TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: in the company of men made a splash at the sundance film festival because , in a year plagued by brothers mcmullen - style , earnestly shallow gen - x angst pictures , it seemed to be actually about something .
it angered people , started arguments outside the theater , riled things up .
it ignited a spark of excitement in what otherwise has been a disappointing year for independent film .
having endured my share of the hype , i waited calmly for men to reach the hinterlands wherein i reside , and then checked in to see what all the fuss was about .
does men live up to its press ?
well , yes it does .
and it may make you think twice before you consider dating anyone your office .
for the uninitiated , newcomers aaron eckhart and matt malloy play chad and howard , two corporate drones who are dispatched by their nameless company to a remote branch office for a six week assignment .
chad and howard are archetypes , examples of which you can no doubt find in your own place of business .
chad is the blond golden boy , genetically engineered for success , the natural charmer who seems to glide effortlessly up the corporate ladder .
howard is chad 's boss , but he is weaker of will , the clumsy practitioner of office politics who has achieved his position through dogged persistence rather than raw talent .
we first meet them awaiting their flight in a drab airport lounge .
there chad suggests a scheme worthy of a shakespearean villain : he and howard will find a vulnerable single woman at the branch office , woo her simultaneously , win her love , and then dump her .
the reason ?
both men have recently been dumped themselves , and chad sees an easy route to revenge against the fairer sex .
"
it 'll restore a little dignity to our lives , " he says .
howard , helpless against the force of chad 's will , agrees to the plan .
they quickly spot their prey in the form of christine ( stacy edwards ) , a fragile deaf woman working as a temp .
chad moves in for the kill , flashing his golden boy smile , plying christine with lunch , then flowers , then dinner .
howard follows suit , though his efforts are in contrast ham - handed and desperate .
flattered to have the attention of two eligible men , christine dates them both .
you can guess which one she falls for .
soon a tragic lovers ' triangle develops : christine loves chad , chad loves himself , and howard loves christine on the grounds that , since she 's handicapped and shy , she just might be wretched and lonely enough to settle for him .
adult social interaction never really progresses beyond the level of junior high , does it ?
in chad , writer / director labute and actor eckhart have created one of the most chilling monsters ever committed to film - hannibal lector may eat human flesh , but chad is an eater of souls .
his evil is as subtle as a viper 's , and as easy as his smile .
we watch in stunned disbelief as he back - stabs coworkers , humiliates his subordinates , and works his deadly venom into christine 's heart .
his character would be a joke if he was n't so chillingly real-
all of us have worked with a chad , and some of us may be him .
he 's the guy who takes your job and then laughs at you for your weakness .
if one of his co - workers should happen to go postal and walk into the office with a bag full of handguns , he had best have his escape route clearly in mind .
politics is his game , and the modern cubicle - filled office is his playground .
men wears the guise of a black comedy , but it functions best as allegory .
the most controversial moment in the film happens when chad humiliates a black temp by asking him how badly he wants to succeed in the company , then forces him to prove it in a manner i wo n't describe .
the scene is charged with racism and fraught with peril .
could it happen in the real world ?
probably not .
taken as allegory , however , it is representative of the treatment of the meek by the powerful in all facets of society .
maybe it 's just the english major in me , but chad , in his motiveless cruelty towards christine and his careful manipulation of howard , can be seen as a symbol of unbridled capitalism , of greed without conscience .
the entire film is a metaphor for social darwinism- only the strong will survive .
the marvel of labute 's multi - layered script is that it can disturb each member of its audience in an entirely different way .
but does the film work as entertainment ?
its darned funny in spots , particularly in the men 's room scenes , which demonstrate the lengths to which guys will go to hold a conversation while engaged in the most basic of bodily functions .
it works less well as drama , since by necessity the characters in an allegory tend to be flat ciphers .
stacy edwards gives a measured dignity to christine , and succeeds in making us care for her
, but by the end of the film we still know nothing about her .
likewise , chad and howard are simply the sum of their actions .
by the end of the film you 'll feel as if you 've met a genuine monster in chad ; perhaps we can also classify men as a horror film .
certainly those expecting a conventional hollywood resolution to the story will walk away disappointed . but the picture is often mesmerizing , and the script is a work of fine craftsmanship , which makes it well worth your time .
like all good films , it offers a myriad of parallels to the outside world .
while watching chad in his moment of triumph , i could n't help but think that bill gates must have felt the same sort of cold , merciless satisfaction when he finally stuck it to steve jobs .
there may be a little bit of chad in all of us , but some of us have taken chad - ness to the level of art .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: it seems like i 'm reviewing cheeseball horror movies on a monthly basis now .
scream revitalized a genre the studios are now intent on burying into the ground again - the serial killers in these new slasher movies have nothing on sony and miramax in the " relentless " department .
i still know what you did last summer is a terrible film in many respects , but in the wake of the stupefyingly bad urban legend , it 's citizen hook .
jennifer love - hewitt reprises her role as buxom teenager julie james - who apparently escaped certain doom at the end of the last movie by . . . waking up .
she lives in fear of ben willis , the vengeful fisherman - victim of a hit and run by julie and her pals .
