TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: you 'd think that after awhile hollywood would stop trying to make movies out of video games .
it has n't worked so far .
" street fighter ? "
" super mario brothers ?
" " wing commander ?
" " mortal kombat ? " not a watchable film in the bunch .
still i held out some hope for " tomb raider .
"
after all , the game 's premise is heavily influenced by the indiana jones trilogy and all the mummy movies , so there are cinematic elements imbedded in the concept .
however , despite the potential of the project , " tomb raider " proves to be yet another bomb .
the plot is a convoluted accumulation of nonsense probably borrowed from a dozen bad movies .
there 's a once - ever-5000-years alignment of planets coming up , and the illuminati have to find both halves of an ancient triangle that controls time in order to take over the world .
of course , the ancient folks who divided the triangle buried the halves in tombs on opposite sides of the world .
our heroine , lady lara croft ( angelina jolie ) , finds the key that opens the tombs in relics that her dead father ( jon voight ) dug up .
she figures that if she gets the triangle , she can bring her dad back from the dead .
of course , no one was expecting much of a plot from this movie anyway .
in both video games and action movies , the plot is just an excuse for the action sequences .
however , the action in " tomb raider " shows little style or originality .
there 's lots of shooting and some kung fu fightin ' , but none of it progresses beyond the level of a cheap direct - to - cable flick .
the other goofy archeologist flick of the summer
, " the mummy returns , " was much better ; it had its flaws , but its action was creative and large - scale .
since winning her academy award for " girl , interrupted , " jolie has n't taken any projects that would display her acting talents .
"
tomb raider " seems to be more interested in displaying her breasts ; so much attention is drawn to them that it 's a shame
there 's no oscar for best performance by a wonderbra .
while we do n't see much of her acting ability
( with the exception of a wonderful upper - crust british accent ) , we do get a hint of jolie 's less savory side .
considering the rumors of incest that hang over jolie and her supposed obsession with death , having lara be obsessed with resurrecting her dead father ( and uninterested in any of the living males around her ) seems a poor choice .
having jolie 's real life father jon voight play the dead dad makes it even creepier
.
i have n't decided what to make of director simon west yet .
his first feature was the star - studded disaster " con air , " but my opinion of him improved with " the general 's daughter , " which was thick with sultry atmosphere .
now this train wreck .
i hope he improves again because his next project is the big screen version of the cult tv series " the prisoner .
"
hollywood has already screwed up " the avengers , " and " the prisoner " represents a chance for redemption .
( by the way , speaking of british tv , " red dwarf " fans should look for chris " rimmer " barrie in his first major film role ) .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: as a revolutionary war hero in the patriot , mel gibson provides another macho man performance for hollywood audiences .
you know the type : his shirt is always shredded , his face always scarred , he has a soft spot for his loved ones and a " to kill " list for his enemies .
oscar - hungry director / executive producer roland
emmerich did not intend to , but he made the stereotypical action hero for the 18th century .
as gibson delivers lines like , " before this war is over , i am going to kill you , " schwarzenegger in commando or stallone in cobra immediately come to mind .
oddly enough , the patriot is as much an epic three - hour - tear - fest like gladiator , as
it is a ninety - minute guilty pleasure .
at times absorbing , at others enjoyably insipid , this is good , bloody summer fun .
i probably would have despised this film had it not been released over the july 4th weekend .
some of the images are so zealously americanized ( the flag is used as a lifesaving weapon for example ) , that independence day seems the only appropriate time of year to wholeheartedly accept it .
like emmerich 's id4 , this is obvious propaganda where the americans are the hapless underdogs motivated by freedom for all .
sure it 's predictable and melodramatic , but for a moment after leaving the theater , i was dumbfounded with patriotism .
and is n't that the point of the patriot ?
gibson plays benjamin martin , the lionized french and indian war veteran , who , at the beginning of the film , is emotionally suffering after his loving wife passed away .
he is left to father seven children at his south carolina estate along with black servants ( not slaves ! ) . as the revolutionary war rumbles miles away , martin swears to keep his family close and away from the battlefields .
but when the oldest son enlists anyway and another is murdered by a wicked redcoat colonel ( jason isaacs ) , martin quickly decides to save the day ( or save the fate of america as presented by emmerich ) .
forming a band of aggressive farmers and using guerilla tactics considered unfair in the art of war , martin becomes the number one target of the british army .
the best parts of the patriot are the scenes in which martin and his rugged militia men outsmart the british armies left and right .
every time the farmers attacked the unsuspecting enemy , to see the disbelief on british general cornwallis ' ( tom wilkinson ) face was priceless entertainment .
