TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: plot outline - wendy ( samantha press ) , a jazz singer , loves mack ( hugo race ) a criminal and wanna be rock singer who 's planning a bank heist .
mack is also being tailed by a couple of cops , one an inexperienced rookie ( dominic sweeney ) , the other ( john flaus ) a worn out veteran who frequents wendy 's jazz club .
they 're tailing mack , because he has an audiotape that may show evidence of governmental corruption .
meanwhile wendy 's sexually awakener , fifteen year old sister ( rebecca elmaloglou ) has moved in with her , and is secretly watching mack and wendy 's late night love trysts ?
much zaniness ensues the review :
main problem first - about 2 % of rood rock star to actor conversions in filmdom ever really work .
unfortunately , trying to cast hugo race as a violent , sexy criminal falls into the " what the hell where they thinking " category
that takes up 98 % of the rest .
but , hell , it 's not as if he 's the only problem in this well - intentioned but ultimately below average aussie thriller .
leads , race and samantha press are wooden and dull , hampered by some unfortunate attempts at sexy dialogue early on .
though they do manage some heat later in their love scenes , helped , no doubt by them keeping their mouths shut .
the film suffers every time the story shifts back to these two . which is unfortunately , the other main story is n't any great shakes either .
the second part , concerning two cops , political corruption and that elusive tape is incredibly muddled .
at many points during the movie i had no idea what was going on , a situation that did n't improve on repeated viewing .
there is no doubt that this film 's achilles heel is its script .
as for the rest of the cast , it 's a mixed bag .
john flaus , one of australia 's most criminally underused actors , is in top form as the withering , alcoholic jazz fan cop , who may or may not have sold out to the highest bidder .
although he falters at one point , when the script calls for him to get up on stage and deliver a drunken beat sermon , but believe me , they way it was written , no one could have pulled it off .
dominic sweeney is fine , though he seems to be uneasy in front of the lens but he really is n't given a whole lot to do .
pre home and away elmaloglou is pretty good as the inquisitive jojo , but her character seems extraneous to the story , well , at least until the final scenes .
i must admit , in too deep does have some impressive qualities , not the least of which is it visual element .
cinematographers mark gilfedder & peter zakharov have achieved the almost impossible by making melbourne look like a sweat drenched tropic city , which is akin to turning london into san paolo .
the bar is an oppressive red , like all of it 's patrons are being baked while they drink , outside it hazy orange by day and cool blue by night .
if only deborah parson 's script could have supported this idea better .
having two director 's ( colin south & john tatoulis ) does n't help either , the most glaring example of which is the final retribution / fight scene , where for some reason the camera pulls away from the onscreen action , and more importantly it does n't pull away to anything else .
it just stays static as the fight happens in the distance .
it has no reason to it ; it 's just bad direction .
and , ultimately , that is what sums up in too deep
, it 's tries to be good , and you want it to work , but , it 's just lacking the talent behind it , that it needs to succeed .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: american pie acknowledges a cold , hard fact that most movies do n't : it is very difficult to get laid .
its four virgin heroes are jim ( biggs ) , a chronic masturbator , kev ( nicholas ) , who desperately wants to deflower his girlfriend ( reid ) , oz ( klein ) , a lacrosse player whose approach requires some fine tuning , and finch ( eddie kaye thomas ) , a germphobe ( his crass nickname is hilarious , but i wo n't spoil it here ) who pays a classmate to spread rumours about the size of his member .
jim , kev , oz and finch attend a high school in suburban michigan full of so many impossibly beautiful women
it 's no wonder they 're horny all the time .
after a party at their studly friend stifler 's ( seann william scott , in the film 's sharpest performance ) house leaves them sexually unsatisfied , the quartet make a pact : to " lose it " by graduation - specifically , prom night , which is only a few weeks away .
american pie is in the tradition of bachelor party or revenge of the nerds .
almost every conversation these characters have revolves around makin ' whoopee .
all women are there to be ogled .
( alyson hannigan 's perky music student is the only memorable female of the bunch . )
situations abound that defy logic only to arouse and/or amuse its core audience , adolescent boys .
