Here is my rating scale which seems to be pretty close to most people around here from what I have noticed as while some might word theirs a bit differently, you can tell it means pretty much the same thing...
10 = As much as I can enjoy a movie, pretty much.
9 = Nearly as much as I can enjoy a movie.
8 = Great.
7 = A Strong Thumbs Up. (My Favorite Movies score here and higher)
6 = A Mild Thumbs Up. (My minimum score to re-watch a movie)
5 = Average/Forgettable/Thumbs Down. (while a negative score, they typically don't waste my time)
4 = Below Average.
3 = Failure. (I typically finished watching these movies, but they are just bad)
2 = Boring. (I could not finish watching due to boredom and boring is pretty much the worst crime a movie can commit)
1 = Greatly dislike. (a rare feat, in a negative way)
for measure... most movies I see get a 5/10 with a 6/10 being the next most common (which between those two ratings they make up about 74% of everything I have seen, or call it about 7 out of every 10 movies I see). NOTE: while a 5/10 score is ultimately a Thumbs Down from me, they are usually decent enough for a one time viewing, or to put it another way where decent enough not to have wasted my time.
to state the obvious... I ultimately rate movies based on how much I enjoy them. the further they get away from that, the lower the rating.
NOTE: I am a male. born 1979.
there is 189 movies out of the 2,225+ total movies I have seen that I scored a 7/10 or higher. if I count movies just shy of that status (i.e. 6-6.5/10) that count raises to a total of 234 movies (basically there is currently 45 movies I scored a 6-6.5/10). so I don't hand out high scores all that often like some people do. because in my mind the vast majority of movies ain't enjoyable to a higher degree and my scores reflect that. or to put it another way... there is about 551 movies MAX (probably a bit less) out of the 2,225+ total movies I have seen that are worth re-watching which is about 25% tops of everything I have seen, or about 1 out of every 4 movies (tops) I have seen over the long term are worth re-watching.
also, from what I have observed one area that I noticed people vary some is the 6/10 score as some consider it a Thumbs Down and some consider it a Thumbs Up. I used to be with the group that considered a 6/10 as a Thumbs Down until Sep 2014 I changed my system to including a 6/10 as a Thumbs Up as it makes more sense to include it as apart of the positive score range as if you only use 7's and higher as positive, your simply way too limited and have to bunch a bunch of movies into the 7/10 score even though some are clearly better than others etc. this is why 5/10 and less as a negative and a 6/10 and higher as a positive makes more sense. plus, that (6/10 and higher as a positive) makes more proper use of the 1 through 10 rating scale as I basically consider 5/10 as a average and then it scales up and down fairly evenly from there.
also, while I already mentioned there is 189 movies I score a 7/10 or higher here is how my ratings break down precisely (ignoring the in between ratings)...
10/10 = 8 movies
9/10 = 13 movies
8/10 = 81 movies (NOTE: although 50 of those are 7.5-8/10's which means only 31 are a SOLID 8/10 (i.e. 8/10 or 8-8.5/10))
7/10 = 87 movies
6-6.5/10 = 45 movies
NOTE: I never restrict ratings either as it's simply all about how much I like watching a movie overall and I score it accordingly.
side note: come to think of it... I might consider going though my 7/10 and 8/10's and splitting stuff up a bit better into three separate categories for each (i.e. 6.5-7/10, 7/10, 7-7.5/10, 7.5-8/10, 8/10, 8-8.5/10) as not all that long ago I stopped doing in between ratings on my 9/10's as once a movie reaches 9/10 or 10/10 status I don't apply my in-between ratings (i.e. 6.5-7/10, 7.5-8/10, 8-8.5/10 etc) anymore. I might try this stuff but then again I might leave things about how they are since it's less work organizing them. because I usually just list... 10/10, 9/10, 8/10, 7.5-8/10, 7/10 as that's how my basic 'My Favorite Movies' are currently broken down as I pretty much see SOLID 8/10 (i.e. 8/10 or 8-8.5/10) or higher as my minimum for more higher tier status even though my 9's and 10's are the cream of the crop.
