TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: according to the publicity material , with this movie the directors " hope to restore good old - fashioned bowling to its rightful place in the mainstream of american consciousness .
" hmm .
you never know , they just might be on to something .
what with the rise of geek chic , lounge music and seventies fashion , the ever - contrary kids of the nineties might just latch on to bowling as another terminally unhip bastion of tackyana to claim as their own .
but then , i doubt if kingpin will have anything to do with it .
it 's cheesy all right , but connoisseurs of bad taste will find this film exudes that bland smell of stale jokes rather than the invigorating stink of true kitsch .
that 's a shame , because , in the first ten minutes
or so the film promises to be a lot more .
woody harrelson plays the hotshot bowler on the rise , roy munson .
the movie opens in the fifties with roy 's dad dishing out the reader 's digest / gumpian wisdom in scoopfuls , shifting to the 70s for a hilarious spoof of saturday night fever .
the sardonic tone of the proceedings is much enhanced by the presence of bill murray , as the delectably slimy big ern mcracken .
it 's thanks to murray that the first quarter of kingpin seems so good
- he gives the wry , derisive edge to this otherwise rather unfocused comedy .
mccracken dupes munson into a hustling job , then abandons him to an angry mob who mangle roy 's hand .
then it 's fast forward 17 years later when munson is a fat , balding loser with a prosthetic rubber hand .
he 's hopeless until he meets ishmael ( randy quaid ) ,
an amish amateur bowler that munson takes on as protege .
so together they set out for the million dollar bowling tournament in reno , picking up pretty hustler claudia ( vanessa angel ) on the way .
with the exit of bill murray , the filmmakers seem to have only one direction to go , and that 's . . .
dumb and dumber .
yes , indeed , kingpin is brought to you by those modern proponents of laxative humour , peter and bobby farrelly , the directors of the aforementioned jim carrey vehicle .
so , prepare for much slaparound comedy with flying rubber hands , distended nipples , ridiculous hair and bull semen .
get set for stock fish - out - of - water situations when city - boy roy puts on a beard and tries to blend in with the amish community , or when suaku straitlaced ishmael takes on smoking , striptease and unchristian neighbour - socking .
now , do n't get me wrong , there 's nothing wrong with cheap humour , and i had my fair share of lavatorial laughs with woody and randy .
the trouble is that these jokes are n't bold or funny enough to drive a movie that bumbles along without much sense of direction .
it lurches from sports movie to amish - mocking to road - trip to sentimental melodrama , ( pausing for a broadside spoof of indecent proposal , and many shameless plugs for the accompanying pop soundtrack ) , never quite getting it all together .
some gags fall flat from a lack of build - up , while there are bits and pieces in the movie that simply do n't do anything .
why the long , unfunny fight in the car park ?
why two of these ?
why does that guy wear mascara , or that guy have a glass bowling ball with a rose in it ?
the film is full of these half - thought - through ideas that give the impression of any old gaffer , grip or makeup artist throwing in random stuff and saying , " would n't that be funny ? " .
well , no , actually .
the actors do n't do the movie much favours either .
woody harrelson comes off okay , plausibly acting dumb , smart , cynical or innocent when the implausible script calls for it , but randy quaid is a ceaseless ham , and vanessa angel has no talent ( like schwarzenegger , she seems more convincing playing a computer - creation than a human -- take the tv series weird science . . .
please ) .
even murray hams it up when he reappears in the movie 's climax .
all in all , a fairly useless attempt at comedy , and a certified no - hoper at kickstarting the bowling renaissance .
we 'll have to look to a reinspired john waters , or perhaps somebody from down under ( " strictly bowling " , anyone ? ) for the definitive bowling comedy .
the flying inkpot 's rating system :
* wait for the video .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: there is n't much good about this movie .
not much i can say about the acting , directing , or writing that would make you consider seeing this movie .
so i 'll get my one good comment out of the way , at least joel schuemacher ( batman & robin )
did n't direct it or it would be titled " technicolor city " .
in fact there is nothing colorful about this movie , its dark and depressingly gloomy right down to the bitter end .
the plot has a tendency to be interesting , but all that passes while your laughing at the ridiculous things thrown into what could have been a fascinating movie .
the plot is impossible to explain due to how senseless it gets , so i will just touch on the bare minimum .
john murdoch ( rufus sewell ) awakes in the bathtub of a cheap hotel , only to find out he has forgotten everything .
john must find out who he is before the " strangers " ( a .
k .
a . mind erasing aliens ) find him and use him for their own evil conspiracy .
during the film some interesting points are raised about human individuality , and the existence of inherently evil people .
any of these points however are completely " erased " from your mind as you watch the actors stumble through the dreadful script .
as i mentioned earlier , nothing but the atmosphere is right in this film .
the acting is bland , and since there is virtually no character development
no one seems to care .
the special effects are low budget and some even hilariously fake , a sign of a true " b - movie " . the direction is poor and there is little continuity , not that you would expect it in a movie switching realities constantly .
lastly the script is weak and has no concept of reality , and does n't deserve to have the word " science " in science - fiction .
if i have n't got my point across , i 'll say it more plainly : this is a bad movie .
lets hope the next movie by alex
" i wish i was tim burton " proyas is at least tolerable .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: with the exception of their surrealistic satire barton fink , the films of joel and ethan coen fit into two broad categories : quirky and sometimes darkly humorous takes on the " film noir " genre in which crime schemes go wrong and spin increasingly out of control ( fargo , miller 's crossing , blood simple ) , and off - the - wall comedies centered around an eccentric , scatter - brained lead character ( raising arizona , the hudsucker proxy ) .