paranoid and beat , she accepts a free trip to the bahamas from her friend karla ( norwood ) , winner of the local radio station 's 4th of july getaway giveaway .
bikini - ready julie invites
boyfriend ray ( prinze , jr . ) , who - and here 's the movie 's biggest mystery - turns her down , but changes his mind and plans to surprise her before take - off . until he gets a roadside visit from captain hell - liner himself , that is .
unaware of this and feeling shunned , julie goes on vacation , anyway , with karla , karla 's boyfriend ( pfeiffer ) , and will ( matthew settle ) , a real boy - next - door type who 's sweet on julie .
to make a long story short - i ca n't believe it took a paragraph to describe the set - up for this gratuitous sequel - the trip is a disaster .
not only is it storm season , not only is the desk clerk ( the frighteners ' jeffrey combs ) a jerk , not only are the few island residents and our heroic vacationers getting picked off by the resourceful willis one - by - one , but the karaoke machine is n't working properly !
( you think killing is hard ?
try reprogramming a laserdisc so that gloria gaynor 's " i will survive
" now contains the lyric
" i still know what you did last summer ! " )
all is not lost - ray is on his way to save the day , and a helpful witch doctor is saying little prayers for julie and co .
this picture is really about breasts : two of them .
julie , like a good horror heroine , never does up her shirt to the collar , always wears white in the rain , and keeps sexy underwear on in case of a sudden desire to tan .
based on the hormonal charge i got out of the movie , i ca n't imagine what it was doing to the ten year old boy who sat next to me
- he gets jennifer love - hewitt , and my generation got heather langenkamp !
lucky bastard .
i did n't like
i know what you did last summer
and i ca n't say i liked this continuation any more or less .
the pacing in both films is languid-
how is it that so much time passes with neither murder nor character development ?
i still know what you did last summer has a better sense of humour than the first one , though , and at least it explains away willis 's random selection of victims .
( i do n't think the hotel maid or the stoner dude had the slightest idea
what julie did last summer . )
director cannon ( judge dredd ) is a competent filmmaker but not a particularly imaginative one - if there is a part three ( what on earth would they call it ? ) , and the fun denouement suggests there will be , here 's my suggestion : hire a filmmaker with flair , someone who can really energize this stillborn series - someone who wo n't rely on so many shock notes .
and let that person run wild with the camera .
( aside : if blandy [ sic ] must appear in the next one , try to keep the number of times she says " baby " to a minimum .
thanks in advance . )

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: it was a rainy friday afternoon in columbus when i persuaded a friend to see a matinee performance of mst3k : tm .
he had never seen any episodes of the show , and i have watched a scant few , due to its unsocial airtime on comedy central and the uneven nature of many of the episodes .
for those of you not familiar with the premise , dr clayton forrester ( beaulieu ) wishes to take over the world by finding the worst film ever made and unleashing it upon an unsuspecting public .
to achieve this , he ( in the words of the tv series ' theme , which is missing in the movie ) " bumped [ mike nelson ( nelson ) ] on the noggin and then shot him into space " , and is monitoring nelson 's reactions to the movies he is forced to endure . rather than succumb to the sheer awfulness of many of the movies , nelson spends his time making wisecracks with the help of his two robot companions , tom servo and crow t . robot .
the format of the show consists of nelson , servo and crow making their comments while silhouetted against the movie being watched , and breaks every 20 minutes or so for segments set on the satellite of love , the ship on which our heroes are marooned .
only two things are different in the movie : the absence of forrester 's sidekick , tv 's frank , and the slower pace of the jokes .
this latter change is presumably deliberate to avoid the viewing audience missing some of the best lines while laughing from the previous joke .
for their big screen outing , the producers have chosen " this island earth " , a 1954 classic , and one of the first sf films to have a special effects budget larger than the average grocery bill .
unfortunately for that film ( but making it ideal mst3k fodder ) , acting and dialogue appear to have taken a back seat to the effects which , by today 's standards , are less than impressive .
nelson & co .
make jokes about everything from japan 's dominance in the world market , to star trek , to the state of disrepair of seattle 's kingdome , and most of them work .
unfortunately , the segments set outside the satellite 's movie theater seem out of place and are n't particularly funny , but at least they 're fairly short .
the big question about this movie though is : why ?
i presume it was an attempt to gain a larger following to keep support behind the series ( rumours of its impending demise circulated for some time before the plug was eventually pulled a few months ago ) , but the format gains nothing from its transition to the big screen -- there are no special effects to dazzle you , no action sequences to keep you on the edge of your seat , and no use of digital surround sound .
so , it seems pointless to spend $ 8 per person to see this movie when in a few months it will be out on video and you can watch it for $ 3 , and not have to sit in a room full of popcorn addicts .
nevertheless , mst3k : tm provides more laugh - out - loud opportunities than any film you 're going to see this year , and i thoroughly recommend it to anyone with a pulse .
given its uniqueness
, i hesitate to grade it against other films , but it fulfils its claims and so in the class of " unsubtle comedy films whose laughs come at the expense of bad b - movies
" it does well .

SOLUTION:
P