An addendum to my previous post on the Netflix Prize:
When someone noticed that the top five most frequently rated movies on Netflix were neither particularly popular nor critically acclaimed (Miss Congeniality, Independence Day, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow and Pirates of the Caribbean), another competitor mused:
Seeing Miss Congeniality on the list of top-five most-rated movies was a bit surprising to me, so I started working on a hypothesis. I figured that, although it might be rented often, it is universally hated by everyone with a clue.
From this the competitor ran some analysis and discovered a number of intriguing results. One of which was a list of the most polarising films: those films that are either loved or hated.
It’s an interesting list and if you head over to Kottke’s original post detailing these findings, you can see the list and his hypothesis on what makes these films so contentious (a hypothesis that I agree with).