I am looking for a web site that allows me to identify mainstream
movie critics that like the same movies that I like (and dislike the
same movies I dislike).  At that site, one should be able to enter a
list of their favorite (and all time worst) movies, and get back a
list of mainstream movie critics whose ranked those movies in a
similar way.  Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 27 Dec 2005 20:47 PST

The kind of site you've described sounds fascinating, but I've never
come across anything like this. I don't mean to sound rude, but I am
curious: do you have reason to believe that such a site exists, or are
you just hoping?

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Clarification of Question by billbauer-ga on 27 Dec 2005 21:57 PST

I am surprised it Doesn't exist.  

http://movies.yahoo.com allows one to rate movies and offer
recommendations based on this info [click "my movies" and "my
recommendations"]  Under "my recommendations" they give "Movie Fans
Like You" section.  They are not doing this for mainstream movie
critics, however.

There are many algorithms out there that allow one to find two
"points" [in this case, one point would be the consumer, and the other
point would come from a set of movie critics] that lie closest
together in a multidimensional space.  The simplest thing would be the
following:  assume that whenever a critic gives a negative review to a
movie on the consumer's "best movies" list, OR when a critic gives a
good review to a movie on the consumer's "worst movies" list, it is
called "an error".  Then we can count the number of "errors" made by
each critic, and report [to the consumer] critics with the lowest
number of errors.

I am not researching a business opportunity, I would simply like to
find a movie critic I can trust.

I'm not sure your suggestion is feasible, simply because not all
critics would have lists ranking films they liked/disliked - most good
critics try to provide intelligent all-round comment, not just snap
loved it/hated it judgements. In any case, even if they had some
favourite movies, they would possibly be classics - like Citizen Kane,
Casablanca and Singing in the Rain - and might have little relevance
to their opinions on new movies. (And their least favourites would
probably be real stinkers that most people wouldn't dream of seeing -
remember critics have to see almost every film.) Finally, whoever
writes a film review, and whether its favourable or unfavourable, it's
usually easy to tell whether it's a film you would want to see
yourself.

> I'm not sure your suggestion is feasible, simply because not all
> critics would have lists ranking films they liked/disliked - most good
> critics try to provide intelligent all-round comment

And this is why I am interested in identifying Critics with similar
tastes as opposed to other movies.yahoo.com users with similar tastes
[I would be able to read critics' analysis].

> most good critics try to provide intelligent all-round comment, not 
> just snap loved it/hated it judgements.

Sites like metacritic.com, rottentomatoes.com and movies.yahoo.com
convert the reviews to a rating on a scale from 1 to 10.  Perhaps I
should change "all time favorite movies" in my question above to
"movies I liked" and "favorable review"...

> Finally, whoever writes a film review, and whether its favourable or 
> unfavourable, it's usually easy to tell whether it's a film you 
> would want to see

Unfortunately, that has not been my experience...  I would simply like
to find a critic I can trust.
yourself.

If you would settle for reviews by people who like the same kind of
movies you like (rather than "professional" critics), then members of
netflix get what you are looking for in a very real sense.

In netflix you rate movies you've seen and netflix, based on reviews
of people who feel the same way about those, recommends other movies
for you.

Not exactly what you asked about but pretty close for practical
purposes of deciding what movies to watch.

Thank you, siliconsamurai!

Your Movie Database allows you to create a list of movies, and look at
other people's lists. If you have a certain favorite movie, it's easy
to find others who also like that movie. Fun site.

http://www.ymdb.com

Thanks, pinkfreud!  I also liked the feature of seeing the affinities
lists of people on YOUR affinities list.

Looks like no site is doing the "mainstream movie critic" affinities list...

Have you checked the Movie Review Query Engine? This site lists almost
all available online reviews of any film, and includes ratings if
available (A- or 3/4, for example). It seems to me that, if you're
simply looking for a critic whose taste approximates your own (and how
often can you find anybody who agrees with you about almost everything
in any topic area?), your best bet would be to start with a film you
like and find critics who also rated it highly, then take a look at
their other reviews. This might give you a place to start. Here's the
list of reviews for "Crash," as an example:

http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Crash+(2004)

If, on the other hand, you're interested in creating such a service,
good luck! Film critics, like most writers, are going to be
notoriously uncooperative with anything which might reduce their
opinions to an algorithm. ;-)

Here's an interesting site that lets you find other people whose taste
in movies is similar to your own:

http://www.everyonesacritic.net/home.html

Thank you for everyone's comments!  I truly appreciate it.  This was very helpful!