MY RATING SCALE: WHAT DOES OKAY MEAN?

They can’t all be winners.  Some films, books, and albums start out with interesting ideas but they fail to flesh out to something worthwhile.  Maybe there wasn’t as much potential as the creator initially thought, or perhaps the person or people trying to bring it to life made a few missteps along the way.  Whatever went wrong, it’s not fatal, but it definitely limits your ability to enjoy the media being consumed.

Out of the 725 films I had rated when I stopped writing reviews, 145 of them received ratings in my Okay tier.  That around 20%.  That feels a little low, because I would estimate that a quarter to a third of all movies produced are probably just some form of okay.  The same probably applies for books and albums (we’re going to find out!).  My list of rated movies may underrepresent the Okay tier because I’m not going out blindly to the theater each week to watch something new and potentially unproven.  My wife and I often look for and find films that we remember hearing good things about.  I will seek out worse films based on their notoriety as such, but I think okay movies are just stumbled upon because there are so many of them out there mixed in with the good ones.

The best kind of Okay rating is a 2.75.  The movie, book, or album landing here can best be described as above average, almost good, or a guilty pleasure at best.  They hit that sweet spot between a neutral reaction and something you might call good enough.  Weekend at Bernie’s is ‘above average’ because it really lands a lot of the comedy inherent to its premise, but you won’t remember much beyond that.  Magic Mike is ‘almost good’- it’s admirable for not holding back on edgy content, but the acting (except for Matthew McConaughey) holds it back.  The 1950s monster movie The Blob is a ‘guilty pleasure at best’- there are some clever ideas at play, but it’s done too cheap to really make it more than a quaint but influential footnote in sci-fi film history.

Smack in the middle of the rating scale is a 2.5.  The superlatives for this should be self-explanatory: okay, average, or a neutral reaction.  You kind of shrug your shoulder and don’t have too strong an opinion.  Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is ‘okay’- it’s a sequel that tries to capture lightning in a bottle for a second time but it’s just more of the same with less heart.  Pearl Harbor is ‘average’- it’s clear that the filmmakers are trying to replicate the formula of Titanic (love story caught in the midst of an infamous historical disaster) but it lacks the secret sauce.  Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was a film that I just didn’t know what to make of.  It satirizes the sexism of 70s news but it’s also beloved by guys who exhibit that same sexism.  I didn’t see the appeal.

It's all downhill from here.  You may still see potential in something receiving a 2.25 rating, but it elicits a modestly unfavorable reaction.  Below average, flawed, and passable come to mind here.  The torture horror film Hostel lands the ‘below average’ label- neat ideas but they are pushed aside to see how much gross-out violence you can stomach.  The apocalyptic film 2012 is ‘flawed’- it’s actually a really neat idea, but the filmmakers can’t decide between being overwrought melodrama or funny at the wrong time.  Little Fockers, the third film in the Meet the Parents trilogy, is ‘passable’- if someone asks you if it’s worth watching, it’s no sweat off your back to say no.

Anything landing a straight 2 rating probably does so with a heavy sigh attached to it.  These products are mediocre, unsatisfying, and forgettable.  The young adult fantasy film Eragon is ‘mediocre’- it feels like a hastily assembled pastiche of clichés to capitalize on the post-Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fantasy wave.  I am unafraid to call The Twilight Saga: New Moon ‘unsatisfying’- nothing meaningful happens until the third act, and even that ends with a stalemate.  Eat Pray Love fits the bill as something ‘forgettable’- a woman of privilege has a midlife crisis that sends her across the globe to find herself.  That’s about all I remember of it.

Buckle up, gang.  It only gets worse from here.  Tomorrow we’ll peruse the Poor section of the rating scale.