Movie Ratings & Genre System

Rate 'em like you see 'em

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Recent Movies (so you don't have to search if you've been here before)
The cream of the crop (Ratings 9-10)
Standing above the crowd (Ratings 7-8)
You get what you pay for (Ratings 5-6)
The bottom of the barrel (Ratings 1-4)

WIP - movies I want to watch but haven't, also a movie matrix trying to show my top 10, but I have a 100 instead

My Genres & Rating System

10 is the best you can ever hope for. Not too many fall into this class.
9 means nearly perfect. You'll want to watch it again at least once a year.
8 means it stands above the crowd. I most likely watched it more than once & would recommend it to others. You'll want to watch this every 2 years or so.
7 means it's a very good movie, and is just above your average Hollywood fare. Good rental. You may watch it again in 4-5 years.
6 is an average Hollywood movie. It's definitely worth the price of a rental, although if you bought it, you probably won't watch it again.
5 Getting into vague feelings. Nothing really to crow about, but nothing huge against it. Barely worth the time to rent it.
4 It's really not a very good movie. If you're stuck in a hotel & it's the only thing on, maybe, but even that's stretching it
3 Despite really trying, this movie just plain sucks. I stuck with it & hoped for better, but in the end, I didn't like it & will tell others to avoid it
2 Implies I left the movie going while I went to get popcorn, went to the bathroom, and came back occasionally to the movie, maybe finishing it.
1 Is a movie that I turned off because my time is more valuable than this and it has no redeeming value.

Normal Genres don't work for me. I don't know what it is, but "action" "horror" "comedy" just don't work for me.

Classic - Older movies with style. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface on these & am watching more of these every month.
Date - Great date movie. Watch it with your significant other. This is what movies are all about. I think these appeal to a wider audience than most movies.
Left Brain - Artistic, Musical, Indy movies. You need to be open minded to watch these movies. Drink them in.
Popcorn -check your brain at the door and get ready to have some fun! If you're expecting anything besides entertainment, don't watch it.
Documentary - Self explanatory
Historical - Based on a true story. Not a documentary, but using actors to portray real events (or as good as a guess as possible)
Foreign - Subitles required (sometimes they have english sound tracks - but should be avoided at all costs)
Hollywood - Action or suspense or whatever. Basically it's not any of the other types.
Comedy - At least it's supposed to be funny. Whether it is or not is highly dependent upon the shape & size of your funny bone.
Family - Suitable for the entire family (within reason...please verify with www.kids-in-mind.com if you want to know for sure)
Kids - Adults will most likely tolerate it once, but no much more.
Lemon - Avoid this movie. I warned you.

Sound Rating: I have a decent Home Theater and wanted to note the level of sound quality.

- Mono sound. Usually older movies. On high end theaters, these can sometimes be difficult to listen to without prior adjustment.
- OK front mix. No use of rear channels. Frontal stage (does sound occur where it should be in the movie?) and music mix are below par.
- Minor use of rear channels. Frontal stage well developed, good balance of speaking / effects / music
- Overall, very good use of all channels, well balanced, at least 2 or 3 scenes of really nice music / special effects.
- Demo Material for a high end theater. Several excellent scenes of music, sound and effects. Typically has extensive use of rear channels in several scenes.

Violence Meter: I like a wide range of movies and this is my best attempt at a warning for those of the squeemish of mind. Also, I'm less sensitive to these types of things, so where I may not consider something violent, or particularly graphic, don't hold me to these. I created these specifically for my Aunt LuAnn - who loves adult fare, but hates violence - and the ratings (PG-13 / R) really do a poor job of delineating between adult content & splatter.

- Clean movie. For the life of me, I can't recall a single violent part in this.
- Really a clean movie with perhaps one off-camera scene that is more suggestive than anything
- no graphic violence, may contain one or two scenes of a semi-violent nature
- no graphic violence, contains several scenes of a semi-violent nature, or one or two violent nature.
- One or two scenes containing graphic violence, several scenes of a violent nature.
- Lots of killing, some of a graphic nature, one or two scenes over the top of what most would consider within boundaries.
- Gorefest, wanton violence, anything goes and it does it repeatedly. Several scenes that are way above what most people would consider acceptable.

OK, so what do "semi-violent", "violent" and "graphic" mean?

Semi-violent is beatings, off-camera deaths or other suggested (but not shown) acts such as rape or dismemberment that are off-screen.
Violent means especially brutal fights or rapes, on-camera deaths.
Graphic violence is the same as violent, but you actually get to see the splatter.

Special Note:

Ok, listen up all you movie freaks with Kids. I'm not your mama and I will not be held responsible for a few swear words, sexual innuendo nor drug use. When I say "family" take note that I have a 3, 11 & 12yr old boys (who were anywhere between 1-12 when I wrote these reviews) and while I take note on movies that make me uncomfortable, I am not perfect. I recommend that you check out www.kids-in-mind.com for a scene by scene breakdown of all the "naughty" stuff in movies you want to watch.

As an FYI, I typically will pre-watch all PG-13 before I allow my kids to watch them and rated R is out of the question.

Be Aware that the PG-13 didn't come into play until 1994. Any movies prior to 1994 with a PG rating will likely have more stuff in them that you are used to with today's PG rated movies.

I for one am perplexed at the Movie Producers Association of America and their PG-13 rating. For the life of me, I haven't figured out their formula. G and PG are pretty darn safe, but I get hornswaggled every now & then with PG-13 movies. By and large PG-13 movies are usually OK, but then some movie like Jersey Girl or Secret Window comes out with a PG-13 rating that just blows my mind. And then you have movies like "School of Rock" that is PG-13 and is marketed definately towards kids and it made more more than a little uncomfortable with it's drug and swear words. And to top it off, they give "Whale Rider" a PG-13 for a marijuana pipe that is about 3" long sitting on a table that you can only glimpse if you pause the movie at the right moment! For crying out loud, they didn't even pick it up or use it!

Just visit www.kids-in-mind.com for peace of mind. I think they go over the top, but then I don't think they miss anything!

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WIP - movies I want to watch but haven't, also a movie matrix trying to show my top 10, but I have a 100 instead