Having watched "The App That Stole Christmas" (Not recommended BTW) - I headed over to IMDB to see what others thought of it.

There were quite a few reviews giving 9 or 10 stars (which is a red flag to begin with), but then the actual reviews themselves sounded very similar, usually 1 line.
Clicking on the accounts that posted the reviews, they were all created in Dec 2020 and all have left only 1 review (well, a few had actually left 2 reviews... but the second reviews were all for the same movie as well)

These are obviously fake reviews from the creators (One of them didn't actually try to hide and used their real name as the username)

I rely on IMDB and other review sites when picking what to watch since time is limited, so how big of a problem are fake reviews on IMDB?
especially when it comes to the smaller indie flicks that will have few reviews (I assume blockbuster releases will have so many real reviews that it will negate the fake ones)

Does IMDB even try to overcome this problem in any way?

Quoted from Matthew Taylor Having watched "The App That Stole Christmas" (Not recommended BTW) - I headed over to IMDB to see what others thought of it. There were quite a few reviews giving 9 or 10 stars (which is a red flag to begin with), but then the actual reviews themselves sounded very similar, usually 1 line. Clicking on the accounts that posted the reviews, they were all created in Dec 2020 and all have left only 1 review (well, a few had actually left 2 reviews... but the second reviews were all for the same movie as well) These are obviously fake reviews from the creators (One of them didn't actually try to hide and used their real name as the username) I rely on IMDB and other review sites when picking what to watch since time is limited, so how big of a problem are fake reviews on IMDB? especially when it comes to the smaller indie flicks that will have few reviews (I assume blockbuster releases will have so many real reviews that it will negate the fake ones) Does IMDB even try to overcome this problem in any way?

This happens with every film released. Obviously, the cast and crew are going to give it 10 out of 10. Maybe even friends and friends of friends in some cases. Inevitably though, the truth will out, and as real people watch it the rating will drop.

You would hope the truth will out, but when it's a little known flick with 100 reviews with a lot of fake mixed it... seems a bit pathetic to me, just one of those things I have to put with I guess

Has anyone here been duped into watching complete trash because of fake reviews propping up the ratings?

Isn't that the same with everything? I don't buy a book that has 4-5 stars and less than 100 reviews. IMO, those reviews are most likely from friends and family trying to help the writer out. I would assume it's like that for every product or service as well.

This may be odd on my part, but I tend to look at the one star reviews first.  I find them more useful to me to know what people didn't like about a film/product.

- Don

Quoted from Don This may be odd on my part, but I tend to look at the one star reviews first.  I find them more useful to me to know what people didn't like about a film/product. - Don

I always do that with products, never done it with films... When I go on IMDB I tend to just look at the overall star rating, then maybe the first few top reviews.

It's good for products though, because a lot of the time they give it a 1 star for pathetic reasons or like the other day I went to buy something, overall rating 4/5, but I checked the 1 stars and every single one of them said the product set on fire... with that kind of consistency I didn't buy it.

Quoted from Grandma Bear Isn't that the same with everything? I don't buy a book that has 4-5 stars and less than 100 reviews. IMO, those reviews are most likely from friends and family trying to help the writer out. I would assume it's like that for every product or service as well.

Yea I guess so, I think I'm too honest for my own good and don't want to settle for this sort of thing happening because it's now the norm.

Ha! I take the same approach as Don. Dunno if it's a negativity bias thing or something, but I never trust myself when I'm keen on something and I suspect I'm just looking for something to tell me what I want to hear rather than what I probably should hear. For example had I listened to my friends years ago when they told me not to hook up with my Mrs, I'd still be living the life of Riley in Thailand, but I didn't want to listen and now I'm stuck in Blighty with three kids.

It is really annoying seeing so many dodgy or stupid reviews though.

I tend to just look at the amount of IMDB votes there are to determine whether or not the rating is legit. I also take into account critic's reviews on both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes usually matches the IMDB score pretty well.

I'm old enough to remember when Netflix had viewer ratings but they had to get rid of them because most films were 3 stars or less. I guess now they're doing the thumbs up/down.

If you're bored and never seen it, Evil (2003) is a hidden gem & on Amazon Prime. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.88a9f718-3966-cc4a-3b0b-18eb01d5fcc7?autoplay=1&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb

I'm with Don and Max... more useful to know why some people hated it. There might be people out there who detest the things I like about movies (OMG, they told a story for two hours without one contemporary political references... the horror!).

For a product with few reviews, I find that the one-stars are obviously left by a competitor or someone on their payroll. Gee, the competing product has one unique feature (that I don't care about), and all of the people who NEED that feature just happen to leave reviews over here.

For low-to-no-budget films, fawning online reviews are probably part of the marketing plan... but some version of that is present in every rating system. New apps will launch with a very low price because customers are known to have lower expectations and thus give higher ratings. Once a critical mass for 4- and 5-star reviews appear, they bump it up to the price they wanted initially.


https://xkcd.com/1098/