Prelude To 2011 Movie Ratings Recap

The blogosphere must be getting pretty excited, because tomorrow I plan to publish my fourth annual Movie Ratings Recap for the twenty-eight films I saw in a theater during calendar year 2011.

Unlike a professional movie critic who must review many movies which he might not have personally chosen to see, I only attend movies which I think will prove to be well-made, entertaining and worth the price of admission. I go into the theater expecting that the movie will be at least a "B." If I expected less, I probably would not even stick my big toe in the theater. If a movie meets, but does not exceed, my expectations, I give it a "B." Therefore, a "B" is my base. Accordingly, it stands to reason that I am going to award more movies with high marks than low marks, because I am pre-sorting what I predict will be inferior movies from the list of flicks I want to see. With that as a given, here is what follows:

JOHNNY ROCK'S RATINGS SYSTEM:

A One of the best 40 or so movies I have ever seen.
A- One of the very best movies I will see during the relevant year, but not quite worthy of an A.
B+ Very good; exceeded my expectations.
B Met, but did not exceed, my expectations.
B- Not a bad movie, but did not meet my expectations.
C+ Not a good movie, but had some redeeming qualities such as a particular acting job, a clever dialogue passage, or an interesting concept which could have been better executed.
C A mediocre movie with few, if any, redeeming qualities.
C- A below average movie which I would not recommend to anyone, even if there was free admission.
D+ I never give a grade of D+ (nor do I ever give an A+). If a movie deserves a notch better than a D, I give it a C-.
D Obviously below average. I might invent a bathroom break just so I don't have to watch the whole thing.
D- A movie which deserves an F, but someone like Scarlett Johansson or Julianne Hough saves it from damnation.
F A movie which I simply cannot watch to its conclusion because it sucks, so I walk out and don't return.

My unwillingness to grant an A+ or a D+ plus goes back to my teaching days (1969-1980). I figured if a kid got an A he should be extremely delighted, not dissapointed that he did not get an A+. I was, and remain, a tough grader. Getting an A from me should not leave the recipient wanting more. As for the grade of D+, it was, and remains, my opinion that there is a perception of a vast gap between a D+ and a C-, moreso than, say, the gap between a C+ and a B-. Even though each pair represents a difference of only one notch, the stigma associated with getting a D seems to adhere equally to getting a D+.

Finally, a word or two about timing. As mentioned in the first paragraph above, this will be the fourth time I have published a Movie Ratings Recap. (The first three Recaps were e-mailed, not put on a blog.) Each Recap pertains to movies I saw in a theater during the preceding calendar year. Thus, a few of the movies seen in the first couple of months of any year may have actually been released toward the end of the year before. And, because some of the big buzz movies are released at the very end of the calendar year (and even then, sometimes not at any movie house in the Twin Cities), I did not get to see them until mid-to-late winter. The choice of using a calendar year for my Recaps, therefore, is not totally ideal. Maybe using a twelve month period starting March 1 would be better. But, being the linear guy that I am, using a calendar year is more appealing to me, so that's what I'm going with.