their latest offering , the big lebowski , falls within the latter category , though there are elements of the crime - gone - wrong theme and even a touch of satire to be found in this film .
the main difference , however , is that while the protagonists of raising arizona and the hudsucker proxy had lofty aspirations and ideals but did n't quite have the brains to get it all together , the main character of the big lebowski seems like a fairly intelligent guy who 's wise to the world , but he does n't really want to do much of anything besides go bowling , smoke pot , and generally relax .
that main character is jeffrey " the dude " lebowski ( jeff bridges ) , introduced by the film 's rambling narrator ( sam elliott ) as " quite possibly the laziest man in los angeles county .
"
the dude is unemployed , needless to say , and spends most of his time at the bowling alley with his two best friends , walter ( john goodman ) , a borderline - psychotic who 's in the habit of pulling a gun when he thinks somebody 's cheating in a bowling match ( " has the whole world gone crazy ? !
"
he shouts at a suspected cheater ) , and donny ( steve buscemi ) , who 's always a few steps behind the conversation and is constantly berated by walter for it ( " donny , you have no frame of reference here ! " ) .
these three seem to more or less live for bowling tournaments , and as the film begins they are anticipating an important match with rival bowler jesus quintana ( john turturro ) , who , when we first meet him , is doing a dance in the bowling lane to accompany a spanish version of " hotel california " and , if it 's possible , seems to be even more of a head case than walter .
if that does n't give you a good idea of this film 's absurdist tone , then perhaps this will : the entire scenario which drives the story is set in motion by two thugs mistakenly urinating on the dude 's rug .
they 've mistaken him for a millionaire of the same name who is also known as the " big " lebowski ( david huddleston ) and
whose nymphomaniac wife bunny ( tara reid ) owes money to porn producer jackie treehorn ( ben gazzara ) .
the dude goes to the big lebowski seeking compensation for his ruined rug ; he does n't have any luck , but when bunny is apparently kidnapped , the elder lebowski asks him to deliver the $ 1 million ransom .
unfortunately , walter gets involved and fouls up the drop - off , and before they can try again to get the money to the supposed kidnappers , the dude 's car gets stolen , along with the briefcase containing the money .
soon , the dude is being harassed not only by the big lebowski himself but also by treehorn and by a group of german " nihilists " who demand the ransom money even though they may not have been involved in the kidnapping in the first place ; the dude and walter suspect that bunny may well have kidnapped herself in order to extort money from her husband to repay her debts to treehorn .
meanwhile , the big lebowski 's daughter maude ( julianne moore ) , a feminist avant - garde artist who likes to make grand entrances swinging through the air naked , wants to recover the money for her family .
the plot , however , is really just a vehicle for all these bizarre characters to run wild and wreak their own unique forms of havoc .
the previews for the big lebowski feature creedence clearwater revival 's " run through the jungle , " and it fits : the coens see los angeles as a veritable jungle of oddballs and nutcases , with the sometimes bewildered dude left to run through it and try to avoid any more trouble ( usually unsuccessfully ) .
the film does n't feature quite as many one - liners and sight gags as the coens ' other comedies ( though there are a few hilarious moments of visual humor , particularly in the dude 's dream sequences and acid flashbacks ) , but it more than makes up for it with the sheer fun of watching these strange characters interact .
the film sometimes seems a little disjointed as a result - you get the feeling that the coens have not only set their characters loose in this " jungle " but are also themselves running crazy through the jungle of their own twisted imaginations -
but for the most part the characterizations are interesting enough to overcome the shaky plotting and what turns out to be a somewhat anticlimactic resolution .
there 's also a noticeable ( but not too heavy - handed ) thread of social commentary in the big lebowski , which , incidentally , takes place just as the gulf war is about to begin ; at the beginning , we see george bush on television making his " this aggression will not stand " speech .
the coens take aim at just about every elite l .
a .
subculture in the book :
the egotistical wealthy businessman ( " the bums will always lose ! " shouts the big lebowski at one point ) , the porn industry , the overbearing malibu policeman who berates the dude for disturbing their " peaceful beach community , " and so on .
by the end , we really start to admire the dude , who almost certainly harbors the least " aggression " of anyone in this story ; his passive resistance ( emphasis on " passive , " albeit ) to the elite emerges as something more than just another quirky characterization in a film overflowing with quirky characters .
he also turns out to have a pretty well - functioning brain in his head , even if he does n't like to use it very much ; his sarcasm towards treehorn and the malibu policeman shows that he knows when he 's getting a run around , and he does manage to unravel the kidnapping mystery by the end .
the coens certainly poke fun at the dude for his laziness , but they do n't just treat him as fodder for cheap shots either .
i think that , more than anything , is what makes the big lebowski
a standout comedy : it manages to approach characters like the dude and , to some extent , walter , with genuine affection while still acknowledging that they are pretty scatter - brained .
audience members may find themselves surprised at how much they like the un - dynamic duo by the end of the movie , given that they seemed like nothing more than the butts of an extended joke at first .
"
it 's good knowin ' he 's out there , the dude , takin ' it easy , " posits the narrator towards the end .
i dare say that truer words have seldom been spoken .

SOLUTION:
P