Netflix Suggestions For You

[SammyB]

Does anybody have any luck with Netflix suggestions? According to netflix I hate movies.

I've rated 1,535 movies. I don't give away 5 star ratings, but I have 9 1/2 out of 67 pages with 5 stars. Some things I gave 5 stars to: Taxi Driver, Road to Perdition, Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare Before Christmas, Cape Fear, Donnie Brasco, The Seventh Seal, some George Carlin stand up, The Deer Hunter, Eastern Promises, 1984. So I give out 5 star ratings only to stuff that is truly great or that I just really enjoy. Mostly truly great stuff however.

However, Netflix claims the highest I'll give a movie I haven't seen yet is 4.2. There is only one blu-ray I haven't seen with a "best guess for you" rating of 4.2. The majority of any movies are guessed at 3.1 to 3.5, which to me means "average".

It's highly annoying, because their suggestions is useless. When they claim "you won't care much for it, but won't absolutely hate it" about every movie, how am I suppose to know if I should give a movie I never heard of a try or not?

Does anybody else have a similiar problem with netflix suggestions? Or do you find it to be generally okay?

[Lacit170]

mine range from around 3 stars to very low like 1 or 2 stars....

i dont care about the ratings though becuase i wouldnt have put a movie on my list if i didnt want to watch it anyway... i dont think i ever watch random "suggested" movies from them as i have WAY too many to watch that i put in my list

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by lloyd_nasty

However, Netflix claims the highest I'll give a movie I haven't seen yet is 4.2. There is only one blu-ray I haven't seen with a "best guess for you" rating of 4.2. The majority of any movies are guessed at 3.1 to 3.5, which to me means "average".

A) The suggestions only judge by how you rated other movies within a specific sub-genre ("Feel-good Buddy-Cop Action From the 80's"), and it's up to them to decide what genre a movie gets tagged with,
and
B) Normally, the suggestions are a mix of Same Sub-Genre, sight unseen, and Movies With the Same Actor/Director. If it's the "same" movie, then it's presumable to guess you'd rate it the same, or at least that's enough for a good guess.

The suggestions aren't there to psychoanalyze you, they're there to get you to rent another catalog title you might not have heard of.
Try one, it's free, and then rate it yourself.

[jakeneff]

I have 2000+ ratings and seem to be one of the few that usually get very accurate results, often to the half star (which I can no longer give). I give very few things 1 star and very few 5 stars (though my list of 5 stars is much longer as I don't waste time watching something I know I'll hate). The vast majority of what I rate is 3 stars as there is little that I actively dislike and there is no "It was just okay" rating.

On only a couple of occasions did it think I would rate something 5 stars, which I'm fine with as that's really hard to determine. The only one I can remember right now is THE DARK KNIGHT, which I absolutely loved and did indeed rate 5 stars. I also routinely (but not ridiculously so) come across 4+ stars, which go on my Watch Now list. On the flip side, as much as I think I want to see something, if it said I would rate it less than 3 stars, 98% of the time it's been right, so I've learned to not even bother anymore.

But back to your original question, since I do have a lot of "luck" with the system and because there is so much I might want to see, I find it very helpful and use it to narrow down what I will actually add to my queue. I've found it to be a lot better than a few review sites saying something is highly recommended.

[The_Donster]

I think I'm a 4 to 5 star ***** at times. Most of my "best guess" ratings are around a 4 to 4.7 I think. My little guy is really into Thomas the Train, so my wife tends to rate those high. When we watch our BD's, I bounce off her what she'd give the movie. Most of the online reviews are based on my thoughts on the film though. I remember when the Facebook app worked it would post my ratings and my friends would be like really?!?!? Of course then I'd see there's and they'd be a little rough on movies I would have given a higher rating to