#12 : Alvin and the Chipmunks : Chip-Wrecked

No strapline, actors (even voices) or reviews quoted.

I guess it is a children's movie to coincide with Christmas.  Even the IMDB page hasn't got enough ratings before release.

#11 : The Three Musketeers

"All for one and one for all"

No actors named or reviews quoted.

Incredibly for an early October release this is still on several buses around Leeds.  This obviously isn't a guarantee of quality (Shark Night 3D is still around from September!).  IMDB is rating it as a 6.0 with a Metacritic score of 35/100.

#10 : Arthur Christmas

So this one appeared on a few Leeds buses in late October, and was gone by mid-November before I managed a photo.  Not a good sign for an ostensibly Christmas movie.
Computer animated with a good list of actors providing voices, and a metacritic score of 69 probably means it's not dreadful.

#9 : Hugo 3D

Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ray Winston, Emily Mortimer with Jude Law.

"Unlock the secret"

No reviews given. 

Too early for online scores.  Martin Scorsese is a plus.  Cohen and Law probably big minuses...

#8 : Breaking Dawn - Part I

No actors named.

No strapline given.

No reviews quoted.

Anyone would think they had their audience already and didn't need to advertise at all! Maybe they just need to be told the date it is actually released...

Early IMDB scores not looking good: 4.4/10, with a very positive skew from young women.

#7 : Immortals

No actors named.

From the producers of 300.

In epic 3D.

Reviews still to come.  Big budget on CGI I guess.  3d-ness could say it all.

#6 : Footloose

No actors named.

There comes a time to cut loose.

No reviews given.

IMDB is not giving this the biggest vote of confidence: users saying 5.0/10 and the metacritic surprisingly slightly higher at 58/100.  Note this includes another 91% from Entertainment Weekly (as in #5).  Maybe I need to start excluding this source...

#5 : The Ides of March

Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour-Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffry Wright and Evan Rachel Wood

No strapline given, but reviews galore:

**** Total film
**** The Times
**** The Evening Standard
***** MSN Movies
"Smart, sexy and completely gripping...  It'll bring the house down."  Esquire
"Oscars all round" - Marie Claire









This bus advert bothers me.  It is everywhere in Leeds.  If it really is as good as it makes out, which with that cast and those star ratings it could be, then I'm confused by why they are advertising on the buses.  Is it a case of another Clooney vehicle that is "worthy".

IMDB users are rating it as 7.5, but the critics have a lower metascore of 67/100 but the scores hidden there rate from 50 in the LA Time, New York Times the Wall Street Journal and Variety, but with a 91 from Entertainment Weekly.

#4 : The Adventures of Tintin in 3D

The Secrets of the Unicorn

From Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

No strapline or reviews given on the bus.

Strangely the IMDB scores for this look decent.  Users rating it 7.9/10 and a Metascore of  86/100.  Maybe it's too child and 3-d oriented for my tastes.

#3 : Tower Heist

Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy.

They're taking comedy to new heights.  Why doesn't the pairing of these two fill me with much confidence?

 No reviews given on the bus.

#2 : Shark Night 3D

From the directors of The Final Destination.  (No stars listed, just a photo of a woman in a bikini.)

Terror Runs Deep.

No reviews given on the bus.
 
It's been out about a month now.  IMDB users are rating it as a 4.3 (out of ten) whereas their critic Metascore is 22/100.  Sideofabus rule looking good.

Note, if you liked "The Final Destination" (2009) its IMDB scores are 4.9 and 30, so this is currently rated as worse.

#1 : In Time

Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake star.

Tomorrow is a luxury you can't afford.  Not to mention the six pounds for a ticket to see a movie Film Fracture describes as "about as nonsensical as a film can be".

No reviews given on the bus.

IMDB users are already rating it as 6.5/10 with a Metascore of 55/100. That Metascore does include full marks from the San Francisco Chronicle!

Introduction

For the past few years I have been increasingly convinced by a single premise.  Any movie advertised on the side of a bus is not worth me paying to see.

The first time I realised this was becoming a law was after I had paid to see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.  The buses were everywhere, and I thought to start with it was just to mock me.  Then it became clear that it wasn't the only film I had no interest in that was on the side of a bus.

These movies seem to come in a few different strands.  Children's movies are usually there, so perhaps they are excluded from the quality threshold.  3d movies are always on the buses as well, and I won't pay for them!  Rom-coms are always there (Jennifer Aniston will be a frequent star here).  Finally the bigger budget ones on buses seem to be the biggest indicator of poorer quality.
This quality rating of film may well just be a local (Leeds) ranking.  I am sure my own perceptions of those movies also come into it.  After all, maybe you did enjoy 27 Dresses, Streetdance and Angus, Thongs and Snogging.  The sources quoted on the reviews will also be notable - Heat, The Sun or Nuts give a different profile of intended audience to The Times.

Hopefully we can put my theory properly to the test...