Product or Movie reviews, do you use them?

In the past the only way you could find out about a certain product was to get a Consumer Product Safety magazine and search for a report, maybe and maybe they had a review.

Now days it seems you can do a search on just about any product and find what real people are saying about a product. Most on line stores have the reviews on the website. I really like going through them and they carry a considerable amount of weight on my decision making process. There can be 10 good reviews and one or two bad reviews and usually that's all it takes for me to search for another brand of what ever it is I want to purchase.

The movie reviews on Netflix is no exception, they do help a lot. But, we watched a movie a few nights ago that had a ton of 4 & 5 star ratings and just one or two 1 stars. So I rented it, I should have gone what the one star ratings said. It was a very boring and dumb movie.

To me this is one of the most helpful things about the internet. It's not foolproof, of course; but it certainly has helped me when looking for consumer items. If there are several reviews which refer to the same problem(s), that seems to be a good indicator. One has to take into account sometimes the possibility that the only reviewers for a given item are the ones who are having problems. I tend also to ignore the reviews in which the consumer has had the product only for a short time.

As far as movies are concerned, I have no experience; I virtually never watch them. It would seem to me that a movie review would be vastly more subjective than a review of a product.

Andy

Product reviews on Amazon and Newegg are my "go-to's" when I'm looking at something, depending on what it is. While not Gospel, it at least gives me some things to think about.

Just have to be watchful for the reviews for which people get something in return. I bought a cover for my iPad and later got an e-mail from the vendor that offered a $40 stylus in return for a favorable review on Amazon. And yes, I said it was a good product (because it was) and I got a nice ($40 must have been full retail price, certainly not something I would have paid $40 for) stylus for the iPad for free.

I have started useing them lately. I bought my quad with the reviews. Also bought some gym equipment due to reviews. Far as movies go, look at this review. Its about my favorite movie and it was filmed over 50 + years ago. You probley never heard of the movie.
Home From The Hill. Theatrical Trailer - YouTube

Product reviews, yes Movies, no. As a matter of fact we have a joke in the house about the more Oscar nominations and Reviewers praise a movie has, the father we stay away from it.

i always read the movie reviews in playboy magazine. if they like it, i doubt if i will and if they hate it, i go to see what they didn't like. amazing how well the system works.

you can ask anyone on the street about an product and get 10 good and two bad ratings or vise-versa.
we do us rating as a guideline on products, but never as gospel.
my wife used to think that if her dad would buy it, it was good enough for us... i had to put a stop to that after two new washers...
the only rating we trust to be good ones about movies are our own...

feralmerril said:

I have started useing them lately. I bought my quad with the reviews. Also bought some gym equipment due to reviews. Far as movies go, look at this review. Its about my favorite movie and it was filmed over 50 + years ago. You probley never heard of the movie.
Home From The Hill. Theatrical Trailer - YouTube

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No, never heard of it but will rent it. Thanks.

Consumer reviews yes. Professional reviews no. Never know who's getting their palm greased by whom.

perrazi said:

i always read the movie reviews in playboy magazine. if they like it, i doubt if i will and if they hate it, i go to see what they didn't like. amazing how well the system works.

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As with the articles and interviews, "Playboy" publishes from a liberal viewpoint. Some of their reviews, etc. are valid from that aspect, but I basically concur: most of the films that attract liberal, left-leaning raves are suspect from my viewpoint. Not all, but probably most. I do find their interviews with actors, including Robert Redford, to be revealing.

BTW, read the 20Q feature this month, in which Meaghan McCain says she likes Remington shotguns for skeet. Her brother is trying to get her to buy a handgun, too. This is Sen. John McCain's daughter, BTW.

Overall, I do read reviews, but some on YouTube and Amazon.com, in which the reviewer says they've just gotten the item carry less weight than if seen in, "Consumer Reports", or even in gun magazines. I read berween the lines in gun reviews and choose the reviewer carefully. Knife mags now also serve the advertiser as much or more than the reader. Proceed with care. I quit writing for one magazine because I didn't want to suck up to an advertiser and infer that his products deserved more plugging than I felt was merited. On the other hand, I'm quite happy to promote Fallkniven, Victorinox, the older Buck styles, and a few other brands.

