'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

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tenia
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3826 Post by tenia » Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:51 am

Not surprised to see in the comments people saying "It's from Japan, not China", only to be pointed out that China isn't really a third world country either anyway.

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Brian C
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3827 Post by Brian C » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:17 am

I fear there are a lot of people, at least here in the US, who think of anywhere other than the US, Canada, France, Germany, or the UK as “third world.” When my mom, who lives in Florida, was telling her friends that she was going to Seoul, many of them wondered why she’d want to go somewhere so backwards. The same folks apparently feared for my life when I went to Athens.

No idea who that reviewer is, but I can easily believe it’s not a troll job.

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Morbii
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3828 Post by Morbii » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:55 am

furbicide wrote:
Tue Jan 15, 2019 1:58 am
Does anyone have any theories as to why so many people have fled IMDb and left it to a small scattering of people who seem to lose interest in their own reviews halfway through?
Im not sure when the exodus began (haven’t used IMDb much lately), but I know they closed their comments boards somewhat recently (as in the last few years) so maybe it’s related to that?
Last edited by Morbii on Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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MichaelB
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'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3829 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:56 am

I get the same attitude when I point out that people are massively paying over the odds if they buy Czech/Polish/Slovak/whatever DVDs over the counter at the BFI Filmstore - apparently even the prospect of getting them for (usually) well under half that price is outweighed by the terror of ordering from abroad. Even though they’re all EU member states with internationally recognised banking standards.

Anyway, I’ve been doing it for a good 21 years now (I had little choice when beginning serious Jan Švankmajer research in 1997), and I’ve never had the slightest problem.
Last edited by MichaelB on Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3830 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:05 am

I gave up on IMDB years ago -- after being active for many years. The forums became increasingly troll (and/or idiot) dominated. Even more annoying, corrections made to the movie database frequently got "uncorrected" relatively quickly. Just seemed like a lost cause.

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Big Ben
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3831 Post by Big Ben » Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:02 pm

The Imdb boards as mentioned above closed their forums because it was a toxic cesspool. In spite of this it still doesn't stop review bombing of certain films like The Last Jedi or A Wrinkle in Time and the review section for the newest Star Trek is a disaster too, with some users lamenting "Social Justice Trek". The irony is palpable I know.

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tenia
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3832 Post by tenia » Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:20 pm

In France, interestingly, we don't really have any review bombing, but rather the opposite when the studio (often Pathé) writes tons of 5-stars reviews on release date, only for them to be deleted by the website (Allociné) a few days later and the viewers' score to drop by 25%.

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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3833 Post by kidc » Tue Jan 15, 2019 2:36 pm

furbicide wrote:
Tue Jan 15, 2019 1:58 am
but specifically the one out of six that IMDb's algorithms (or whatever) decided was most worthy of appearing on the main page.
Does anyone know (or have a guess at) what the algorithm for the featured user review is? I've seen far too many featured reviews where the user score is very different to the average score, the 'people [who] found this review helpful' ratio is terrible, and the review is neither the oldest nor the newest. I can't figure out how they pick them, unless it's just random...

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Gregory
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3834 Post by Gregory » Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:07 pm

Big Ben wrote:
Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:02 pm
The Imdb boards as mentioned above closed their forums because it was a toxic cesspool. In spite of this it still doesn't stop review bombing of certain films like The Last Jedi or A Wrinkle in Time and the review section for the newest Star Trek is a disaster too, with some users lamenting "Social Justice Trek". The irony is palpable I know.
Here is an interesting explanation of the forums' existence as a financial and practical matter above concern over trolling or toxicity, from just before they pulled the plug on them in Feb. 2017. (Scroll down to the second post, Col Needham.) In short, they were expensive to operate because the system was old and outdated, and they didn't bring in enough revenue from ads.
The following claim in that post contrasts with their decision very soon after to simply remove the message boards. (They ended up getting archived by Archive.org and recreated/continued at Moviechat.org.
We are always looking at better ways to preserve this type of content and we have some thoughts on providing better mechanisms to transfer useful boards content into the permanent parts of the database.

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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3835 Post by dustybooks » Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:08 pm

The one thing I do find interesting about the IMDB's archive of comments / reviews (weren't they originally just billed as "comments"?) is that they've been collecting them for so long that it's quite possible to find a film from the '30s or '40s remarked upon by a person who actually saw it on its original run and happened to be a relatively early adopter of the web. I don't have any examples handy but I saw it come up a handful of times when I was still inclined to check in on IMDB reviews of a given older title. I'm glad they've kept all that stuff. I'm glad really old Amazon reviews seem to stay up forever (so far) too.

