Best Picture: Rating Adjustments

Before I post my master list of reviews/scores, there are a few scores that I want to adjust.  I try to write each of my reviews immediately after seeing the movie, when my feelings/opinions are fresh on my mind. However, occasionally, a movie sticks with me. I’ll ruminate about it for days. In rare instances, I’ll decide that the score I originally gave didn’t, in the end, accurately reflect my feelings.

The first score I’m adjusting belongs to 1940’s All About Eve. In my original review, I talked about how annoyed I was at the self-congratulatory smugness of it. That annoyance strongly colored my feelings. As I thought more about it later, I realized that I had been too harsh. There are a lot of great things about this film, including the dialogue, the acting, and the character development. I’ve decided to bump its grade up a quarter of a star to 4 stars.

The second score I’m adjusting belongs to 1956’s Around the World in Eighty Days. I think that I was so surprised that this film didn’t suck more than it did that I was far too generous the first time around. When I think about which of these winners I’d watch again, my visceral reaction to this one is “yuck.” Therefore, I’m thinking it definitely didn’t deserve the original score I gave it. I’m downgrading it a full star to 2.5 stars.

The last score I’m adjusting belongs to 1996’s The English Patient. I still hate that this film expects me to see an adulterous affair as an epic, grand love story. However, after slogging through a couple of films afterward that completely lacked character development, I realized that that’s one thing that this film had going for it. I’m bumping it up half a star to 3.25 stars. 

I’ve added a footnote to each film’s review reflecting the score change. Each film will appear on my master list with the updated score.