldeCinemaSoz · 06-02-2012 3:22pm

paddy kerins wrote: »

The boards on American Psycho are gas. Just people quoting every line from the film. It's even funnier when there's someone new there who hasn't a clue what's going on

Have you ever seen the boards for THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY?

Some clown thinks Peirce Brosnan is from the Italian Mafia?!?!

:eek:

Er, end titles, read... "1st Irishman...Pierce Brosnan..."

Aidric · 10-01-2014 7:55pm

I noticed that the NY Times is no longer aggregated in the metacritic reviews on IMDB. Anyone know why this is?

branners69 · 10-01-2014 8:24pm

I have been using IMDb for over 12 years. I have never really used it for the ratings but last year I watched "The Impossible" solely based on the rating of 8 it had received. How it got over 4 is mind boggling to me, it was the biggest pile of sh1te!

So now I use IMDb for the message boards (some poster are funny/scary) and the Watchlist!

vidor · 11-01-2014 1:30am

Never use it for ratings (or any site for that matter) but find the message boards there to be a lot better than people give credit for. Sure, there's the odd idiotic post, but there's some really good info in there if you go searching.

Dirty Dingus McGee · 11-01-2014 8:57pm

Warper wrote: »

I used to respect IMDb for movie reviews until I saw they had Source Code at 7.5. Wow, that is one bad movie. Do people rate IMDb? They are gone off my radar after that.

I agree disgraceful review, it should have been 9.

I used Rottentomatoes more for reviews and it usually gives good indication if a film is good or not. IMDB is great for finding out if you spot an actor have know you have seen him/her someplace else but can't work out what it was you saw them in.

KilOit · 11-01-2014 10:43pm

branners69 wrote: »

I have been using IMDb for over 12 years. I have never really used it for the ratings but last year I watched "The Impossible" solely based on the rating of 8 it had received. How it got over 4 is mind boggling to me, it was the biggest pile of sh1te!

So now I use IMDb for the message boards (some poster are funny/scary) and the Watchlist!

Switched it off half way through, it just rubbed me up the wrong way in that it was an Asian disaster with the main focus on westerners on a holiday

11-01-2014 11:08pm

I used to use IMDB for ratings, until I saw that people would vote a movie down if they didn't like something about the movie rather than the movie itself - I remember that before The Wind That Shakes the Barley was released, it was voted down tremendously because people saw it as being Anti-English an that it had an English director. Now I just use it if I see someone attractive in a TV show/movie and I want to find out their name and if they've appeared in anything else.

john the one · 12-01-2014 3:39pm

You cant fault the imdb app, its one of the best apps available. I have rated about 200 movies on it and have a watvh list of about 250.

gandalf · 12-01-2014 6:30pm

I have used the IMDB for years. Its scoring and reviews tend to be all over the place with some films like the one the OP mentioned (which I haven't seen yet) getting overinflated reviews whilst others getting far lower reviews than I would have expected them to.

I don't use it for reviews. I primarily use it on my tablet whilst watching TV to get trivia and cast information about films and TV series as I watch them. I find it fascinating seeing a good performance from an actor in a film/ TV show and then checking what else they have been in and maybe finding another film/series to check out from that secondary search.

Or in the case of another film me and the missus watched a few weeks ago where we were debating where it was filmed. A quick check on IMDB and we confirmed what we suspected.

e_e · 12-01-2014 7:21pm

Way too many fanboys (The Desolation of Smaug is ranked higher than Persona and Stalker FFS) and the userbase I think has such a ****ty, ignorant attitude towards movies. The kinds of people who think the top 250 is some sort of "my franchise is better than yours!" sport. Don't get me started on the fact that films like Tokyo Story, Passion of Joan of Arc and Harakiri aren't even acknowledged on the top chart because they don't fit the criteria of 25000 ratings, flat out ridiculous.

I use IMDB for the trivia first and last. If you want a much more open-minded and pro-debate film community check out Letterboxd.

darced · 13-01-2014 5:04am

This post has been deleted.

Kirby · 13-01-2014 7:05am

Ratings everywhere are fairly meaningless, not just on IMDB. I find IMDB a great source of unbiased information though. And I do love a good random factoid. :P

Oh, and I quite liked Source Code.

e_e · 13-01-2014 9:40am

darced wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I can think of a few, but my main problem is with the mediocrity that fills the top 250 and cancels out so much better stuff (in my inferrence).

Bipolar Joe · 13-01-2014 6:42pm

IMDB is good for the trivia, and that's about it. There's one list someone has made full of films I'd never heard of that's very good, too. Every other list is either "Sexiest (Gender)", "All the movies I have seen" or "Movies you have to watch", which always contain he same movies you don't need to be told you have to watch, like The Godfather or whatever. Some mook made a list of every American film ever made. Why the fuck would you do that?

As far as ratings go, everyone else has said it here, especially Darko. Uwe Boll has made some amazingly awful films, and people hate him, voting down Stoic and Rampage just because he made them despite the fact that they're very, very good. Fanboys vote up any old shit Tim Burton (Or whoever) makes, crap gets a great rating because some actress with nice tits is in it. As a place to find films you might like, it's crap.

lazza14 · 13-01-2014 9:08pm

I find it a good way of checking if a film is bad,
a highly rated film won't always be good - but has a good chance of being so !

A badly rated film however is always rubbish !!

highgiant1985 · 13-01-2014 9:13pm

I always check IMDB, if a film doesn't get at least a 7 I don't make any special effort to watch it.

mike65 · 13-01-2014 9:23pm

I use it for its database mainly, a good way of checking out the back catalogue of producers, technicians etc. but will read reviews for less well known films and tv series.

e_e · 13-01-2014 9:39pm

highgiant1985 wrote: »

I always check IMDB, if a film doesn't get at least a 7 I don't make any special effort to watch it.

Some very good films rated lower than 7 because they're either polarizing or aren't just obvious crowd-pleasers. Like: Bad Lieutentant, The Grey, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Killing Them Softly, Spring Breakers, The Tree of Life, Margaret, Valhalla Rising, Upstream Colour, Computer Chess, Cosmopolis, Meek's Cutoff etc etc.

In fact I'd go so far as saying that the films that IMDB collectively rates 6-7 are a lot more interesting than some of those rated 7-8. :pac:

IMDb

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