The David Spade Index

July 30, 2016 11:44 AM

Which Actors Are Hated by Critics but Loved by Fans? Not a listicle.
posted by ogooglebar (32 comments total)

So where's Nic Cage?
posted by I-baLL at 12:01 PM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

And Burt Reynolds?
posted by jonmc at 12:04 PM on July 30, 2016

It's so weird that 'word of mouth' and 'fans disagreeing with critics' didn't exist before the internet. Those must have been dark days.
posted by bongo_x at 12:12 PM on July 30, 2016 [8 favorites]

Huh. I'd've though Seth Rogen's chart would lean the other way.

(I must confess that I do like David Spade's '90s output quite a lot. He should stick to those ascerbic assistant roles.)
posted by Sys Rq at 12:14 PM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is based on a pretty flawed premise: that either audiences or critics like or dislike a movie based solely on one of the actors in it. For example, it's possible audiences despise David Spade too but happen to like movies he's in for other reasons. I'm not sure how you'd control for this: maybe just movies where a particular actor is the lead? But then audiences and critics may be responding to the direction, writing, action, effects, cinematography, etc.
posted by Sangermaine at 12:16 PM on July 30, 2016 [8 favorites]

Sure, for individual movies, but isn't that mitigated somewhat by using an overview of the actor's whole oeuvre?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:21 PM on July 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's so weird that 'word of mouth' and 'fans disagreeing with critics' didn't exist before the internet. Those must have been dark days.

I can't really judge the sarcasm here, but surely they existed before. The interesting thing is that today we can measure both of them in a more interesting way than the divorce between ticket sales and critics ratings.

Also I love Tommy Boy and could watch it about 1000 more times.
posted by dis_integration at 12:24 PM on July 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

The David Spade Index

Worst episode of Big Bang Theory ever!!
posted by Fizz at 12:34 PM on July 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

Critics appear to be easily swayed by actors who use three names.
posted by googly at 12:35 PM on July 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think David Spade is an extremely funny person who is a bit of a professional square peg. He confounds things by being essentially a bitchy cis-male, for which no typecast exists outside of queer art (and I imagine if he played gay there exists a more-specific term for his style/persona). For what it is, I think Joe Dirt is touching and one of the better SNL setup-crisis-resolution movies, definitely toward the top of the Happy Madison oevure. Probably also the last time Dennis Miller was relevant, too.

However, these charts are highly interesting in that most movies by audience-favorite actors with close audience/critic ratings is a movie I haven't seen. My Netflix queue is seriously too long to add many of them to my futurewatch list, but I really kind of want to check them out.

• The Emperor's New Groove
• Nim's Island
• The Nines
• Turbo
• 50/50
• The Night Before
• Where Eagles Dare
• A Perfect World
• End of Watch

posted by rhizome at 12:37 PM on July 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

So where's Nic Cage?

The Academy Award winner? My impression is that he is well respected by critics for his best work despite his willingness to take absolutely any role offered him. Ghost Rider is also Bad Lieutenant.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:39 PM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow: "Ghost Rider is also Bad Lieutenant."

I assume you are assuming there is a consensus about which one of these two films is the better one.
posted by chavenet at 12:45 PM on July 30, 2016 [8 favorites]

The full list of the 117 actors analyzed gives Nicholas Cage an audience score of 52.5 and a critic score of 48.5.
posted by ogooglebar at 12:46 PM on July 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

The Nines is good.
posted by Yowser at 1:17 PM on July 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd guess that the big divide with some of the "fan favorites"--Adam Sandler and David Spade, anyway--is that audiences are not actually required to see movies they're not interested in, and they're not the sort of thing you're going to watch accidentally. Both of those guys have been around long enough that people know pretty much what to expect, and even if they didn't, it's probably pretty clear what their movies are. People aren't going to watch them unless they like that sort of thing. (Unless, say, hypothetically, Netflix or something decided to start AUTOPLAYING their own garbage movies against their customers' will. But that would be unthinkable! It'd never happen!)

