|
What's a "median" rating?
Do you really want us to bore you? Well, here it goes: There are three ways statisticians calculate the measure of central tendency: The most common way is the "mean"
-- also referred to as the "arithmetic average" of a list of numbers or data. If you remember your high school math, you calculate it by adding all the numbers in a series and then dividing by how many numbers there are in the series. The mean wouldn't work in terms of calculating the average rating for a particular movie since it would not show where critical opinion tends to cluster. The "mode," the second way of figuring out averages, is the value that occurs most frequently in a series. And, finally, there's the "median," our preferred
-- and, for our purposes, the soundest statistically -- measure of central tendency: It is simply the value that appears in the middle of a series. In other words, half of the critics' ratings are above it and half are below it. Since we use 15 critics, it is the eighth number in a series. (More for masochists: That Tricky Median: A Practical Explanation)
Do you assign the star ratings?
Most of the critics we include in our critics' ratecards assign their own star ratings -- or their editors do it for them. Several do not, and so we must assign the star rating ourselves by reading the review and deciding how much or how little a critic liked a movie. Star ratings are controversial with some critics, and a few hate them as much as Steven Segal movies. But star ratings do provide the best graphical representation of critical opinion. So, where a critic does not assign stars and we have to do it, regard them as our interpretation of his or her opinion.
We use a 4-star scale (that's from 0 to 4 stars) at ½ increments, which is the standard in the U.S.
How do you choose which critics you will feature?
Let's face it: no list of critical opinion could be considered complete without a few prominent critics like Roger Ebert or whoever writes for the NY Times right now. But prominence is only one criterion we use for selection. We also strive for geographic diversity, so we can offer you a representative picture of the national critical consensus. Circulation is another consideration, since a critic is bound to be more influential if he has a large audience. That said, we also try to mix media and therefore include print publications (newspapers and magazines) and web sites, even some small web sites that do not have a huge audience but do have a loyal following, and hence credibility. On the other hand, we try to avoid publications whose principal focus is celebrity coverage and not serious film criticism, no matter how large an audience. There are also a couple of practical considerations that prevent us from using several critics: Since we try to complete the critics' ratecards on the day a movie opens, we are forced to exclude several worthy media outlets (mainly sites of monthly magazines) that publish their reviews days or even weeks after a movie has been released. Then there are many sites (even sites of major newspapers) that do not maintain an easily accessible database of reviews, or use frames, which make it hard to link to them.
Do you only feature U.S. critics?
Mostly, yes, although more for pragmatic purposes than any misguided nationalistic principle. There are two major reasons: Most major movies open stateside first, and since we're a U.S. site our readers are mainly English speakers. As the web grows and changes it may become easier in the future to list critics from other countries.
You seem to be using a lot of New York critics. Why?
There are more newspapers and other media outlets in New York than any other city. Also, New York publications have large circulations and maintain a well-deserved reputation for taking their film coverage quite seriously.
Do you cover art-house films on the day they open?
Rarely, for a simple reason: Most art-house and foreign films open first in limited release, which means they are first shown is major metropolitan areas (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago) before they tour the rest of the country. Most of the time we are unable to find the requisite 15 reviews until such films are in wide release, which may take several weeks.
What do I do if a link to a review doesn't work?
Some web sites have the nasty tendency to move their articles and to change the URLs, thus making a mess of the first principle of the web, which is infinite hyperlinking between sites. If you spot a misguided or missing link, please email us at
.
How can I suggest a critic?
Just email us at
and we will definitely visit his or her web site and consider inclusion.
Is Critics.com optimized for a specific browser?
Although we made every effort (and several compromises) to make the site compatible with Netscape, it does look and work far better with I.E. 5.0, 5.5 or 6.0. This is not an endorsement of Microsoft. We find Microsoft as scary as AOL/Time Warner that owns Netscape. It's just that by any rational criterion I.E. is a much better web browser than
Netscape's Navigator. If you are one of those earnest but misguided souls who think that using Netscape is supporting an underdog, do yourself a favor and download I.E.
|
