I have watched many films and rated many films through film rental services and looking at how I rate films and how others rate them out of five I have come up with a breakdown of the "out of five" rating system.
1/5 A bad film, makers didn't even try.
2/5 Makers tried to create a good film, but the parts just didn't come together.
3/3 An average film, good, entertaining, but nothing more.
4/5 A film where everything comes together so well it clicks.
5/5 A film that is better than the sum of it's parts and stands as an excellent exsample of film-making.
What I like about the five point rating system is it's ability to give more detail that just a thumbs up or down, but also the ability to not judge a film too precisely and allow each viewer to experience the film on their own terms. Giving a film a five out of five rating says it is very good, but doesn't put an unnecessarily high level of expectation that a ten out of ten, or a one hundred out of one hundred rating would.