MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Any HONEST reviews left?

Any HONEST reviews left?

posted 6 years ago by [deleted]
20 replies | jump to latest

IMDB is OWNED by Amazon - world's biggest SELLER of MOVIES. Reviews = conflict of business interest. No logic to trust ANY reviews there. Even when real people, like myself, post a review there, there is zero reason you shouldn't believe I too, am a paid shill.
Metacritic just tallies up all those paid critics... no help there.
MOST people and things online review wise are paid to get more viewership....
With everyone calling everything "masterpieces", and finding out that none of them are even close, I've lost all respect for ALL reviews.

CINEMASCORE kinda seems legit, polling real people coming out of film debuts, but hard to even trust that. How many of those PEOPLE were planted and paid?

Is there anywhere out there that ISN'T commercially funded that could give us honest reviews or critiques of the latest movies?
What are our options now, in the day of fake/paid media?

[–] croft_alice (12180) 6 years ago

As i said before,the best critic is yourself.

[–] lovemovies (89) 6 years ago

This is so on point.

[–] croft_alice (12180) 6 years ago

Thank you.

[–] horrorfan000 (2082) 6 years ago

I mostly go to message boards like this to see what other people are saying when i want to get a general idea if a movies for me or not.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

Meh, people jump on bandwagons too, and always have. Citizen Kane is widely considered a masterpiece, especially among people who haven't seen it, but I find it to be a wretched bore. It is also historically noted to have gotten a lot of its acclaim due to its ahead-of-its-time production value, visuals and film techniques. That's fine, but visuals aren't everything.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 6 years ago

"Meh, people jump on bandwagons too, and always have. Citizen Kane is widely considered a masterpiece, especially among people who haven't seen it, but I find it to be a wretched bore. It is also historically noted to have gotten a lot of its acclaim due to its ahead-of-its-time production value, visuals and film techniques. That's fine, but visuals aren't everything."

I'll say this for croft..... he has it right when he says, "the best critic is yourself."
We all have different tastes. There are many genres too. While you aren't a fan of Citizen Kane, many of us enjoy the movie.
I enjoy family films, horror, drama, comedy, westerns, sci fi, action....... Here's the thing though....
I have my favorites. I can't stand some of the top rated. To me, there is crap in all of the genres. We all have our faves. We are also smart enough to know that we all have different tastes.

[–] GlenEllyn (21118) 6 years ago

I think you nailed it, Miss Margo. Everyone has their own tastes. Obviously, critics have their own tastes too, so even when they rhapsodize over a movie, a lot of people will think it's a bad movie. I want to know what a movie is about, not necessarily whether someone thinks it's good or bad. If the subject doesn't interest me, I probably won't watch it. To each his own.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 6 years ago

Exactly! It really is subjective.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

Yeah, my bandwagon comment was targeted to people who reference Kane but haven't seen it. I've come across them too many times I guess.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 6 years ago

I think I understand what you mean. Are there really people out there who praise and drool over Citizen Kane, and yet, have never seen it? If so, What a bunch of PHONYS!

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

I think it's just one of those movies that a lot of movie fans feel like they "have" to praise in order to be considered movie fans.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 6 years ago

In that case, Woody Allen is THE BEST!
Sorry.... The only films of his that I have seen are:
Hannah and Her Sisters
A Mid Summer's Night's Sex Dream
Everything You always Wanted to Know about Sex, But Was Afraid To Ask

That last one was actually good, but that is only my opinion.... It's all subjective.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

Annie Hall really is worth its praise, IMO. I'm not much of a Woody Allen fan, though. I really disliked Midnight in Paris, although the Hemingway performance was fantastic.

NOT to get on a Woody tangent!

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 6 years ago

I can honestly tell you that I have never seen Annie Hall, and I really don't care if I ever see it. I only saw the first two films I mentioned because my friends rented them. I wasn't impressed.
The only one I found funny was Everything You Always Wanted To Know.....etc.
I never did get the big thing with Woody Allen, but then, I love Robert Altman films, and many can't stand his stuff.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

What I end up doing, with both IMDB and Amazon reviews if I'm trying to decide the best branded product to buy, is to assume the highest rated reviews are fake and to skip them, and read the mid tier reviews that are far more likely to be written by real people.

If it's a product I'm shopping for I can get a good sense of the drawbacks of any specific item I'm examining. If it's a movie then since the reviewers spell out both their likes and dislikes it's far easier to get a sense of it's the kind of movie I want to watch. You can also check the date the review was written. If it predates when paid movie critics writing reviews for sites became all the rage, like pre-2009 if you want to be safe, then even highly rated reviews are more likely to be genuine.

Another tact is to find a specific professional critic whose tastes closely align with your own. I really enjoyed reading Roger Ebert's reviews before he passed away. For me they were always detailed enough and I was familiar enough with his likes and dislikes that I always had a better sense whether it was worth investing my time in a movie he reviewed, even with movies where I knew my tastes differed from his. But I've yet to do a legwork of finding a comparable pro critic that I trust to replace him.

But I agree the overall ratings themselves have become kind of worthless.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I kinda do this too. But, it's become a lot of work, and is shocking to see all these "10"s on an obviously crappy movie.

And I know everyone's opinion is different, but I just need to total crap weeded out. Although I AM my best critic, I don't want to waste my time and money finding out something is garbage - like I have done now a couple times at the theater.

Kinda done wasting money at theater if they allow any old crap in, just because it was funded. I suppose it has always been like that, and I am getting more discerning.

[–] lordbishop34 (1442) 6 years ago

I think there are plenty of legit reviews out there you just have to weed through. For IMDB I read reviews scored around 3-8 stars, this will be where the most reasonable reviews will be.

[–] coloradotex (769) 6 years ago

As big a farce as Yelp , Snopes , etc. - basically , just a joke.

First time I noticed it was a review of " Hill Street Blues " , no actual critique of the TV series

[–] sut6432 (2840) 6 years ago

I wish there was an honest ANYTHING left in society today, haha.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I guess we're all stuck in the same boat.

But at least we have each other! :D