Our New Movie Grading Scale

We try to stick to a basic policy here at the Pop & Culture headquarters:

While we always want to go as in-depth and exploratory as we can with our entertainment insights, our ultimate goal is to keep them as digestible and practical as possible.

So in keeping that policy in mind, I'd like to officially unveil a new grading scale that Gray and I have developed on our weekly radio broadcast to help recommend movies to you and to help you recommend movies to your friends.

Let's face it, with money so tight these days, you can't run out to the theater every Friday night for just any new release.

You gotta make it count.

And when you compare the modern theater experience (high ticket prices, high concession prices, talkative moviegoers, cell phones ringing, and babies crying) to the modern home viewing experience (new and improved high definition television sets, blue-ray technology, and do-it yourself surround sound), the movie theater is not as necessary as it once was.

Don't get me wrong, NOTHING will ever take the place of a date night or going out with your friends on a Friday night to see a highly anticipated new release at the local cinema but that's why we created this new scale - to help you figure out which films are must sees during their theater run and which ones you can wait to view in the comforts of your own home.

I will introduce the five category scale today that will be complete with an abbreviation code that we will use from here on out in the "Movies Opening This Week" section on the bar to the right. On Fridays, I will try to post a quick write-up of each new release and it's place on our scale.

Without further adieu, here are the categories in our official Pop & Culture movie grading scale:

1. OPENING NIGHT (ON) - These are the big comedies ("Step Brothers") or the really big, highly anticipated films ("The Dark Night") that you just HAVE to see the night it opens. Opening Night brings the most loyal crowd out and you get the best theater atmosphere and experience. The laughs are bigger and the emotional responses from the audience are greater on Opening Night. The difference between seeing a big comedy on its first Friday night and three weeks later on a Tuesday afternoon is immeasurable.

2. THEATER RUN (TR) - Say you somehow missed an "Indiana Jones" the first weekend or just kept hearing good things about a "Mamma Mia". It's OK that you missed it on Opening Night because of the Theater Run category. These are the movies that you should definitely see in the theater but you don't necessarily have to break your neck to get to on Opening Night. No matter how nice your home theater is, there are certain epics you have to see on the big screen and there are sometimes those really critically acclaimed films ("Burn After Reading") that you have to see before everyone else does so that you will sound cool when you talk about it at parties.

3. BARGAIN THEATER (BT) - Most towns have some sort of bargain or dollar theater. Here in Hampton Roads, we have the Cinema Cafe (movies are really cheap but you actually sit at a table and can order drinks and food). Since I have the attention span of a sitcom, I usually save really LONG movies (those three hour epics) for the Bargain Theater along with those movies that get mixed reviews. For example, I would have been irate if I had spent $19 for me and my Girlfriend to see "Drillbit Taylor", but for five dollars (for both of us) and an inexpensive, good meal at the Cinema Cafe, it was a great night out.

4. VIDEO STORE RENTAL (VR) - Because of Redbox (the next category) this one is going to be the toughest for any movie to land in. If it wasn't good enough to see in the theater, most people will just opt for Redbox. But for nerds like me there's a DVD that comes out every now and then that's just so jam-packed with bonus features or extra discs that it makes the four dollar rental worth it. At this point, video stores are really only effective for older titles and that won't factor into our new release scale.

5. REDBOX (RB) - Back in the spring, Jesse wrote a column about how Redbox should be added as the next official Wonder of the World, and it really has been an amazing addition to my life. For just a dollar a night, you can get most any new release and keep it for as long as you're willing to pay for it. Just last week, I had a free afternoon to myself and picked up Mike Myers' bomb from the summer, "The Love Guru" and actually kind of enjoyed it BECAUSE I hadn't really wasted any of my real time, I hadn't wasted anyone else's time, and I only paid a dollar (speaking of that movie, if it had been made in 1995, it would be one of our all-time favorites. It only came out a decade and a half too late).

So there you go!

We can only hope this will help your movie-going decision process in the coming months. Let us know if you have any additions or complaints with the grading scale in the comment section below; but I gotta tell you, we're pretty proud of it so far.

- Josh Mahler

PS. HAPPY "OFFICE" RETURNS DAY!!!