I’ve often wondered whether we at Movie Habit were too generous with our positive reviews. If we are, that’s understandable; after all, we choose which movies we’re going to review; nobody assigns us to cover the obviously bad films. So a little skew toward the positive is to be expected.
But exactly how kind we were being? How would you measure?
Matt Anderson writes about movies big and small and is our second-longest-running contributor
See also
About Us
- About Us: John Adams: Painting, futurism, and dragsters
- About Us: Ryan Hurtig: Movies... and TV shows, sports, video games...
- About Us: Risë Keller: Booster, hippie, drone, mom, hipster
- About Us: Matt Anderson: I'm Mattman.
- About Us: Pablo Kjolseth: Big screen time travel, traumatizing children
- About Us: Andrea Birgers: Reading, reading, more reading, and superhero movies
- About Us: Marty Mapes: Science, essays, and human behavior
- About Us: Anand Ramachandran: Woody Allen, Ricky Bobby, Lizzy Borden 2
Luckily, we have a database that we can mine for some statistics. We looked a list of how each critic rated each movie. (Our scale goes from 0 to 4 stars in 1/2-star increments, with 2 1/2 stars being roughly the boundary between "recommended" and "not recommended.") We then looked at the median, which is a good way to get rid of outliers. Then, because the medians were so similar, we calculated the average. Finally, since we have it, we included the total number of reviews from that critic in our database. By the way, a redesign of our web site is in the works, and we expect to be able to make this sort of data available, updated automatically with each new review we write. For now, though, we’re using an abacus, a pen, and paper (figuratively). These results are as of February 10, 2008.
As it turns out, we’re pretty kind, especially if you consider that 3 stars is a recommendation. The kindest reviewer is Anand, followed closely by John, Risë and Andrea. When these guys dislike a movie, you might want to think twice before buying a ticket. On the flip side, Pablo, Ryan, and Nick are the hardest to please. You might look at the movies they do recommend and give them another thought.
Falling in the middle are Matt and Marty, our two most prolific writers. Indeed, the Movie Habit composite is right there with them.
So without further ado, here is how “kind” Movie Habit’s current crop of critics is, in order from kindest to most skeptical. Bear this in mind when you see the next glowing review or scoffing rejection. You might want to take that recommendation with a grain of salt (or perhaps with a pound of the stuff).
We’ve also added this information to the sidebar of each critic’s “About Us” page.
Anand Ramachandran
| Median Rating |
3 stars |
| Average Rating |
3.08 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
12 |
John Adams
| Median Rating |
3 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.99 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
74 |
Risë Keller
| Median Rating |
3 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.98 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
63 |
Andrea Birgers
| Median Rating |
3 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.96 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
99 |
Movie Habit Composite
| Median Rating |
3 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.84 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
1,720 |
Matt Anderson
| Median Rating |
3 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.84 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
280 |
Marty Mapes
| Median Rating |
3 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.83 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
1,026 |
Ryan Hurtig
| Median Rating |
2.5 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.64 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
29 |
Pablo Kjolseth
| Median Rating |
2.5 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.54 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
39 |
Nick Reed
| Median Rating |
2.5 stars |
| Average Rating |
2.44 stars |
| Number of Reviews |
50 |
