[Orangemaid]

I have purchased lots of films from Amazon and i give reveiws of them..I forgot what i wrote and look back and laugh at them

[Spider Rico]

I have never written a review of anything on Amazon, and sometimes feel a bit guilty as reading others' reviews is often quite a big factor in my buying decisions

[Tremse]

Its often the way - films we thought were amazing when we first saw them don't always stand the test of time. I always rate the films I've seen on IMDb and sometimes come across them years later and wonder why I gave it such a high rating.

[intruder2k]

I hate those emails from Amazon. 'Why not take time to review your purchase...' er yes, I will if you're going to pay me to do so. No? Then stuff it, I'm not working for you for free!

I do, however, voluntarily review films on imdb.com, with it being the best movie site on the Internet and all.

[Smerph]

You don't buy "Films" on Amazon, you buy "DVDs" or "Blu-rays".

You shouldn't be reviewing the film, you should be reviewing the disc. Plenty of brilliant films have horrendous discs, so a review that doesn't reflect that is worthless.

Fed up of Amazon reviews. Hardly anyone reviews the product, they're all tied up reviewing products they don't own or reviewing the delivery method.

[-GONZO-]

Amazon really annoy me with their Blu Ray/DVD reviews, why do they feel the need to bundle the all reviews for the same film name together.
No matter if its the DVD,Blu Ray,Extended Editions,Special Editions,Deluxe Editions,re-releases etc, you'll find all the reviews all mixed up together under each of the separate products.
If I look at a review for a certain disc then that's all I want to see, and not for any other edition there maybe.

[Davonator]

Originally Posted by Smerph

You don't buy "Films" on Amazon, you buy "DVDs" or "Blu-rays".

You shouldn't be reviewing the film, you should be reviewing the disc. Plenty of brilliant films have horrendous discs, so a review that doesn't reflect that is worthless.

100% agree with you.

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by Smerph

You don't buy "Films" on Amazon, you buy "DVDs" or "Blu-rays".

You shouldn't be reviewing the film, you should be reviewing the disc. Plenty of brilliant films have horrendous discs, so a review that doesn't reflect that is worthless.

Fed up of Amazon reviews. Hardly anyone reviews the product, they're all tied up reviewing products they don't own or reviewing the delivery method.

Yeah, but you're buying DVD's and Blu Rays of 'films'. If everyone went by your criteria, music and film magazines would be full of reviews describing the packaging ("The CD arrived in a see-thru jewel case, quite sturdy, and well put together. There is also a paper inlay crediting the people involved with the writing / playing / recording of the music on the disc") Dull.

I get that if its a particularly bad transfer or there's an issue with playing the disc, these problems should be mentioned, but getting wound up about people reviewing a film for the benefit of other people who may be considering to buy the film strikes me as maybe having too much time on your hands.

[MrGiles2]

I write a lot of reviews on Amazon; not just DVDs and blu-rays but also music CDS and some books. I have written almost 400 so far during the past ten years.

It is something I really enjoy doing.

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

Yeah, but you're buying DVD's and Blu Rays of 'films'. If everyone went by your criteria, music and film magazines would be full of reviews describing the packaging ("The CD arrived in a see-thru jewel case, quite sturdy, and well put together. There is also a paper inlay crediting the people involved with the writing / playing / recording of the music on the disc") Dull.

I must remember next time I review a book to focus on the weight of the paper and the leading of the print, rather than irrelevant trivia like the quality of the writing or the originality of the plot.

[Lathamite]

If you want to write movie reviews, go to IMDB. If you want to use Amazon, review the "product".

It's bad enough when Amazon use the same reviews for DVD as they do for BDs, without users having to compound the error by reviewing the movie and not the disc.

When I buy a movie, it's very rarely a blind-buy, so I just really want to know if the transfer is good, if it's worth getting the BD as opposed to the DVD...etc...

I don't, however, need a bunch of opinions on the movie from someone called "dweeb-boy45". There are plenty of critical opinions out there for most films, and if I need a more general response, I'll check IMDB.

Oh, and comparing the reviewing of books to DVDs? Pointlessly facetious.

[jzee]

Originally Posted by -GONZO-

Amazon really annoy me with their Blu Ray/DVD reviews, why do they feel the need to bundle the all reviews for the same film name together.
No matter if its the DVD,Blu Ray,Extended Editions,Special Editions,Deluxe Editions,re-releases etc, you'll find all the reviews all mixed up together under each of the separate products.
If I look at a review for a certain disc then that's all I want to see, and not for any other edition there maybe.

That is annoying, they do it for CDs as well, particularly reviews of album sets which they then attach to completely different ones.

[afx237vi]

Originally Posted by Lathamite

Oh, and comparing the reviewing of books to DVDs? Pointlessly facetious.

Well, not really. There are just as many different formats / editions for books as there are for DVDs and Blurays. Why would a book collector be any less interested in the quality and condition of a book than a movie collector would be for a film?

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by Lathamite

Oh, and comparing the reviewing of books to DVDs? Pointlessly facetious.

No, it was pointedly facetious. Every other entertainment category Amazon sells, people review the content. It's obviously helpful for some reviews to address any quality issues but the plot, acting, direction etc are just as important when deciding whether to buy a DVD.

[Lathamite]

I don't think I've ever read a book review and felt that it was lacking in elaboration about the font or the paper quality. Why? Because the standards in print quality are a given for pretty much every major publisher. However, the quality control of DVDs and BDs are nowhere near as stringent. If the font was unreadable or there were cuts to the text, then I'd expect them to be reflected in any decent book review, but it happens nowhere nearly as frequently as censored films with poor quality visuals appear on disc.

