[Warper]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Precious1]

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Goldstein

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]

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]

Originally Posted by johnny_ultimate

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
,

[Goldstein]

Originally Posted by don ramo

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]

Originally Posted by Warper

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.