and as the tension gradually formulates with the running time , a final battle is inevitable .
as for the numerous battle scenes , they are expertly done . clearer and more realistic
than those of gladiator , the gruesome images are what give this film an r rating .
you really get a sense of how warfare was performed during that time period .
everything is performed in an orderly ( but still quite gory ) fashion - one side shoots , then the other side , then the remaining soldiers charge .
it 's organized , strategic and , according to martin , ineffective .
there is a very interesting contrast between the traditional battle style and martin 's take - no - prisoners method .
what drives martin to these supposedly unfair actions , are the originally brutal tactics of colonel tavington . played wonderfully by jason isaacs , tavington is the type who loves to glare down from his horse at civilians , who nervously avoid eye contact .
this character is viciously evil ; he kills women and children and then laughs about it on the way home ; even his eyes are evil .
his portrayal has sparked some controversy in britain , some claim that he falsely represents his countrymen as " cowardly " and " sadistic .
"
i disagree with this accusation .
tavington does not represent his country ; his unnecessary executions shock his own colleagues and even anger his general .
besides tavington , the redcoats remain stick figures that are neither glorified nor patronized . and stick figures make the easiest enemies in these kinds of movies - why give the audience a reason to love the bad guys ?
heck , why not spend the entire film glossing up the good guys ?
the patriot is three hours of fictional fireworks .
with an action hero seeking revenge and a comic book villain ready to take him down , it 's a lethal weapon for the colonial times .
god bless america !
and god bless the patriot !

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: as any reasonable human being would , i must admit that occasionally i am befuddled by certain things .
i am befuddled by fight club .
now sometimes our favorite films are panned by critics and do not achieve critical success until much later , sometimes as much as ten or twenty years later .
perhaps it is because these films are way ahead of their time .
perhaps it is because they are so new and complex that only after years of allowing them to sink in
do we truly appreciate and understand them .
fight club is either garbage or brilliant , but , at least right now , i must lean toward the former .
maybe i am subconsciously affected by word of mouth that has been slowly leaking throughout the media for weeks that this film is pure gold .
but if it is , i sure do n't see it .
edward norton plays jack , a field examiner for a major automobile manufacturer .
his insomnia , coupled with his compulsive desires to fill his world with ikea furniture to ? complete ? himself , make him a loser at the game of life .
but when all of his worldly possessions are blown out his 15th story window , he seeks comfort in a stranger , tyler ( pitt ) whom he met on a flight home .
once jack is sucked into tyler 's world , he ca n't get out , literally .
they begin fight club , an organization based on brutal and bloody fistfights that signify nothing other than to provide those that join a sense of belonging .
as the fight club grows , things get out of control and take on cult status , beginning with one future soldier who proves his worth by standing still outside tyler 's house for three days .
i dare not even begin to bring up the last quarter of the film , since that contains the twist that ? explains ?
the pointless journey .
suffice it to say i was truly disappointed in fincher ,
who 's previous two films , se7en and the game put him in a very slim category of truly brilliant young filmmakers of the next generation .
this is not to imply by any means that he is no longer a genius or capable of bringing more masterpieces to the table .
but with fight club , he has allowed his unique talent for extraordinary vision to be distorted by silly digital experiments and self - referencing film elements , such as talking to the audience about what they are seeing , telling them that the little blips in the right hand corner are signifiers that the projectionist is changing reels and that a slightly altered recurring line is good ?
flashback humor ? .
now , throughout the film 's coarsely woven texture and over - extended plot lines , fight club is obviously trying to make various social comments about the state of the world today .
advertisements , inter - office politics , corporations , you name it , it 's addressed .
( though the media are suspiciously absent from the institutions that are referenced . )
all of them play an important role .
how so ?
well , i can kinda just tell .
i ca n't really put my finger on it .
to say that starbucks and barnes & noble are taking over their respective markets and kicking out the small business owner is no big news .
is that bad for the world ?
probably . not much room for social commentary there .
we all know that inter - office politics are just that . . .
politics .
so what was the point of all this ?
the film seems desperate to make a point , or a number of points , but i could n't figure out what they were .
all i saw was a very bizarre social satire that was woven with strange film techniques , a bleak visual design and some fine acting .
( pitt , carter , norton . . .
all of them are good .
even meatloaf is good . )
when you get to the end , you will most likely be filled with questions , many of which the filmmakers wanted you to ask of yourself .
not them , because each of them would likely give you a different answer .
fight club means what you want it to mean , i think fincher just gives you the stuff to think about .
but it could n't be more bizarre and unappealing
.
sure , it had shock value , but so did se7en and the game , and they were significantly stronger films .

SOLUTION:
N