New Rating System

At the blog's inception I posted an entry to describe the ratings system that I will/am using.

Scratch that; I don't like it. We're going to a new scale. That's too much hassle. We're going to a traditional, 1 to 10 scale where:

10 is a Hall of Fame "Classic". It's as good as it gets and probably won't ever be used on anything current as a current movie (or whatever) will need to "age" into a classic.

5 will be average. 5 will be just barely to the point that I still endorse it as an acceptble use of time. Depending on the current supply of alternatives and of the amount of time with which you have on your hands, it may or may not be the best use of time.

4 will be the minimum standard for a "rental". Depending on the current supply of alternatives and of the amount of time with which you have on your hands, it may or may not be the worth your time. I have elected to use 4 as the threshold for "minimum" to give me enough room between 5 & 10 to differentiate ratings; especially since I will attempt pre-screen junk to the point that I don't have very many ratings below a 4.

Anything below 4 will vary on the scale of bad.

This scale will serve to be much more comparative in nature than the old one. I found it too challenging to try to squeeze movies/wines/whatever into the labels that I had built around the star system.

With the new system, the ratings become more relative and comparative and therefore include a different kind of subjectivity. Here, my personal preferences can differentiate what I like more without having to try to make Garden State something it wasn't because it was a unique genre. If I happen to like comic book movies than quirky angst-filled flicks, then so be it.

Lastly, you will occassionally see a .5 thrown into the mix. This will be done very selectively and used just to differentiate certain things. For example, if I am rating two similar movies at about the same time and I just barely liked one better than another, then it may be made a 7.5 instead of a 7 just for differentiation.

Over time, I will probably go back to the old entries and modernize their ratings.