The fact of the matter is, they're not comparable mediums. Ignoring the point that the majority of the people who buy DVDs and BDs have seen the movie already while books are usually a blind-buy, there's the fact that's a lot more to the presentation of a film than there is to a book.

A book is the representation of a text...in text.
A disc is the representation of a film transferred to a digital media.

[grimtales1]

So what is the difference between a "product review" of a movie and a "movie review" of a product?
What about if people havent seen a movie and want to know if its worth buying? Some DVDs/BDs will be blind buys I'm sure. Most of my reviews on Amazon are about the films themselves (eg cinema reviews) but some are about the disc quality too.

[Lathamite]

Originally Posted by grimtales1

So what is the difference between a "product review" of a movie and a "movie review" of a product?

What would you consider to be a '"product review" of a movie'?

Originally Posted by grimtales1

What about if people havent seen a movie and want to know if its worth buying? Some DVDs/BDs will be blind buys I'm sure. Most of my reviews on Amazon are about the films themselves (eg cinema reviews) but some are about the disc quality too.

Then they're looking at the wrong site. IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes - they're FILM sites. Amazon is a shop which sells DVDs.

I wouldn't expect to see stuff about "special features" on IMDB and I don't expect to see a review on Amazon, that's just telling me that they liked the movie.

To clarify; I see nothing wrong with a review which includes a review of the film, but it has to more than that if it's serving as a product review of a disc.

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by Lathamite

Then they're looking at the wrong site. IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes - they're FILM sites. Amazon is a shop which sells DVDs.

And one of its major selling points is that customers can submit reviews. Which they do, and in the case of entertainment products those reviews are mostly concerned with the content not the manufacturing standards. Take CDs, for example: people will occasionally comment on the sound quality but most of the time they review the music. That's how Amazon works and it's one of the reasons Amazon has cornered the online music and film market - you don't need to look elsewhere for reviews.

[Lathamite]

Look at the reviews for Skyfall on Amazon.

107 5 Star Reviews
21 4 Star Reviews
22 3 Star Reviews
23 2 Star Reviews
24 1 Star Reviews

There is no differentiation between the DVD or BD here, despite the DVD having half the special features and poorer picture quality. Oh and THE PRODUCT HASN'T BEEN RELEASED YET on either format.

Why are Amazon accepting reviews when no one owns this? Why are they mixing DVDs and BD reviews when they're different products and have different prices?

And 1 star? Fair play if you dislike the movie but if you're rating it 1 star it's just as a reaction to the good reviews.

The whole thing is complete nonsense. Do I care what any of these morons think about this movie? No. I don't care what someone giving an unreleased product 1 star thinks so I don't care what Mr 5 Star thinks either. I've seen the movie that's why I'm spending money on it. And if I hadn't seen the movie, that bizarre split of views really won't tell me a single thing.

[Lathamite]

Originally Posted by Inkblot

And one of its major selling points is that customers can submit reviews. Which they do, and in the case of entertainment products those reviews are mostly concerned with the content not the manufacturing standards. Take CDs, for example: people will occasionally comment on the sound quality but most of the time they review the music. That's how Amazon works and it's one of the reasons Amazon has cornered the online music and film market - you don't need to look elsewhere for reviews.

As with the book analogy, there's much more to film transfers than other mediums. There's also the nice feature that it's quite hard to listen to an album if you haven't bought the CD, so we don't get these stupid premature reviews..

[theonlyweeman]

I think reviews should cover both the film and the product, but I don't think anyone should get bitchy if someone else's review is of the film instead of the product.

Also, if you write something that goes against general consensus you tend to get mauled in the comments, so I don't do reviews anymore...

[rfonzo]

I have never written any reviews but I do read them as I do for books when I am considering making a purchase.

[natstally]

I do think it's OK to review the film itself to some extent but I would also want the info on the quality of extras, the box set layouts, picture quality etc to be included. I agree that Amazon need to organise the reviews correctly for different editions of the same films too, the DVD/CD/Bluray/box set is the thing you are reviewing/buying and the details differ a lot between versions, often it's the reviews that go into detail about things included with a release that the Amazon product info does not explain fully.

[grimtales1]

Agree, its annoying when Amazon seem to lump multiple DVD/BD releases of the same film together. What is also annoying me (and makes me laugh) are the idiots who do stuff like give Prof. Layton on 3DS 1 star because theyre stupid enough to not know/realise it wont work on the original DS

[MissCulture]

Personally I think there only needs to be, in the case of a film for example, maybe ten reviews at the most...who on earth needs to read 107 differing opinions of the plot of a film? why the need for 50 reviews let alone 107?
I looked at some reviews for some books I was interested in buying before xmas but some of the reviews had degenerated into long threads of insults and attacks on the original reviewer...amazon reviews has turned into a chat room in many respects. I think some of the reviewers on amazon are akin to those on Tripadvisor who feel the need to compulsively 'review' every place they visit when they step out the door these days - the words 'power trip' comes to mind:rolleyes

Just as an after-thought on reviews: my sister thought she would sell three antique dolls on ebay that she had inherited from her mother-in-law's estate (not those rubbish ones made from kits that women like to put together and sell on for a small fortune) - she was shocked at what crawled out of the woodwork with regards to buyers who demanded discounts and paid postage under threat of a rubbish review. She took the ad down and went to a dealer instead.