Heat (1995) vs The Departed (2006)

sdm3

I rate movies in the most common sense way possible... the more I enjoy a movie the higher the rating, the less I enjoy it the lower the rating. rating any other way makes no sense simply because it would not be a accurate representation of what I truly think of a movie. it's just only 185 movies (so far) out of the 2,225+ total movies I have seen I enjoy enough to call a favorite.

basically rating movies boils down to this... it's more of a emotional response/feeling a movie gives me and I pretty much translate that into a score based on everything I have seen (it's pretty easy actually even though it might look all complicated in text etc) as I can generally tell by the feeling I have after watching a movie on where to score it, especially once you have seen plenty of movies as you start to see what truly stands out to me vs what does not etc.

with that said... while some movies provoke different feelings etc, to give a example... Movie A scores a 7/10 and Movie B scores a 7/10, it's possible one could provoke a different feelings in me than the other but overall both are about equal for me as while there are some movies I scored the same I might slightly prefer over the others, I pretty much like am about the same at the end of the day as I am sure there are quite a few movies I rated a 7/10 for example that are 'too close to call' if someone asked me which I like more even though some I might slightly prefer over others and that applies to pretty much all movies in there etc.

as for my favorite movies... just click my link in my signature and you will see them all (which is currently 185 movies out of the 2,225+ total movies I have seen) as I keep that up to date as things change. I even have a 'The Best of the Rest' in my signature which are all of the movies that are just shy of My Favorite Movies status.

also, one last thing as this is at the core of how I rate movies in a very basic sense...

5/10 or less = Thumbs Down (I won't re-watch(with rare exception))
6/10 or higher = Thumbs Up (I will re-watch) (NOTE: although my 7's and higher tend to see more re-watches than movies I score in the 6/10 range as some of my 6's I have not seen in quite some time now where as a general guideline I try to re-watch ALL movies I score a 7/10 or higher at least once every 3-4 years or so where as some of my 6's probably have not seen re-watches in more than 5 years now etc. but every now and then ill go through the movies I scored a 6/10 and ask myself whether I plan on getting around to re-watching them in a semi-reasonable time frame as if I don't have any real desire to see them, ill generally adjust my 6/10 score back to a 5/10 score but this is not something I do too often as it's more or less one of those things I might do every 3-4-5 years or something like that)

that sums up movies for me in a basic sense as when I watch or re-watch a movie that's always at the very basics of my ratings and I go up and down from there accordingly based on how much I enjoy it or lack of enjoyment. so while a 5/10 is a Thumbs Down from me, these movies are usually decent enough not to have wasted my time but are ultimately not a movie ill re-watch and a movies re-watch factor is at the core of what separates good movies from average/forgettable ones. for the record... only about 25% TOPS of everything I have seen reaches a 6/10 or higher. but in terms of a 7/10 or higher that's only about 8.3% or so. I don't restrict ratings either as, like I was saying, it's all about how much I enjoy watching a movie. sometimes movies improve in score on a re-watch (or re-watches) and sometimes they drop off. but as long as a movie remains at least a 6/10 for me on a re-watch ill continue to re-watch in the future otherwise, if it drops to a 5/10 or less, I won't re-watch it.

NOTE: you will see when you click My Favorite Movies link that at the top there is some text as there are only eight movies I scored a 10/10 and they are in no particular order. so NONE of that list is in any exact order besides the fact that I list my 10/10's first down to my 9/10's and 8/10's and 7.5-8/10's and finishing up with 7/10's. because in a basic sense I just split those into five separate groups. that made it much easier for me to make a list as if I had to try to put things in a exact order I would have NEVER been able to make a list as it's just too difficult. also, when I rate a movie in general I rate it in relation to ALL movies I have seen and not by genre as it's more accurate that way in the sense a movie I rate a 8/10 ill always like more than one I rate a 7/10 etc.