One of the things that Netflix is doing is posting a million dollar reward for someone who can improve their recommendations system by 10 percent. Because of this contest, a lot of data has been disclosed (none of it personal, just aggregate) and patterns begin to emerge. One of the interesting data points about their rental movies is that the top five most frequently rated movies are: (links to movies go to Amazon)
- Miss Congeniality
- Independence Day
- The Patriot
- The Day After Tomorrow
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Having one contestant of the Netflix contest puzzle over Miss Congeniality's first place led to an investigative bit of SQL gynamnatics to arrive at the the following list of movies that people either really liked or really hated:
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- Lost in Translation
- Pearl Harbor
- Miss Congeniality
- Napoleon Dynamite
- Fahrenheit 9/11
- The Patriot
- The Day After Tomorrow
- Sister Act
- Armageddon
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1
- Independence Day
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Titanic
- Gone in 60 Seconds
- Twister
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
- Con Air
- The Fast and the Furious
- Dirty Dancing
- Troy
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- The Passion of the Christ
- How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
- Pretty Woman
Aside from a couple of these movies (The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation and Kill Bill: Vol. 1), I either haven't seen them or I have seen them and find them unwatchable for a second time. These are the movies that can erupt in heated debate of being good or bad. They are movies that are fluff (romantic comedies and action flicks) or movies that are offbeat to relate to (The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation, Napoleon Dynamite, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) or movies that cater to a specific target audience (Fahrenheit 9/11, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, The Passion of the Christ).
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