Reviews

Pauliesonne

Bi Gi
Pauliesonne
Joined
Jan 2, 2006
Messages
2,687
How do you check things you want to read/listen/watch/etc them?

A) Do you read the reviews of random people whose opinions can differ on their sub-consious feelings.

B) Do you read the reviews of people who should know what they're talking about?

C) Do you not read reviews at all?

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Personally, I'm a B guy.
 
I read/listen/watch, and make up my own mind. How about you?
 
Zep said:
I read/listen/watch, and make up my own mind. How about you?
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Let's see....

I did what you said and I;

read an autobiography of The Spice Girls/listened to the spice girls/watched Batman and Robin

I did it my way once and I.....

read V for Vendetta/listened to Moby/watched American Beauty
 
I like to see for my self, reviews are just the opinion of someone other then your self
 
I've been buying music for years based on "experts'" opinion, because my tastes have been rather obscure and I couldn't sample what I wanted. Now, thanks to the Internet (including Amazon samples, P2P and Internet radio) I can often listen before I buy.

For movies, IMDB rating can give you a good clue about what's bad, but not about what's good. I'll also take the recommendations of a few friends.

For scientific books there are generally many objective reviews around the net.

The big problem for me is novels. The ratio of mediocre and bad to interesting books has been pretty high lately so I've almost stopped reading novels. Unlike music or movies you invest a whole lot more time in a book and so I rarely take the chances these days.
 
Here's what I do. I work on a ship and end up watching a lot of bad movies if I'm not carefull. Luckily for me, I play the banjo so I usually just practice my chords and stuff through the bad ones. So there you go, take up the banjo and it won't matter (although it's tough to read and play Foggy Mountain Breakdown at the same time so with books you're on your own.)
 
El Greco said:
The big problem for me is novels. The ratio of mediocre and bad to interesting books has been pretty high lately so I've almost stopped reading novels. Unlike music or movies you invest a whole lot more time in a book and so I rarely take the chances these days.
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This doesn't make sense. You state that you've "almost stopped" reading novels because of other reviews. But why did you read novels before online reviews were available at all? The "chances" of wasting time were just the same...it's just that you were unaware of the odds.
 
SezMe said:
This doesn't make sense. You state that you've "almost stopped" reading novels because of other reviews. But why did you read novels before online reviews were available at all? The "chances" of wasting time were just the same...it's just that you were unaware of the odds.
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Um, no, I didn't say that I stopped reading novels because of other reviews. I stopped when I realized I had read too many bad ones. I don't trust "good" reviews of music and movies anyway, but with books it's even worse (in Amazon you can find tons of raving reviews for the most stupid books). In my earlier reading days I was reading mostly "classical" stuff. Marques, Tolstoi, Dickens, Dostoyevsky etc. So some is great, but you soon realize that most stuff considered classical is just not your cup of tea (Beckett, Kafka, etc).

Basically what I said is that I some point I gave up on reading novels and I haven't found reviews to be any helpful in getting me started again. With movies I can have a small safety with IMDB (when several thousands of viewers say that a movie is bad, I tend to believe them). And even if I watch a highly rated movie and I don't like it (which often happens), hey, it was just two hours. I can't do the same with books.

I'd like to know what the average novel rating is at Amazon... I guess it must be really high.
 
I read reviews, but don't pay too much attention to ratings. I read what the reviewer liked or didn't like about the work and then try to make up my own mind, based on what they said, what I'd heard from other sources, and what I already know about the author/artist/director/etc.
 
I don't really trust movie or book reviews; they just don't seem to work for me. However, PC Game reviews can be pretty useful. "short single player campaign" is definately something I'd want to avoid.
 
I have such a long list of books I absolutely have to read that I rarely even look for a review!

I tend to read The Onion A V Club film reviews. If they don’t slag off a film and I find the story intriguing, it’s usually a good bet I’m going to enjoy it.

Music reviews are useful for finding out what’s out there, but I always have a listen first.
 
I will read a review, not so much for the opinion, but for details that will clue me in on if I'd like the content of what's being reviewed. A trailer and a title many times will not provide enough information. There are times that I will see a movie because I want to see what they do with its concept, and the acting can be totally mediocre, and that's OK. Arlington Road comes to mind. Movies with unhappy endings don't get the celebrity that the "Hollywood" endings do, and I don't mind an un-happy ending if it's appropriate.
 
Thinking on
A) Do you read the reviews of random people whose opinions can differ on their sub-consious feelings.

I am guilty of being one of those random people that suggests things (books lately) in this forum.

Are you asking if we're normal, or if we're wasting our time?

I do keep a healthy distance between myself and any woman who even IMPLIES that "Wuthering Heights" is their personal favourite.

Maybe I'm in it for the personality cues.

Dunno. Onward!
 
I read reviews of people I trust (Ebert) or people who write in a way that indicates if I'll like the film (Ebert). Sometimes he gets a movie all wrong, but I can usually tell from what he says if I might like it when he doesn't.
 
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