The Allen Movie Rating System (AMRS)
January 4, 2024
What is the AMRS?
Pick a film
Think about the categories below and how well the film executed each one, then assign each a rating from 0–10.
Plot
Visuals
Audio
Character
Personality
Add your scores up for your total score! A perfect film is 50/50.
Example: Interstellar (2014)
Plot: 7
Visuals: 10
Audio: 10
Character: 7
Personality: 8
Total: 42/50
How do I assign a score for each category?
Think about how well a film executed on each of the sub-points in each category below.
How well did the category serve the story being told?
How much did each category affect your own experience of the film?
Do you find yourself remembering a song, an image, or a character from a film years later? That might deserve a higher ranking.
Reserve a 10 for only the best of the best.
Plot (0-10)
Screenwriting
Editing
Conflict
Theme
Dialogue
Pacing and dynamics (fast/slow)
Twists
Visuals (0-10)
Lighting
Color
Visual Effects
Cinematography
Mise-en-scene
Production design
Costume design
Audio (0-10)
Soundtrack
Sound design
Character (0-10)
Arc
Actor performances
Flat/round
Dynamic
Personality (0-10)
Voice
Pizzazz
Director's presence
Intangibles
Gestalt
Scoring
Add up your total for each category and that's your movie score!
The story behind this system
Two things:
☝️ I believe great films become a part of you.
✌️ I want people to stop watching bad movies.
Have you ever seen a movie that when the credits roll, you say "Really? That's it?" Like you couldn't believe that's where it ended? Yeah, same.
For me it was Fast X (2023). I kept watching just hoping there'd be one single positive thing to glean from it. If 21.5k people rated it highly, it should get good at some point, right? But it completely disappointed. The movie sucked, I sucked for being hopeful, and I went to bed peeved. 😡
That complete disappointment is what sparked my hope for a new kind of movie rating system that doesn't get watered down by mass public opinion. Or one that's so homogenized that every movie ends up with pretty much the same unclear rating: ~70%, ~4 stars.
I need a system that cuts through the noise and gets specific!
Where do I go for more nuanced movie reviews, instead of a general "yeah it's good"? Where can I see if a movie is strong in a certain category that I care about?
And how'd we even get to this place where bad movies get rated so high?
Streaming platforms don't care about objective ratings
I'm convinced that streaming platforms artificially inflate their reviews to make you keep using their product. They don't care if a terrible movie wastes your time.
The reviews you see on Rotten Tomatoes, imdb, Hulu, Paramount+, Prime Video, and Netflix all seem suspiciously high. Like "faked-by-some-shady-movie-review-click-farm-owned-by-corporate-interests-and-big-money" high. Somehow the worst movies out there are still getting 3.5 stars. I don't buy it. It's like they've enforced a minimum rating that every movie gets no matter what, because they have to justify it existing on their platform.
If movie marketers create the illusion of a quality film just long enough for hapless viewers to press play, then they can break even on their boring, pandering, produced-by-committee projects.
Instead of trusting these losers, I want to discover great movies without the influence of shady marketing tactics. I don't want streaming services to dictate to me what is and isn't worth watching when they're incentivized to lie. I want to know what's worth my time, and what's not, based on the voice of the people, or a critic whose opinion I trust, using an objective rating system.
Bad movies exist, and that's ok
Some films deserve a half star. Hell, they demand it. But the streaming services won't allow those kinds of reviews. That would mean a chunk of their media library is a waste of time.
They're not incentivized to be objective.
Objectively bad content on their platform would negatively impact their usage metrics (hours watched, etc). So they can't have poorly-reviewed movies on their platform. Meaning everything gets pumped up. It's the equivalent of a minimum wage for movie ratings, driving up the numbers for everyone, and making sleeper hits harder and harder to discover.
We all deserve better than to be lied to about what is and isn't worth our time. Our time should be respected.
I think a more objective and categorical movie rating system can help us reclaim our valuable free time. When you plop down after a long day and just want to relax with a great movie, it shouldn't be a guessing game.
Movies (and the people that make them) demand our respect
The real miracle is that any movie actually gets made. Making movies is incredibly difficult.
Each film represents a tapestry of individuals working together for months or years. It's a time capsule of talent, passion, and careers. Each individual brings their own unique abilities to a film, and since some are equipped with more talent or experience, they shine brighter. Because of this wide talent spectrum on each crew, one aspect of a movie can be incredible, while another part can be a total failure.
The Allen Movie Rating System tries to capture the essence of movies by separating each individual category. This lets you break a film down into its base elements, and look at each one critically. You might be surprised how easy this is when you have the right categories, and how well the best movies hold up to this system.
Rather than mixing every category together in a way that homogenizes the overall rating into the unclear 70-80% zone (is 70% supposed to be "good"?), the Allen Movie Rating System asks you to be a bit more specific.
With this system, a movie can receive high marks in a single category (9's and 10's), recognizing the genius in one part of the film, while also not shying away from identifying the other parts of a film that may be severely lacking.
My vision for ratings on AMRS
Across the whole universe of movies, there should only be a few 10's in each category. I reserve a 10 for the very best of the best. A 50/50 should be a life-changing movie that captures the work of some of the most talented artists in every category, and that will stand the test of time.
An 8-9 could still represent incredible work, just not the very best in the category. Much like the Dave Portnoy pizza rating system, an 8.4 is a huge rating. It might not seem like it in a world where 10's are handed out everywhere, but it's a high rating.
For technical reasons, a classic film from the golden era of Hollywood might score incredibly high in plot and character, but not as high in audio, which is appropriate for the technology they had access to. Credit should be given when due, but we don't need to adjust ratings for inferior technology.
A 6 is a solid ranking for a category that you can be proud of. 4 left something to be desired. 2 is not the absolute worst, but pretty bad. 0 is orbiting around the equivalent of "you should've stayed home" or "my life is much worse having watched this".
I hope this AMRS system ultimately generates more interest in making and watching amazing films. Disagreement and discussion is welcomed and encouraged. Feel free to vote on each movie quality to rank the films the way you see fit and defend them.
I hope that one day the internet can rank enough movies using AMRS that we can search for movies based on certain qualities--like the strength of dialogue, creative or interesting plots and twists, incredible cinematography or sound, etc. This can end up being an invaluable tool for young filmmakers looking for a way to learn from the best.
Sometimes it's hard to put into words all the elements that make up a great movie. This system is also an attempt to understand the chemistry of a great film, so that we can help teach and inspire the next generation of filmmakers. At the end of the day, I also like the idea of keeping a little personal database of movies I've watched, and why I enjoyed them. I wanted to make a system for myself, and decided to share it to spread my love of great films. If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and good luck rating your movies!
