I single it out not because I hate critics but because it was voted 'helpful' by 205 out of 236 people.  In other words, this reviewer is speaking for a population of customers who simply ignore critics and trust each other instead.

Consider this ground-zero proof on a trend that continues to take hold.  We have briefed you on research about trust many times, and here are five of the 'most helpful' Bazaarblog posts on this topic:

1. Customer Recommendations Are Most Trust Forms of Advertising
2. 80% of Online Customers Trust Brands More with Reviews
3. 84% Trust User Reviews Over a Critic (MarketingSherpa)
4. 78% of Online Consumers Have More Trust for Brands with Reviews
5. Can Customers Trust Online Reviews?

Regardless of whether you trust them or not, critics do make us laugh with their witty writing style.   I got a chuckle out of Chris Farnsworth's quote on the movie, "Stallone looks like an overcooked Ball Park frank".  The lay customer may not be as witty, but they may be more trusted and therefore more influential at driving box office sales – and that's what really counts.

According to a study by MIT and University of Michigan they found a high correlation between offline word of mouth and online reviews for movies:

Another interesting finding is the higher correlation of offline word of mouth to online word of mouth compared to offline word of mouth to critics reviews.

This doesn’t surprise me. Usually when I talk to friends about a movie I hear similar feedback. Now a woman may give me slightly different ‘perspective’ on a romantic comedy than her husband ?, but the general recommendation is nowhere near as diverse as critics’ reviews. See the reviews on Invincible, from B+ to D+.

Ultimately, the question for authenticity is relevant for online reviews. There is the possibility of shills, fraud, and ‘astroturfing’. The truth is, with over 40 clients and hundreds of thousands reviews, we don’t see much fraud (and we’re getting pretty good at catching them). Of course, nothing is fool proof. With the growth of consumer-generated content, this will continue to be a focus for us to stay ahead. It’s also why our solution includes several fields to add context to the review. In usability studies we find that provides shoppers with review relevance as well as *reviewer* relevance.

The Edelman group found that ‘trust in someone like me’ has tripled over the last two years. The key phrase here is ‘someone like me’. Shoppers identify with the reviewer based on the content of the review, user attributes, and product attribute ratings.I would also assert the community of customers and shoppers are the best judges of authenticity and relevance. With helpfulness votes (which is sortable) and abuse reporting, shoppers themselves can ‘smell’ fraud. We find many of our clients' cutomers are compelled to jump in with their own review when a review that is ‘off’ is posted. So between our content analysts (we read every review and review several factors for fraud) and customers, we can maintain a high standard of authenticity.