The IMDB forums, on the other hand, were always an awful slog, though I do fondly remember a nice exchange with Keith Gordon about The Chocolate War and A Midnight Clear there when he was trying to get those films out on DVD.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3836 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jan 15, 2019 8:06 pm

For 10 years or so, the Classic Films Board on IMDB was a pretty decent place, as was the Asian Films Board (when it wasn't s Asian Films Board (when it wasn't sleepy). The "forums" for individual films, OTOH, were almost always awful (unless they were unused).

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dustybooks
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3837 Post by dustybooks » Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:09 pm

I was just checking showtimes for The Favourite and want to announce that the "Google audience reviews" for it are a terrible goldmine.
SpoilerShow
a google reviewer wrote:I watched the previews at least 4 times. Thought it was a comedy. Never once did it indicate that he Queen and her 1st Lady Mogal were lesbians and even showed them in bed together. And them Emma stone jumps in bed with her also 15 minutes later. If you like being entertained by a lesbian move that’s your choice. I think that there should at least be some indication of the nature of the movie as to sexual preference in the previews. That’s the problem with the whole Gay and Lesbian movement, no matter how you cut up the pie they are still a MINORITY. They just have a loud voice and that’s all. Needless to say we walked out before Emma Stone did her thing with the Queen.
Shame on Emma Stone for doing this movie. I have always loved Emma Stome acting abilities. But this is the second movie she has done that displayed the Lesbian life style as something normal. She played in a move about Billy Jean King ..... walked out of that one too. That’s my choice! Do you want your children growing up with thinking that there’s an alternative lifestyle, I think not.
(Spoiler tagged just in case, but not before accidentally hitting "quote" instead of "edit" for the 100th time.)

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Zinoviev
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3838 Post by Zinoviev » Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:22 pm

Why on earth would that reviewer have gone to see a movie about Billy (sic) Jean King?

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Brian C
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3839 Post by Brian C » Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:50 pm

Zinoviev wrote:Why on earth would that reviewer have gone to see a movie about Billy (sic) Jean King?
I worked years at a movie theater, and take it from me, this kind of thing happens all the time. Someone walks up to the box office cashier, asks what that movie is about, cashier says, “it’s about Billie Jean King.”

“Who’s that?”

“Uh, tennis player I guess. From the 70s.”

“Who’s in it?”

“Oh, Emma Stone. And Steve Carell plays another tennis player I think.”

“Sounds good, I’ll see that.”

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tenia
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3840 Post by tenia » Sun Jan 20, 2019 4:22 pm

Maybe my tolerance is getting lower and lower with that kind of crap, or maybe it's because we don't have this kind of reviews allowed in France (it'd be straight away flagged as inappropriate and homophobic), but I find this kind of reviewer's mind about depictions of homosexuals absolutely revolting.

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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3841 Post by Monterey Jack » Sun Jan 20, 2019 11:16 pm

Zinoviev wrote:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:22 pm
Why on earth would that reviewer have gone to see a movie about Billy (sic) Jean King?
Some teenagers were upset when they learned the boat sank in Titanic before seeing the movie, because it was a "spoiler".

People are stupid.

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'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3842 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:25 am

Someone once complained about a “massive spoiler” in my review of a film about crusading anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.

I honestly thought that Falcone’s 1992 assassination was by far the most famous thing about him outside Italy (it certainly got a ton of coverage at the time), and that anyone even vaguely interested in watching a film about him would be aware of that upfront and that Falcone wouldn’t make it to the end alive - but apparently not.

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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3843 Post by bottled spider » Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:13 pm

... but the ending is so clunky it's like they were making a tuna sandwich and didn't dice any onions.
"This tuna sandwich tastes... I don't know... CLUNKY."
"You mean like that movie Holiday, the one where they didn't dice any onions?"
"Yes, exactly like that."

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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3844 Post by Lemmy Caution » Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:31 pm

I had a somewhat opposite experience (of the Falcone deal) when I took a girl to see Gandhi when it first came out, and after the film she was real upset with me for not having told her that Gandhi had been assassinated. I think it just hit her hard and was unexpected because he was a man of peace and had become old by then. Which to me meant that the film did it's job well, because that was the actual context and the historic gut punch. Hell, it hit me hard too and I knew it was coming. But the girl in question really was annoyed with me for a while.

