My Movie Ratings

Here are my ratings of almost 1,500  movies (including TV shows, etc) I have watched on DVD in the last few years, and rated for my own purposes. References to seasons or disk numbers are not meaningful unless more than one rating is made for that title. Some of the movies include the year of release. Numbers following some titles are Netflix or other predictions of how I would rate the movie, as of the time of viewing. The Netflix star system is designed to make three of the five stars positive ratings (and thus encourage rentals). My reaction to that tactic was to hold my ratings down to mostly three stars (liked it), with a few four stars (really liked it) and a rare 5 star (loved it).

My rating system is built around the Netflix five star system, but I have added decimals to make it more accurate. It essentially has evolved into a four star system. A 2.7 or lower movie is one I would not recommend. Ratings of 2.8 and 2.9 are marginal.  From 3 to 3.2 are all right for those interested. From 3.3 on up are recommended. About 50 of the older ratings were done before I started using decimals and they are identified as "no decimal" and should be taken with a grain of salt, since a 2.7 and 3.3 movie would both have been rated three stars.

I have rated about 850 other films at Netflix, mainly for the purpose of helping the Netflix predictions of what I will like. I don't have a decimal rating record for them. I could make a list here of those which I top rated, but it might be best for me to first watch them again to see how they stand the test of time and then rate them on the decimal system.

Remember, these ratings are my current opinions of what I want Netflix to recommend to me, based on my most recent viewing of the movie, and also on my mood of that day. In years past I may have rated a movie higher, but recent viewing reduced my opinion. I am not rating based on the historical merit of the movie as of the time it was released. I chose movies to watch that I did not remember seeing which I thought would at least be marginally acceptable (2.8). Of the movies listed through 2009, I rated 84% at 2.8 or above. I think the toning down of my ratings at Netflix has enabled the Netflix prediction algorithm, which is calculated to one decimal, to quite accurately guide my choice of what to watch.

My movie ratings lists are now dated December 31, 2010, and are linked to in the blog side bar, both alphabetically and from high to low rated. The lists may be updated in the future. Some of the movies do not have a year listed, because the year was not included in all my lists I used in compiling this list. In the case of a TV series, sometimes the series is rated as a whole and sometimes the individual disks are rated. Direct any requests for clarification to me, Tom Blake.

What science fiction movies do you like?

What do you look for in a science fiction movie and what are some science fiction movies that you like?

Close Encounter

For 32 years I went without watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  One reason for avoiding the movie is the sci-fi genre has only limited appeal to me.  I'm not sure why that is.  I guess I find the realities of science so fascinating and expansive that making up supposedly more fantastic stuff seems a waste of time.  Like many things in life it is a matter of degree.  If the fiction is not too far out, it has more appeal.  I like "Fahrenheit 451", maybe because it is more political science fiction, and it is not that far out.  I liked "E. T.", because, like Fahrenheit, it was also very personal in its relationship with the characters, and because the alien was so appealing and made such a deep cross-cultural connection with Elliot.  "The Day the Earth Stood Still" appealed to me because the alien seemed to be the embodiment of what my Catholic school was teaching me about Jesus, which was ironic since the Church found the movie "morally objectionable in part for all", apparently because the alien was able to resurrect himself.

"Close Encounters" had no viable political message, personal relationships or cross-cultural connections.  All it seemed to have was blockbuster pretense, including excessive length, and state of the art (for then) special effects.  Production values (and budget) were high, but the story written by Spielberg was drivel, the acting was mediocre at best and the direction was hackneyed.  Not having watched the movie when it first came out limits my ability to measure it with the test of time, but the effects are obviously now old hat, the production values are the norm for any Hollywood big budget movie and the acting and direction are still poor.

My favorite line is when Richard Dreyfuss and his female companion have breached the 350 square mile evacuation zone set up by the government, by taking the station wagon off road, careening over embankments and through barricades across open country on dirt roads with no buildings or human being in sight, and then come upon a distant view of the Devil's Tower, and Dreyfuss, contemplating proceeding to the Tower, suddenly turns practical and says, "Let's get some gas and get down there."

What Did You Just Watch?

How about letting us know what movie you most recently watched and what you thought about it?  You can post your comment below.

Movie Memories and Musings

Daughter Anna has been suggesting that I start a movie blog, as a way to indulge my desire to do some writing and my need to talk about the movies I watch.  Since putting "Sense from Seattle" on sabbatical, I have missed writing, but not the intense involvement with politics.  In deciding whether to start another blog, I made a classic pro and con sheet.

On the pro side of the page, I listed a movie blog as a place to practice writing, recall movie related memories, and discuss and dialogue about movies with family and friends.  On the con side, I posted concerns about setting up and formatting such a blog, feeling obligated to it, spending too much time writing, being tempted to go back over too many past movies and how personal to get.

Obviously I have decided to give it a try.  I do like to write and I do like movies, so Anna was an accurate muse.  I am again using Blogger as a host, but chose a new template for a different look and more customizable options.  I hope this blog will see more reader participation that Sense ended up with.  The subject matter here should be much less combative than politics and that is the spirit with which I launch the blog.  Our memories of movies and our musings about them are matters of our personal experiences and tastes, and we should expect there to be individual differences.  I encourage everyone to feel free to recall memories and express opinions here, without criticism from others.  Our praise and our criticism of movies and of those involved in making them may be divergent, but we are each entitled to our own views.

Choosing a blog title first involved labeling the subject.  Are we talking about movies, flicks, videos, films, cinema or what?  I chose "movies" by process of elimination.  Flicks are the flickers of old projector light, no longer applicable and a little to flip (though it works for Netflix).  Video is the picture, but technically ignores audio, the sound (even so-called silent films have music).  Film is both too general (still pictures and slides can also be film) and too narrow (many productions are shot digitally without film).  Cinema is merely foreign sounding, and smacks of discrimination against American movies.

Memories and thoughts will be written about here, and I like alliteration, so Movie Memories and Musings emerged.  I want this blog to be more participatory, so the title eliminates reference to me and my location.  Maybe the title sounds more like the blog of a still fairly young mother rather than that of a progressively aging grandfather, but I expect it to be an accurate description of what gets written on these pages.

Anna will be the first informed of this launch, then my other children and a few other relatives and friends.  Comments on articles can be posted as usual and you can also post as a comment any reviews, memories or musings you like.  I may choose some comments to pull out and make into separate article postings.  I may include a blog index and other features - we'll just see how it goes.

You are invited to follow along and encouraged to participate.  We all like movies and have memories and thoughts to share.