It seems that many reviewers grade genre movies on a different scale than so-called serious movies. In the case of the recent Kidnap with Halle Berry which is clearly an old school b-movie thriller, many reviews included comments such as "non-stop thrills, kept me on the edge of my seat" then concluded with a "C" grade. Same thing goes for comedies, romances (and perhaps horror films too, though I'm no expert in that genre). My own grades reflect how good the movie is as a movie experience on the day I watch it - I don't consider genre movies second class citizens. Justice for all!

ok

It depends on the perspective.


Well that just defines for me it's not good. Old school and thriller don't lift up up the vein of the film.


And that's of course nonsensical and those people shouldn't be respected as a critic.

Why should "non-stop thrills" and keeping people on the edge of their seat mean an "A"?

In this day and age, I understand if people want more. The thrills are good, but you can still feel like the film lacks intelligence or has a bad ending or simply has a bad element that drags it down (such as the acting). It wholly depends what the critic expected when going in to the film. And I do not subscribe to the notion that critics should write to represent us all. They write based on what they personally find good and bad.

Yeah, that last sentence is what it should be, diversity among critics.

If one ever uses superlatives to describe a film, it's final grade could still be up in the air, but then to assign an average grade doesn't make sense. A review is usually more than just one sentence, but in a vacuum, "I was entertained for the whole film" constitutes at least a B+.

Find me a review that says that and awards such a grade and I will be as annoyed as Bradley is.

Genre bias is a tale as old as time. See any post I've made in the oscar forum in the last ten years.

Genre bias, gender bias .... or in other words, preference.

American Assassin is another example of genre (in this case, 'spy thriller') bias.

Bradley, you have shit movie bias.