( to arouse : nadia 's ( shannon elizabeth ) internet striptease - an unexpectedly raucous ( and guiltily pleasurable ) sequence .
to amuse : jim 's lusty encounter with a hot apple pie . )
what differentiates american pie from those dirty eighties comedies , aside from a very nineties obsession with bodily fluids * , is a cast that 's light years more appealing
than that of , say , just one of the guys .
two more standouts : klein and " sctv " 's eugene levy .
klein plays a kind - hearted athlete for the second time in a row , after alexander payne 's underappreciated election .
i hope to see more of this warm actor with the disarmingly honest face very soon .
levy 's is the most crowd - pleasing performance , and indeed , it 's nice to see him back on the big screen in a role that makes wonderful use of that expressive brow .
american pie also wants to emulate the teen flicks your parents
_ would _ let you watch growing up .
it skillfully employs a broad mix of pop tunes , much like john hughes ' movies did , and even pays homage to the breakfast club a couple of times , most evidently when the prom band covers simple minds '
" do n't you ( forget about me ) . " the picture ultimately has a healthy , if obligatory , attitude towards safe sex - even at their most libidinous , american pie 's protagonists first whip out a condom .
the filmmakers prove that socially responsible raunch is possible .
for its familiarity and for its charming leads , i recommend american pie , but the buzz on this film had me expecting something . . .
fresher . as far as the new teen cinema goes ,
it 's at the top of the heap .
* do n't say i did n't warn you about the party scene .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: warning : this review contains some spoilers for the 1964 film " fail - safe .
" if you have n't seen the film yet , proceed with caution .
nutshell : a relevant , intelligent , suspenseful drama .
still powerful today , even after the end of the cold war .
-------------------- " fail - safe
" ( usa , 1964 ) drama , 111 minutes screenplay by walter bernstein based on the novel by eugene burdick and harvey wheeler produced by max e . youngstein directed by sidney lumet review by jamahl epsicokhan -------------------- the most ironic aspect of nuclear war is that it does n't have a winning side and a losing side .
in a nuclear confrontation , everybody loses , and the aftereffects have devastating effects that impact the entire world -- assuming the world survives .
the idea -- and perhaps the only real option -- is to avoid war at all costs .
this is the theme of sidney lumet 's " fail - safe , " a fictional drama based on the novel by eugene burdick and harvey wheeler .
" fail - safe " takes place during the heart of the cold war ( the actual film was released two years after the cuban missile crisis ) , when the united states and the soviet union were in static discord over an issue that can be summarized in a single word : communism .
the premise centers around a combination of accidents and operation flaws .
five u . s .
bombers carrying nuclear warheads are ordered to set a routine course for moscow after an unidentified aircraft is spotted heading toward america .
the unidentified aircraft turns out to be a commercial airliner , but a mechanical failure strikes the military base that commands the bombers .
suddenly out of contact , and with standing orders to remain on course until receiving new directives , the bomber pilots can not be recalled , and they proceed to moscow with the intention of destroying it with a nuclear strike .
a great deal of " fail - safe " 's plot follows various characters as they attempt to devise ways of stopping the u . s .
bombers from reaching russia 's borders -- at any cost .
the plot is compelling , and the story creates urgency and dread by painting the grimmest of worst case scenarios .
the reality sets in quickly as one attempt to turn the bombers after another fails .
general bogan ( frank overton ) , taking orders directly from the president of the united states himself ( henry fonda ) , is powerless -- the fate of the world lies in the hands of an automated , pre - programmed system that may not be stoppable , simply because the creators of the war machines were too efficient in their task to make a no - win situation winnable .
the events in " fail - safe " are fascinating because they 're anything but predictable , but the real reason " fail - safe " works is because it understands more about nuclear war than what exists within the confines of its plot .
a key ingredient to the film is its ability to create an ongoing polemic about nuclear war , communism , the cold war , and the united states ' role in all of it .
most of this is through the film 's use of the character groeteschele ( walter matthau ) , an arrogant civilian theorist of nuclear weapons use who , incidentally , is on the president 's advising staff for analyzing the statistical plausibility of waging a nuclear war .
many of the film 's most pointed messages arise from discussions where groeteschele is one of the key voices .
early in the film , he hosts a dinner party where he explains the importance of " strategy " in a nuclear assault to " minimize " casualties .