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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3845 Post by Cremildo » Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:10 pm

What hits me hard is how some people are oblivious to notorious facts that have worldwide reach. Not knowing the Titanic sank? Not knowing Gandhi was murdered? Please.

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furbicide
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3846 Post by furbicide » Tue Jan 22, 2019 12:06 am

dustybooks wrote:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:09 pm
I was just checking showtimes for The Favourite and want to announce that the "Google audience reviews" for it are a terrible goldmine.
SpoilerShow
a google reviewer wrote:I watched the previews at least 4 times. Thought it was a comedy. Never once did it indicate that he Queen and her 1st Lady Mogal were lesbians and even showed them in bed together. And them Emma stone jumps in bed with her also 15 minutes later. If you like being entertained by a lesbian move that’s your choice. I think that there should at least be some indication of the nature of the movie as to sexual preference in the previews. That’s the problem with the whole Gay and Lesbian movement, no matter how you cut up the pie they are still a MINORITY. They just have a loud voice and that’s all. Needless to say we walked out before Emma Stone did her thing with the Queen.
Shame on Emma Stone for doing this movie. I have always loved Emma Stome acting abilities. But this is the second movie she has done that displayed the Lesbian life style as something normal. She played in a move about Billy Jean King ..... walked out of that one too. That’s my choice! Do you want your children growing up with thinking that there’s an alternative lifestyle, I think not.
(Spoiler tagged just in case, but not before accidentally hitting "quote" instead of "edit" for the 100th time.)
The irony is that the real – and loudest – minority here are the homophobes (at least, if national polls on support for issues like same-sex marriage are anything to go by). Not that there would be anything wrong with this film if that weren't the case!

Maybe these types should stop whinging about the "gay agenda" and spend their time more usefully – like, say, looking up some of the details of the film they're going to see so that they can be sure they won't be unexpectedly offended by anything """alternative""".

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Monterey Jack
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3847 Post by Monterey Jack » Tue Jan 22, 2019 12:24 am

Some people can't pick out the CONTINENT THEY LIVE ON off a map.

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Big Ben
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3848 Post by Big Ben » Tue Jan 22, 2019 12:30 am

Phobic responses in reviews are still very much a thing. I have quite a few friends in Brazil and there was some backlash from more conservative Brazilians upon their "revelation" that Freddie Mercury was Bisexual after they saw Bohemian Rhapsody. Although I'm unsure about his online presence outside of this site but Cremilo could possibly explain more clearly than I could if he saw any of it on any other social media. It wasn't exactly a national scandal but it was certainly enough for hilariously angry rants from individuals who thought the frontman for Queen was straight.

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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3849 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:28 am

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this elsewhere in this thread, but there was a hilarious review of Borowczyk’s Immoral Tales in which the reviewer was so disgusted that the women in it looked completely normal that he couldn’t stop banging on about it.

He didn’t use the phrase “completely normal”, of course, but he seemed to have some obsession with the idea that shaving pubic hair should be compulsory for all women. Quite aside from anything else, this wouldn’t have been historically accurate - indeed, if Borowczyk had pandered to his weird fetish, the film would have looked a lot more peculiar.

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tenia
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3850 Post by tenia » Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:28 am

Cremildo wrote:
Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:10 pm
What hits me hard is how some people are oblivious to notorious facts that have worldwide reach. Not knowing the Titanic sank? Not knowing Gandhi was murdered? Please.
You wouldn't know. Some studies in the UK showed that a non-negligible amount of people believed Sherlock Holmes to be a real historical figure, and the same kind of amount of people (though I don't if these were the same people) believed Winston Churchill to be a fiction character.

Never, ever, underestimate mankind's ignorance.
furbicide wrote:
Tue Jan 22, 2019 12:06 am
The irony is that the real – and loudest – minority here are the homophobes (at least, if national polls on support for issues like same-sex marriage are anything to go by). Not that there would be anything wrong with this film if that weren't the case!
Maybe these types should stop whinging about the "gay agenda" and spend their time more usefully – like, say, looking up some of the details of the film they're going to see so that they can be sure they won't be unexpectedly offended by anything """alternative""".
Even better : they could stop having problems with homosexual people and their depictions in movies. That'd probably be even better for everyone than just avoiding these movies. It'd be like some continuous improvement and all.
Because to me, that's the issue at heart here (though I know I'll sound naive writing this), and that's what bothers me more. OK, this person obviously has issues with homosexual depictions, most certainly because of homophobia, and yeah, maybe taking 5 minutes to read about what you're about to spend 2 hours watching seems like a good use of your time. But that's not really the core issue.

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