Do You Care More About Critics Scores Or Audience Scores For Movies And Shows?

At this point, you’ve probably seen the large contrast between reviews from critics and audiences on Dave Chappelle’s new stand up special from Netflix, ‘Sticks & Stones’.

I personally found it funny, some didn’t and that’s fine. There was a lot of “online chatter” about it (I can’t wait for the ‘JOKER’ think pieces…) and now it has sort of just faded away as the internet moves on to the next thing to argue about (the ‘JOKER’ movie).

It does bring up a big question for me: as a viewer, do you look at the critic score or the audience score on sites like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic?

I will use Rotten Tomatoes as an example, since it is the most mainstream and popular movie rating site, but want to note off the top how ratings work on the website. Obviously people look to the percentages on Rotten Tomatoes first, which represent the percentage of critics who deem their review as “fresh” or “rotten.” So anything from low 70’s (7.0, C-) to 100 (10.0, A+) could still be considered fresh. This means a 100% rating for a movie could just be a few hundred critics all giving the movie an “average” rating. The “score” of each movie is out of 10 for critics and out of five stars for audiences…

Now that I have the nuts and bolts of Rotten Tomatoes out of the way, here are some of the more drastic differences between critics and audiences, along with if I side with the overall opinion of the critics or audiences on “fresh” versus “rotten”…

I have never understood this one, honestly. We did a “throwback review” of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate’ a few weeks back on Lights Camera Barstool and it got roasted by everyone, including our audience. It’s a weird, creepy re-telling of the book that the original classic movie was based on.
MY STANCE: I side with the audience

This isn’t a great example of the difference between audiences and critics, but there is enough of one where I must say that the critics are fucking morons. Comedy is subjective, yeah, I know, I say it all the time, but I will never understand how movie critics can find this movie to be “rotten.” Clowns!
MY STANCE: I side with the audience

Ah, ‘The Last Jedi’, one of the most controversial movie releases in the last 10 years, which is… absurd. I like ‘The Last Jedi’ so I have to side with the critics, but I completely understand the gripes with the movie. This is so drastic partly because of critics being scared to give it a bad rating (in my opinion) and trolls lowering the audience score. Still, the difference was always going to be there and it remains a solid example.
MY STANCE: I side with the critics

I have to side with the audience yet again, because ‘Grandma’s Boy’ is hilarious. One review says that “the sex, fart, and pot jokes come so fast and furious that a white flag seems the most appropriate response.” Just because they come fast doesn’t mean they aren’t funny! Is it a dumb movie? Sure. But it is funny and knew what it is was and deserved some more respect.
MY STANCE: I side with the audience

‘Spy Kids’ is by no means a masterpiece, but for its intentions, I thought it was pretty solid, especially when I saw it as a kid.
MY STANCE: I side with the critics

This one makes the most sense on this list, honestly. ‘Space Jam’ is awesome for what it is, but not exactly a world-beating Oscar winner. Skepticism from many but still a designation of “fresh” is right on the nose for me with this movie.
MY STANCE: I side with the audience

I enjoy ‘Boondock Saints’, but I can’t really agree with a drastic fresh or drastic rotten opinion of the movie. It’s a fun, just okay movie, nothing more and nothing less.
MY STANCE: I side with… neither?

In my humble opinion, ‘Death Wish’ is a bad, bad movie.
MY STANCE: I side with the critics

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I tend to side with the audience a little more than the critics it would appear.

A big thing when it comes to who to trust on movie reviews is how much stock you put into the importance of “professional” opinions. I am of the belief that when it comes to giving out movie “opinions,” there really can’t be an expert. You can be an expert at breaking down the details and technical aspects of movies, but I value everyone’s movie opinion to varying degrees, whether or not they consider themselves a “professional.” (If I didn’t, we wouldn’t have started Lights Camera Barstool).

So who do you trust? When you head to Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, which score do you look at first?