Actually, there are a few ways one can discern biased reviews and avoid being scammed.
1. If a movie has more than 300 votes, you're more likely to get an honest rating, as most independent filmmakers have less than 300 friends and family.
2. Click on the number of votes link next to the rating and you'll see the breakdown of how many people voted for each rating. If you see a lot of 10s combined with a lot of low votes, that's a sure sign of padding. The ratings on this film:
35 10 star votes
17 1 star votes
and very few in between makes this a poster child for review fraud. If the reviews are honest, you'll see spikes toward the middle, not the extremes.
3. Always go to the last comment page and read the worst reviews first.
4. It's not easy to do, but if you feel like fraud is being committed, try to get your hands on the movie and watch it. Once you know, for certain, that it's a ruse, scream it from the bloody hilltops. I've done this in the past and I really think my efforts made a difference. If enough people are aware of this issue, the community can go a long way in policing itself.
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druquzdog
16 years ago
That's all great advice, and I agree.
You should try posting on the Little Erin Merryweather boards if you think this is a shill page though. Watch the film *shudder* and give an honest review. I guarantee it will be deleted if you have the slightest negative thing to say. It's happened to a lot of us, and despite talking to IMDb staff they still just keep deleting anything that gets reported, no matter how spurious the reason.
This place has lost a lot of credibility to me in last few weeks. Shill reviews and scores aren't that hard to detect and should be deleted.
That said, I'm going to be watching Suspension with an open mind as soon as I can get a hold of a copy from lovefilm in the UK.
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