Do Critics Have an Incentive to Write Negative Reviews?

well i can paraphrase; It's the only movie that ever made me cry.
He said that about Do The Right Thing.
(in a good way, because he was so moved).

4.4 for North

No I don't think so. It's fun to see train wrecks, a movie that's so bad it's good. But I think people just want to have their values reinforced, in either direction. There's actually a lot of pressure on critics to make sure that politically correct movies get politically correct ratings. If a critic gives a bad rating to a black movie for example, he can be accused of racism. So he better play it safe.

In fact one of the major trends is rating inflation. On IMDb, I think the average vote across all movies is something like 6.9/10, not 5/10. I don't think it was ever in the 5s, but it was in the low 6s and it keeps going up like an arms race. There's not as much competition for last place.

Politics resembles this pattern too. Politicians have to propose legislation. You can't just be against something all the time like Ron Paul unless you are Ron Paul. It's not normally how you make a name for yourself.

Are you kidding? He gave Booty Call a good review.

One incentive: Legitimacy in the minds of the readership.