'Seven thumbs up'

One of the curious idiosyncrasies of a reviewers craft is the perceived obligation to boil a film experience down to the cold hard number of a review score. Whether using a star rating, marks out of ten, letter grading or even just giving a particularly fine film 'Q pineapples out of ampersand', a scoring system basically renders a reviewers careful constructed critiques moot in the face of an arbitrary concrete number. Human beings have a remarkable love of comparisons and all the lovely arguments that they can provoke, as evidenced in comment threads throughout the internet when a reviewer is considered too generous or too mean with a score.

Here on Random Acts of Criticism I will be taking a slightly different tack. Whilst I will give every film I review a mark, it will be one of my own choosing. Numerical based ranking systems miss the point of the main reason that I read a review. This reason is chiefly to suggest the following; is this a movie I would like to see? If so, how much would I be willing to spend?

With this focus on recommendation rather than ranking, I will award each film reviewed one of the following four ranks. (An implied lesson from this ranking is that no movie is so bad that it should never be watched, it all just depends on the circumstances under which you watch it.)



Cinema: Only the best films reviewed will get a Cinema ranking. What this means is that, given the opportunity, you should do what you can to see this film in a proper theatrical setting. Going out to the movies is an expensive trip these days, no point wasting cash on dreck!



DVD: There are plenty of films out there that, whilst not being amazing, are still a couple of hours of good entertainment. Whilst not being 'must see' movies, they are certainly worth spending a few dollars on for a big night in at the movies.




Television: So, you're stuck at home, with nothing to do, no DVDs to watch. Flick on the idiot box and see if any of these films are playing. Certainly not worth paying for, and by no means the height of filmic achievement, these films aren't worth seeking out, but it still beats Home and Away.



Aeroplane: Here we are folks, the bottom of the barrel. These are the sort of films you should only watch only if you are imprisoned in a metal tube hurtling through the skies and your only choice of film is the god-awful few they force you to watch as part of the in-flight 'entertainment'. You have been warned.



And that concludes the entire rating system. Stay tuned tomorrow for the first film to be reviewed on Random Acts of Criticism, Alexander Payne's The Descendants.