EWB goes to the Movies Discussion Thread

[sahyder1]

I've been tossing this idea around for a while....and want to give it a go in the next couple of days. Think of this as a spin off from the "What did you watch today" thread. Sure we get nice little reviews on there of movies from people but they end up getting drowned out rather quickly. I mean the thread is 300 something pages old now and if I want to see what EWB said about a movie before I jump into it and possibly waste 2 hours of my life that I will never get back.

How it would work? I'll maintain a main thread. A table of contents if you will linking to each of the movie threads. What I initially need everyone's help with is a set of 10 questions that we'll attach as a poll on every movie thread. This will be the criteria we grade the movies on. Some questions that I thought of already but obviously this is wide open for discussion right now:

Rate the movie

Rate the storyline

Rate the soundtrack

Rate 3-5 of the main characters

Length of movie (too short, just right, too long)

Would you say this is a DVD rental or buy

This list is obviously up for discussion and further suggestions for additions is welcome. I'll do my best to keep a weekly or bi-weekly power ranking going. I plan on creating threads on the day movies hit theaters with the polls attached. We can do the same for movies out on TV and DVD already and build a bigger list. As the list grows over time I'll post up the top x movies, top x dvd buys, etc. Yes, it will create a lot of movie threads but it is not like this forum is really buzzing right now outside of a couple of threads. The oldest thread on page 1 is a week old....oldest thread on page 2 is a month old already. Will we have the occasional jackasses that underrate a movie on purpose (see Slumdog Millionaire thread) yes, but unfortunately there really isn't much we can do about that.

Edited March 3, 2009 by sahyder1

[Thatz]

It's a fairly good idea. It's always going to be difficult to get a true rating because even if you have criteria like that, there will be people who recognize stuff like good cinematography and editing and those who just look for stuff that's cool in the "rate the movie" category, for example. That's a VERY broad category, especially since there's more to a movie than soundtrack, characters, and storyline.

[ROC]

Eh, I think discussion on EWB about movies has really gone south. All of the EWB FILM EXPERTZ (dearly departed Numbahs, Beatnik, myself, Zero, Pepsi, GA, etc.) don't ever really post in the film thread as is, and I don't know if say...commenting on the soundtrack, which is mostly irrelevant when I think about me liking or hating a film anyway, will change the path. I think we just aren't current with the film talk anymores.

And while I like a ratings scale for the stuff I see, it's more bending whether or not I enjoyed the film in comparison to how well-written and acted it is and such.

Edited February 22, 2009 by ROC

[sahyder1]

Like I said those categories were just thrown out there. They are obviously open to discussion.

[livid]

I think it's a good idea but I don't know how feasible it would be to pull off and done well, especially with like ROC said, getting the people involved for it to be successful.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I watched Carry On at Your Convenience the other night.

Brilliant it was.

Great soundtrack too as it was basically various reuses of "Oh dear what can the matter be?" being played at opportune parts of the movie.

In all seriousness, I love Carry On movies.

[sahyder1]

so a bunch of people have voted here....how about some feedback? Toss around legitimate categories that we could use.

[-A-]

I voted no because I can't quite see how it's going to have a really important use beyond the What Did You Watch thread. Most of the prominent new releases like The Wrestler, Watchmen, Wolverine, Terminator etc. will end up with their own thread anyway. The idea that you're describing is based around the benefit of having multiple people adding their comments. When that happens in a short space of time that film probably has its own thread. When that doesn't happen, it probably goes in the What Did You Watch thread.

Something like an EWB Simultaneous Viewing would be good, though. Everyone watches a given film, series or genre in a short space of time. In fact, Xbox Live has that Netflix Party thing in North America, doesn't it? Get hooked up with the Xbox thread and this could work. Everyone else will be a pirate

[zero]

I always wanted to get more discussion going in the Watch Thread, so I say something like this a good idea.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I agree with Zero.

[LL!]

I'd definitely get in on this discussion. I think it's a great idea.

[Your Mom]

Sounds like something I might be into

[sahyder1]

Since I'm not getting much feedback on other possible questions Do we just go with one rating the movie one along with some questions like the ones I posted above about the length of the movie, DVD recommendation, etc.

[StevenRichardsRules]

The International

Rate the movie - 6.5

Better than I thought it would be. A decent action flick, if you're into that kind of thing. I'm not.

Rate the storyline - 6-ish

There's a big bank. They're the bad guys, right? And people who get in their way disappear. Also, they like to tie up loose ends. And the police and Clive Owen are trying to expose them and what have you.

Rate the soundtrack - ???

I don't remember the soundtrack. Lots of dramatic sounds, I suppose? Eh, it was okay. Nothing very distracting.

Rate 3-5 of the main characters

Clive Owen - Hates the bank. Is the typical "Bank wronged me, need revenge" kind of character. I suppose he does a decent job acting it but the character is so two dimensional. I really want to see Sin City now. Why do all Clive Owen movies seem to suck?

