Every stated rule, doctrine, and grudge on this site, checked against the actual voting record. The top figures are computed live from the Docket; the ledger below is compiled by hand and updates whenever a verdict does. Nobody asked for this page. It was filed anyway.
Reading the first two together: Management has overturned 6 unanimous verdicts in site history, and every one of them moved the same direction — down to up. Zero unanimous double-ups have ever been downgraded. Management's official position is that this reflects the quality of films submitted for unanimous verdicts, not a bias on the bench. The audit finds this explanation increasingly hard to chart.
1 of 2 audited rules hold up under testing with no contradicting vote on file. The rest are marked contested, exempt, or violated below.
1 of 4 audited rules hold up under testing with no contradicting vote on file. The rest are marked contested, exempt, or violated below.
0 of 1 audited rules hold up under testing with no contradicting vote on file. The rest are marked contested, exempt, or violated below.
The rule: “108 minutes is a promise.” Every minute past it gets invoiced under the Runtime Tax — the office’s founding fiscal policy.
The finding: Twelve full waivers are on file. Three of them ran past the three-hour mark — Oppenheimer, The Godfather, Interstellar — and not one stars Denzel Washington, the only override clause Norm has ever disclosed on the record. The office maintains each waiver was assessed on merit. The audit notes the merit assessments have a 100% approval rate once granted a hearing.
The rule: Spielberg is overrated — filed monthly under Rule 09, no further commentary required.
The finding: 0-for-3 upstairs on E.T., The Odyssey (snap), and Disclosure Day (snap) — all three overruled to up over Norm's objection. Then Jurassic Park, where Norm voted up voluntarily, no ruling required, under what he calls a dinosaurs-and-one-kitchen exemption. His position: the grudge is about the director, not the output, and the exemption proves it. The audit's position: that is exactly what someone with an inconsistent grudge would say.
The rule: Horror is distrusted on principle — full stop, no exceptions, going back to the site's founding.
The finding: One exemption is on the books, and Norm disclosed it himself rather than getting caught: Get Out, ratified up, on the grounds that “the mystery outranked the mask.” Self-reported exceptions don't count as hypocrisy — they count as a footnote. It remains the only horror title he has ever voted up.
The rule: Fantasy and wizardry are banned. Matt co-signed the policy personally and still cites it against Harry Potter.
The finding: Originally down on Harry Potter, consistent with the ban (Management later overturned it — that one's not on him). Down on The Lord of the Rings, also later overturned — also not on him. But up on Star Wars — a film built around a wizard-coded mystic order wielding an energy sword — on the strength of a classics clause Matt appears to have invented for the occasion, which supersedes his own co-signature. Norm has pointed out, accurately, that this is the entire Wizard Question in miniature.
The rule: Sequels and franchise entries earn no goodwill for existing; each one must justify itself as a standalone film.
The finding: Three tests, three downs: John Wick (“a verb with no noun”), Kill Bill Vol. 1 (“an exclamation point in search of a sentence”), Django Unchained (“the ending ends twice”). A coherent doctrine, consistently applied, and the rare Matt rule the audit cannot break. Filed for the record as a control case.
The rule: Revenge pictures are a home lane: the violence is acceptable once the plot has earned it.
The finding: Three for three, voting up: Law Abiding Citizen, Gladiator (unanimous), Kill Bill Vol. 1. The Kill Bill ruling went against him at the Management level — the court ruled against the installment, not the lane — but Norm's own ballot landed exactly where the doctrine predicted. Filed as a second control case.
The rule: Management holds that any unanimous verdict — up or down — may be revisited and overturned if, in the court's opinion, it is wrong.
The finding: 6 unanimous verdicts overturned, all 6 of them moved down to up. 0 have ever moved up to down. Management's position is that this reflects the quality of the films, not the tribunal. See the Numbers, above.
The figures under "The Numbers, Audited" are computed directly from each film's front-matter verdict at build time — they will update automatically the next time a verdict is revised, the way Jurassic Park's was. The Ledger below is compiled by hand, because nobody has yet taught a computer to recognize a grudge. New entries are added as new contradictions are discovered. None have ever been quietly removed. Companion filing: The Predictions Ledger — this audits rules against past votes; that one audits positions staked before a film even exists.