Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
Film Ratings' Logic Is Stupid and Irritating
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 30, 2012
Dear Editor,
I'm finally taking the time to write to you about something in your paper that has long annoyed me: the descriptions you have for your movie ratings (a bomb to five stars). You describe a five-star movie "As perfect as a movie can be.” For four stars, it's "Slightly flawed, but excellent nonetheless,” etc. This is ridiculous; movies aren't about "perfection" and there's no such thing as a "perfect" movie anyways. A movie can be brilliant despite perceived flaws, and a movie can get everything right and still be boring. Also, your one-star rating is described as "Poor, without any saving graces." That description, especially the "without any saving graces" part, is a good way to describe the lowest rating available. But you also include the superfluous "La bomba" rating for even worse movies (the ones that really, really have no saving graces?). It seems to me that this bomb rating would be much more useful if it described movies that were so bad they were actually good – such as, for example, Plan 9 From Outer Space. But the main problem I have is rating movies in terms of perfection. It's just stupid and irritating. That is all.
I'm finally taking the time to write to you about something in your paper that has long annoyed me: the descriptions you have for your movie ratings (a bomb to five stars). You describe a five-star movie "As perfect as a movie can be.” For four stars, it's "Slightly flawed, but excellent nonetheless,” etc. This is ridiculous; movies aren't about "perfection" and there's no such thing as a "perfect" movie anyways. A movie can be brilliant despite perceived flaws, and a movie can get everything right and still be boring. Also, your one-star rating is described as "Poor, without any saving graces." That description, especially the "without any saving graces" part, is a good way to describe the lowest rating available. But you also include the superfluous "La bomba" rating for even worse movies (the ones that really, really have no saving graces?). It seems to me that this bomb rating would be much more useful if it described movies that were so bad they were actually good – such as, for example, Plan 9 From Outer Space. But the main problem I have is rating movies in terms of perfection. It's just stupid and irritating. That is all.
Rich Latta