with all of that said... on the flip side, there is not many movies that score in the 4/10 or less range for me as taking a quick look on IMDb it's about 388 movies (TOPS) which is around 17% of everything I have seen. or about 1 out of every 5-6 movies I see over the long term. with that said, while most of the movies I see score a 5/10, I suspect had I seen a fair portion of those 5/10's from years ago more recently, that there would be a decent increase in the 4/10 and lower categories as I would not be surprised if that 388 total movies shot up maybe a 100 movies or so which if that happened that would be somewhere in the ball park of 22% of everything I have seen. but I am just speculating here since, obviously, I am not going to waste my time re-watching crap from years ago that I scored a 5/10 that's basically forgettable as I would rather spend that time re-watching movies I like, which is usually the case, or spend it seeing movies I have not seen before.
or in very simple terms, like I always say, movies are ultimately one of two categories, which is at the core of what ultimately makes or breaks them...
-6/10 or higher = Thumbs Up (will re-watch)
-5/10 or less = Thumbs Down (won't re-watch(with rare exception))
because like I always say... a movies real worth is whether it's a movie you want to re-watch from time-to-time as the years pass. movies that fail that test are ultimately forgettable. like it makes no sense for me to praise a movie and score it pretty high only to pretty much forget about it not long after and never re-watch it again etc. truly good movies are movies that people should want, and do, re-watch from time-to-time. it's like a good song, you listen to it here and there as the years pass.
p.s. but every now and then ill go through the movies I scored a 6/10 and if it's been a bit too long since I last re-watched them, and have no real urge to see them within a reasonable time frame, ill usually just switch my basic 6/10 back to a 5/10 on IMDb. that helps trim-the-fat so to speak. basically gets rid of the clutter and raise the quality a bit of those that remain a 6/10 or higher. like for example... say I watch Movie A (2018) for the first time right now and I score it a 6/10... say something like 4-7 years pass and I still not got around to seeing it and notice this but still have no real urge to re-watch it, there is a decent chance ill just lower the score back to a 5/10 and that's the end of that (basically it was a movie that was okay enough for a viewing but ultimately forgettable and being I have no real urge to see it again proves this to me). that's what I do once every so many years or so is go through my 6/10's on IMDb etc and lower some back to a 5/10 as this helps get rid of the junk and the remaining movies I scored a 6/10 are worth that much more.
Raimo47 Here is a nice example of what I was basically saying in that what you said is pretty much like mine, just said in a slightly different way and your apart of what I also mentioned with people being broke into one of two groups, which are...
Group A... 5/10 and less = Thumbs Down. 6/10 or higher = Thumbs Up
Group B... 6/10 and less = Thumbs Down. 7/10 and higher = Thumbs Up
your Group B, I am Group A. I was Group B til Sep 2014 as the 6 and higher as a positive rating system is just better as it uses the rating scale more evenly that way with a 5/10 being middle-of-the-road/average and then goes up and down fairly evenly from there.
but outside of our Group A and Group B difference... we are pretty much in agreement on the basic rating scale as I am just assuming 'mediocre' means 'average' which sounds about right given the rest of your scale seems pretty much like mine.
Marv I got the cure for your problem, which is...
ALWAYS rate ALL movies based on how much you like them and the further they get away from that the lower the score, regardless of genre. rating based on genre is flawed in my mind because it can artificially inflate a movies score. because say a movie is well above average for the Horror genre but in comparison to all movies you like it's no where near THAT good so based on rating by a genre a movie might get a 8/10 or something like that but just in comparison to all movies you have seen it might be a 6-7/10 or something like that. so to me... the true rating of a movie is how it compares to ALL movies you have seen.
but a basic way to rate movies in my mind is this...
5/10 or less = Thumbs Down (won't re-watch(with rare exception))
6/10 and higher = Thumbs Up (will re-watch)
that very basic info makes it nice and easy to score movies in a very basic sense because after I watch a movie it's pretty easy for me to tell which category it's in and then from there I adjust my score higher or lower in relation to ALL movies I have seen.
that makes things better and more easier to rate and that's even more accurate once you have seen plenty of movies as once you have seen plenty of movies you can start to gauge which movies stand out from the pack and which don't and then rate them accordingly.
so at the end of the day... using that stuff I mentioned above, it's not that hard to find a rating for a movie as it's pretty much some sort of emotional response/feeling a movie gives me and based on that I can pretty much tell where to score it. with that said... I do make some adjustments as time passes as sometimes movies will get worse on a re-watch and sometimes they can improve on a re-watch and I adjust my score accordingly.