So those actors are probably favorites with their own fans, but that doesn't make them general purpose audience favorites.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:05 PM on July 30, 2016 [8 favorites]

How can anyone have a feeling as defined as "like" about Gerard Butler? He's basically shouting wrapped in muscle.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:21 PM on July 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

That's what the mute button is for.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:25 PM on July 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Adam Sandler, enough said. I'm with the critics. Although, looking at the "full" list, none of those names would probably convince me to go to see a film. (I mean, where do the likes of Thornton, Roth or Buscemi stand?)
posted by Laotic at 2:39 PM on July 30, 2016

This is a clever analysis. You could residualize out average director movie rating from both sets of ratings, probably screenwriter too. Maybe break it down by viewer gender somehow (a la this 538 analysis) and I'm sold.
posted by supercres at 3:16 PM on July 30, 2016

There was a Joe Dirt 2?

... must... see... trainwreck...
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:37 PM on July 30, 2016

There was a Joe Dirt 2?

... must... see... trainwreck...

It's on Crackle.
posted by concrete at 3:53 PM on July 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

This linked blog post specifically about over/underrated movies instead of actors is interesting for different reasons.

Some of the most "underrrated" I can understand. Tyler Perry and evangelical football movies pretty strongly self-select for people who, let's say, have different criteria for "good" than most critics and would like the movie basically no matter what, and selects against almost everyone else. I mean, I certainly haven't seen Facing the Giants in order to form an opinion on it, and I hope I never do.

But Empire Records? Super Troopers? Herzog they're not, but how is it possible that so many critics apparently couldn't find humor in the cat game or understand that there were teenagers in 1995?
posted by cmoj at 3:57 PM on July 30, 2016

However, these charts are highly interesting in that most movies by audience-favorite actors with close audience/critic ratings is a movie I haven't seen. My Netflix queue is seriously too long to add many of them to my futurewatch list, but I really kind of want to check them out.

-The Emperor's New Groove

Yes, just do it. Everything and everyone in this movie is amazing.
posted by Huck500 at 4:28 PM on July 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

I suspect Leslie Nielsen would score highly on this index.

Then again, critics seem to have started to warm up to "fun" movies.
posted by schmod at 4:58 PM on July 30, 2016

Where Eagles Dare

I doubt I would be typing this comment if it wasn't for this film. My parents saw it on their first date and loved it.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 6:51 AM on July 31, 2016

The degree to which IMDB is gamed by studios, movie creators, actors' publicists, and fan communities really puts a dent in the believability of this analysis.
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:11 AM on July 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Why are there so few women on this list?
posted by Monday at 10:11 AM on July 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

I remember Empire Records being loathed by critics at the time, which was an era as dominated by teen movies as this one is by comic book films, and it was seen as pandering to an 'indie' crowd vs. something like Singles. So I think the cultural context kinda sunk it (I took notice because I was both a budding film criticism geek while at the same time me and my friends were obsessed with Empire Records. Rex Manning day!)
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:07 PM on July 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am sort of surprised that J.Lo wasn't in there, or other frequently-in-rom-com actresses, for that matter.
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:14 PM on July 31, 2016

And I wonder, if the concept were reversed (loved by critics, but irritates audiences when out of character), if the list would be composed mostly of women.
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:22 PM on July 31, 2016

I suspect Leslie Nielsen would score highly on this index.

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many ZAZ movies on the Edgar Wright "1000 Movies" list, so I think you're right.
posted by rhizome at 4:43 PM on July 31, 2016

Yeah, rotten tomatoes ain't really great to index on, either. It's a aggregate of pass/fail. A purely above average movie could score better than one that's slightly divisive, and their review sources sometimes don't seem like they are much different than just random internet commentors.
Also, no meryl streep?
posted by lkc at 12:52 PM on August 1, 2016