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It is a simple idea, really: For every film, we list the ratings of 15 prominent critics. Some are the usual suspects (e.g., Roger Ebert) but we also try to use critics from different parts of the country and from different media in order to give a more representative idea of the national Critical Consensus. Then, under the title Dueling Critics, we include two quotes, one from the critic who gave the film its highest rating and one from the critic who gave it its lowest rating.
Other publications, most prominently Entertainment Weekly, run similar features. And there seems to be a new review hub on the web every other month, incorporating all sorts of rating formats, from spoiled produce to traffic lights. But we humbly submit that ours is by far the most innovative in implementation. The format we use allows you to determine at a glance where critical opinion falls on a particular film; the manner in which we align the star ratings converts them into a graph that tells you at a glance whether the film in question was a critical hit or a miss (compare, for instance, the ratecard for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to the one for "Freddy Got Fingered" and you’ll see what we mean). So instead of relying on the opinion of a single critic, you can view a snapshot of critical opinion.
Each critic’s listing is a hyperlink, taking you to his or her review. And for your convenience, we also provide links to other relevant information, such as parents’ reviews from kids-in-mind.com, links to information from IMDb and Yahoo, etc.
The idea behind Critics.com flourished on AOL from 1992 to 1998, as part of our AOL-exclusive entertainment site Critics' Choice. In late 1998 Critics.com, like all other things, moved to the web. Ratecards for new releases are posted every Friday, at about noon.
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