"
what 's the difference between 60 million and 100 million dead ? " a guest asks impatiently .
" forty million , " groeteschele responds wryly .
the problem with groeteschele 's mindset is that he * believes * nuclear combat to be a viable method of war .
the only difference to him between nuclear armageddon and conventional warfare is the raw data and the casualty totals .
groeteschele realizes that these weapons can destroy the world several times over .
yet his answer to the arms race is not to slow down and try to cool the situation off , as general black ( dan o'herlihy ) has often recommended .
on the contrary -- according to groeteschele , that would lead to russia having * more * nuclear weapons than the u . s . , which would clearly put america at a disadvantage .
such a stance was perhaps the central paradox and misguided practice of the arms race .
"
fail - safe " clearly sees it as one of the central issues of the cold war , and , likewise , it becomes a central theme in the film .
why continue to build such machines of mass destruction while already possessing enough of them to destroy the world several times over ?
is it wise ?
is it even logical ?
no , not really .
although " fail - safe " is more about the issue of nuclear weapons than it is about the political ramifications of communism , there is a scene in the film that deals with communism in an intentionally superficial , one - sided sort of way .
again , this is achieved through groeteschele , who is easily the film 's most important character in terms of the larger - theme significance .
in addition to providing the central " pro - nuclear war " voice that the film warns against , he also makes key remarks about communists that show just how much fear and resentment people of the period were prone to when it came to communism .
the context the film uses suggests that this hatred was often glib .
one of groeteschele 's " logical " trains of thought ventures so far into fantasy theoretical prediction that it 's merely absurd .
he labels the average marxist an " unfeeling , calculating machine " that will do whatever it takes to preserve itself .
groeteschele takes it so far as to say that if the u . s . drops the warhead on moscow , the soviets will * instantly * surrender , for to retaliate would invite counter - measures that would further destroy russia 's home soil -- which must be preserved at all costs .
groeteschele seems to forget these people are human beings with emotions ; general black quickly reminds him that the soviets would attack out of revenge -- as any normal person would .
the irony here is groeteschele 's own mechanical theorizing .
he is so quick to judge the enemy that he does n't even realize his own seemingly programmed thought patterns .
once the film makes it evident that turning the u . s .
bombers will be impossible , the question becomes what the * consequences * of destroying moscow will be .
just how will the soviet union 's leader react , and what can the president do to convey his best intentions ?
( just * how * does one pass off the deaths of millions of people as an * mishap * ? ) with the help of his translator buck ( larry hagman ) , the president negotiates at length with the soviet leader , in scenes that prove amazingly taut and powerful in their simplicity , with lumet 's long takes of fonda and hagman in the same frame , exchanging the dialog between the president and the soviet leader . without getting into too much detail , i will say that the compromise they ultimately reach is very costly , yet necessary and as sensible as possible under the circumstances .
( that is , as sensible as a nuclear " incident " can probably be . )
it does accomplish what it must : it avoids an all - out war , something that simply is n't possible because of its all - too - real consequences .
dramatically , the ending is quite powerful , and the use of o'herlihy 's character as the symbolic " matador " ( providing a bookend to the film by ending the story while tying into his dream sequence from the film 's opening ) , is particularly appropriate .
"
fail - safe " is a production of a major hollywood studio ( released by columbia pictures ) , and it has the structure of a high - tension suspense thriller that one might expect from a hollywood film .
nevertheless , under lumet 's direction and walter bernstein 's intelligent adaptation of burdick 's and wheeler 's novel , the film continues to have a lasting effect even after the events on screen have unfolded .
the film often warns that the automation of war is something that may make nuclear holocaust an unintentional consequence of such mass arming .
but it was the conscious , human choice to * initialize * this automatic arming that " fail - safe " also finds dangerous .
in retrospect , the arms race seems to be one of the most puzzling exercises in futility of the century .
it 's just fortunate that both sides were finally able to come to their senses and slow down , rather than continuing groeteschele 's dangerous approach of speeding up and causing a possible meltdown .

SOLUTION:
P