Professional Critics: How much stock do you put into them?

I always use rotten tomatoes for movie reviews, it's almost always right. But there is not a specific critic I regularly read.

As for food, there are certain ones with similar taste to me that I will trust, but I generally judge food for myself

 

I put stock into those critics that generally agree with me on music, TV and movies. If they have shared my view in the past, I tend to pay attention to them for stuff I have not yet seen or heard.

 

I like being my own critic when it comes to entertainment.

 

Pretty much zero stock as far as movies and entertainment is concerned. They are just talking heads that are paid to share an oppinion that is no more valid than mine... which may be exact opposite of theirs. I watched the movie "My Left Foot" because my wife at the time saw how critically aclaimed it was and just had to see it. It was one of the worst 2 hours of my life. I have since divorced that woman, coincedence? Maybe, maybe no.

I do pay attention to what they say about resteraunts though.

 

Music critics, never. I really couldn't care less, i know what I like, I don't need somebody telling me. Same thing with TV critics.

Movie critics, individually never, but i do check rotten tomatoes and if something has an extreme score one way or the other it could be a deal breaker. But i know what i want to see, like Kick-Ass 2, i wanted to see it and liked it despite the critics.

I do find myself listening to video game reviews. I find that the video game critics are by far the most reliable of the bunch. Very rarely do i significantly disagree with what the reviews are, and i often use them as a guide to what new games to try.

 

The only way you get anything good out of a critic is to see movies first, then go back and read the reviews by the critics across the board. Try a large variety of movies, and then find those reviewers who line up best with your own personal opinions and feelings about the movies you already saw.

Once you start to hone in on those reviewers who most closely resemble your own opinions, then you can begin to trust their reviews, and if they say to stay away from a movie, then you can safely stay away.

And really, that's the only function of a reviewer, is for those times when you should save your money and not go watch a bad movie.

But since opinions are all subjective, including and especially those of critics, the only value is when they align with your own views.

For example: Rotten Tomatoes is an aggregate site, meaning it compiles and averages out many reviews, from all types of reviewers and all types of movie tastes. So if, say, a movie has a score of 20% on RT, meaning on average 80% of reviewers didn't like it, that sounds pretty bad, but at the same time, 20% did like it. Which type of audience member are you? Are you in the 20% or the 80%? How do you know? The RT method doesn't help you as much as you think unless you already know for sure that your own tastes are 100% 'mainstream'.

But if you find reviewers you know you can trust, and they happen to give the same movie, say, a 70% positive review, well then, now you are more likely to be able to make a better choice when deciding whether or not to go see it, and whether or not you should be able to expect to enjoy it.

$.02

 

I generally don't really put too much into critics one way or another, but if a movie just gets terrible, terrible reviews, I usually buy into it. When a movie can't even crack 20 on RT, that usually signifies that it's on a whole other level of bad, so I stay away.

 

The only critics I really pay attention to are movie critics, and generally they are right. If a movie on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic has a certain score, I tend to agree with them more often than not.

 

rotten tomatoes told me to go check out "never let me go" with keira knightley and spiderman, total snooze fest. Slowest developing anti climatic sequences ever!

I enjoy our rate threads much better!

 

Yeah, I tend to look more at a consensus than anything else. But even then, if I'm interested in a movie enough I'll wait to watch and make my own judgment.

 

I don't watch a lot of TV in general (i.e., I don't channel surf), but I do like to get deep into serialized dramas. So I definitely check the reviews for TV shows, since they can pretty reliably tell you if a show is well-written and well-acted. Past that, I can decide for myself if the premise of a show seems appealing to me.

I don't pay too much attention to movie reviews, in the sense that I won't choose to see one movie over another because it got a 75 vs. a 55 on Metacritic, but I will avoid something that's universally panned and possibly check something out if it gets universal acclaim. Movie tickets are so damn expensive and I don't feel comfortable going alone, so I usually want to at least take a glance at the general consensus before committing to going to a theatre.

Almost never pay attention to restaurant reviews. I like to try new places and will give most any place a shot.

 

I definitely do not listen to music critics. Ive never read one article on Pitchfork. Music is where theres more immediate judging of people and peer pressure but im not into that. I do feel for musicians and music creators. Ive had talented musicians in my family. But to me listening to music doesnt require much heavy investment as it seems, so no need for overkill of some pompous hipster's opinion, or the ultra thug hip hip historian.

Almost the same with tv critics. Generally I watch first and review second. I'll see general consensus opinion and reviewer opinion after I sense something is bad, and to then see if others see the same.

Movie critics, hit and miss. I tend to have campy tastes so I dont care how bad an adam sandler movie gets crushed. But I do understand that its necessary to legitmize cinema as a high art form. Even if the talent doesnt match. So an uppity snob movie critic I accept with the territory.

Can agree that game reviewers are generally more consistent than others. (Its been a very long time now but I remember on n64 my first several games the review sources were consistantly almost dead-on with how id grade the games.)