I like Ghiradelli chocolates and Canada Dry and Schwepps ginger ale and Twining's teas, and wish I could get an arrangement to praise them in print, especially if I got samples. And Zeiss and Leica binocuars deserve every good thing I've ever printed about them. The only mildly critical reviews I ever see about them are seemingly the result of a few reviewers angry that they can't afford them. I can think of one optics writer in particular who used to infer that Japanese goods were better buys. I think he was just jealous that he couldn't buy them.

I do view movie trailers and try to guess at the content and read several reviews. Who's in the cast matters, too. Some films I skip just because no one I want to see is in the movie. I usually avoid anything with Nicolas Cage in it, or any actress praised and admired by the feminist women on TV talk shows.

But I certainly read and digest reviews, filtered through a critical cloth that sorts out how valid I think the review is.

In wines, Hugh Johnson's annual pocket review books seemed very valid and up-to-date. His major basic works also impressed me. My son will probably inherit my volumes.

What I detest is the "reviewers" on YouTube who obviously know next to nothing about knives they're examining. They can sometimes provide good film of a product, but if they can't even pronounce the manufacturer's name and don't know the steel and its hardness, I don't pay much attention. Just uttering nonsense while turning the knife around in front of a camera doesn't tell us much.

Wow, that was quite the reply there. What gun mag did you write for?

"In wines, Hugh Johnson's annual pocket review books seemed very valid and up-to-date. His major basic works also impressed me."

I will have to check this out. Is there a website for him?

I check the 'net for info. But I go with people I trust.
For cars it's my brother and friends.
For guns, I ask pff.
For movies, I read what is said here in the Lounge. 9 times out of 10 if one of you folks like it, so will I.

JOERM said:

Wow, that was quite the reply there. What gun mag did you write for?

"In wines, Hugh Johnson's annual pocket review books seemed very valid and up-to-date. His major basic works also impressed me."

I will have to check this out. Is there a website for him?

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Joerm-

I haven't time to look now, but Johnson may have a site. You can cerrtainly find sites for major wineries and some Wikipedia articles on famous wines or growing regions.

Barnes & Noble has a good wine section, with both pocket guides and major books.

My material has appeared in such titles as, "Guns", "American Handgunner", the various promotional titles once published by Aqua-Field for Colt, etc., and in most knife titles, including the big annual from the same publisher as, "Gun Digest." I have been on two mastheads for many years, but better not name them, lest someone guess my name. I don't mention it on boards, as I sometimes post things that might upset certain editors and advertisers.

I've published on wine and coffee in a major city newspaper. Was going to offer them a story on tea, but got to probing Twining's site and realized that if you click the right buttons, it will tell you most of what I spent years learning. www.twinings.com

I mainly look for negative reviews; evaluate the reasons for the negative, and go from there. I value other opinions as long as they are clear in the issue and not just a general rant or "I feel they did me wrong."

I'm a big fan of Rotten Tomatoes. Lots of different ways to use the site and most films have several reviews and reviewers. It may take a bit to ID the reviewers that best match your tastes. It helps to read reviews after you've seen a movie or reviews of movies you've liked.

There is a new Internet Service that advertises itself as a reputation defender. If your site and/or product gets bad reviews from real consumers, they will counter with enough good reviews from their ghost "consumers" to swing the meter back. For a fee, of course.

Smoke and mirrors.

Forums are your best bet. If I am interested in a musical instrument, you can bet there are a group of people who have a forum about it. Coffee makers? A coffee forum. Same for tea. Same for guns - if I were to want a particular brand, I'm quite certain I could read enough reviews of a model to get a good idea of it's rating among the people who use it the most.

When I was in Catholic preparatory seminary in the early '70s, I used to read the Legion of Decency list of movies I shouldn't go see, then go see the one's that looked interesting. That worked especially well with "The Streetfighter" with Sonny Chiba, my favorite martial arts film of all time.

Regarding other things, I rely heavily on reviews of computer hardware and software and firearms.

I recently bought a Canon CanonScan 5600F scanner. I needed to be able to scan moderate quantities of negatives and slides, as well as single pages and bound material. I did a lot of research online. I read a lot of reviews and have been very happy with the purchase.

I've used a lot of information from this forum and others regarding firearms purchases. I bought a 3" Model 65 specifically because of recommendations here. I would have preferred a Model 13, but had to settle for a 65, on which I got a good deal from CDNN, whom I also researched from reviews.