How do you rate movies you've seen?

[jsteinhauer]

There are many places to write reviews, give ratings and leave comments on movies you've watched (Amazon, Netflix, Blu-ray.com, etc.). I try to leave helpful comments when I can. I was wondering, though, what criteria others may use when rating movies they've seen, you know, like 5 stars or simply a rating of 1-5 out of five?

Using this site as an example, I usually give my overall rating based 100% on how much fun I had watching the movie, irrespective if the story, AQ, PQ or whatever had problems. I also have different relative scales for different genres. Horror movies, for instance, need a very lax standard for things like acting, originality and storyline. I consider usually how scared it made me. Action and adventure movies depend much more on sound and picture, and obviously, AQ and PQ are much less important for comedies, where the laugh factor is important. I also tend to give "bonuses" for weirdness. If I am left wondering about what sort of deranged mind came up with this idea, I have to boost my rating and opinion a little bit. A recent DVD movie called Blood Car comes to mind. I am very hard on dramas and thrillers with respect to accuracy. Comedies, horrors and actions are always over the top, but the movie experience in dramas and thrillers hinges on believability.