Cop with tits - She's good, k? And she has a family, k? Did I mention she's good? Meh, she's passable. Doesn't overshadow Clive, which is important. But big meh on her.

Bankers - There's an old Russian guy. And some young guys. And they're bad. They like to sell nuclear arms to people. Yaaaay!

Length of movie - Too Short

Was very tempted to say too long but the ending kind of saves the movie. I was actually interested to see what happened after it and then the credits rolled. And I was like, "???". Truely, that's what I said. But the ending made me interested in seeing what would happen next, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it was the ending so...

Would you say this is a DVD rental or buy?

Rental. Unless you liked that movie where Clive Owen enjoys carrots and gunplay. If so, then shame!

[livid]

I'm not quite sure how it would be figured out who would be the ones but along the same lines, how about determining x amount of people to review movies and just have them post their reviews? Kinda like EWB having it's own "At the Movies". It's along the same lines, but really -A- brings up a good point in that most of the movies that people are interested in seeing end up with their own thread anyways. And they wouldn't have to stick to a specific topics, but can have a general outline of what to talk about with each movie and then go from there.

Maybe set it up with like 5 people and have a roundtable like discussion on the movie and then give a rating out of 5 or something, a 1 being don't watch it and a 5 being midnight release, etc. and then average it out for a final score.

Basically having a certain amount of people review a movie.

Obviously one of the problems would be getting those people to see the movies at roughly around the same time.

[ROC]

I'm not quite sure how it would be figured out who would be the ones but along the same lines, how about determining x amount of people to review movies and just have them post their reviews? Kinda like EWB having it's own "At the Movies". It's along the same lines, but really -A- brings up a good point in that most of the movies that people are interested in seeing end up with their own thread anyways. And they wouldn't have to stick to a specific topics, but can have a general outline of what to talk about with each movie and then go from there.

Maybe set it up with like 5 people and have a roundtable like discussion on the movie and then give a rating out of 5 or something, a 1 being don't watch it and a 5 being midnight release, etc. and then average it out for a final score.

Basically having a certain amount of people review a movie.

Obviously one of the problems would be getting those people to see the movies at roughly around the same time.

We surely have to be better than the two Bens or whatever.

[sahyder1]

To the people saying that there will be threads for the big movies anyways....

The way I see it is there will always be a thread when we hear that a movie is in the works. What I'm thinking about here is that these will be discussion threads once the movies are released. In the general threads we're always worrying about spoiling stuff....these threads you won't have to worry about that. I said I'll maintain the ratings in one thread so people don't have to enter a thread filled with spoilers to get a review.

[sahyder1]

I've been tossing this idea around for a while....and want to give it a go in the next couple of days. Think of this as a spin off from the "What did you watch today" thread. Sure we get nice little reviews on there of movies from people but they end up getting drowned out rather quickly. I mean the thread is 300 something pages old now and if I want to see what EWB said about a movie before I jump into it and possibly waste 2 hours of my life that I will never get back.

How it would work? I'll maintain the main thread. A table of contents if you will linking to each of the movie threads. I'll regularly update how EWB is rating movies out not just in theater but on DVD and TV as well. The idea has received a great response so far and will need everyone on EWB to help keep it going.

Here's how I envision it. When we hear about a movie being worked on we usually start a thread. This topic is not linked to that. Once a movie comes out though I plan on creating new threads for each movie. These threads will be filled with spoilers so enter these threads at your own risk. If you don't want the spoiler talk stick to the original pre-release threads that exist for the movies. The purpose of this project is to actively engage the EWB community in their choice of movies. Check back in the main thread when you're going to see a movie to see if EWB has rated it already. If you are creating a thread for a movie that you saw on DVD or TV please attach poll questions that I will list below to each and every new thread. This will give us a common denominator that we will use for EVERY movie thread and thus get a rating system going. Once again, this project is just not about new releases. Over time I will be maintaining rankings by Release year among other rankings. So say you want to see how EWB rates the movies from 2005....you'll have it here.

Poll questions that need to be attached to all threads are listed in this spoiler tag. Ask the question and give the choices that are written in parenthesis.

Spoiler: Click here to view

Rate the movie (Give choices from 1-10)

Length of Movie (Too Short, Just right, Too Long)

Movie Recommendation (Buy, Rent, TV Only,Avoid)

Please attach these poll questions to every thread so me or someone else doesn't have to go back and create the poll again. Please leave all discussions to the discussion thread. Please don't post anything in the main thread so I can maintain the rankings on there. Thank You and let's begin.

Depending on how this goes.....maybe a sub-form in the Movies section for the review threads?

Edited March 4, 2009 by sahyder1

[sahyder1]

A request that is obviously impossible to enforce. Please rate movies only after you have seen them. I will try to keep the main thread updated regularly but if you are curious to see the results yourself please click on the show results button rather then voting randomly.

[sahyder1]

Can someone pin the main thread too.

I will be averaging out the votes that are being given in threads and list the ratings based on that. Expect those to start coming out in the next day or two.