TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: mugshot ( director / writer / cinematographer / editor : matt mahurin
; cast : belinda becker ( stella ) , michael williams ( rumor ) , robert knepper ( joe / chris ) , robert walker ( random ) , willie lassic ( young brother of rumor ) , maxine joiner ( rumor 's mother ) ; runtime : 87 ; mortal films ; 1995 ) reviewed by dennis schwartz a bleak indie film about a stolen identity .
there 's not much more to this visually stylish film than what meets the eye , as it relies on shock to tell its story of a prolonged vicious mugging .
it falls into the category of being a pretentious art - house film , leaving a bitter taste in one 's mouth as it stereotypes its characters and unintentionally further inflames the racial issues .
it tries to make a heavy - handed point about disenfranchised black youths trapped by their environment , with their only way out being crime .
but the story is so filled with violence and its nyc setting looks like hell , that it 's hard to enjoy this film and to follow what the logic in the story is supposed to mean .
the relationship between the black mugger and his white victim is a cloudy one , which the film never determines what it wants to say about it .
matt mahurin is virtual one - man crew in putting this film together ( director / writer /cinematographer / editor ) , who is a still photographer in his day job .
the film works best as a visually challenging piece , as each shot looks like a photograph carefully telling the story unfolding .
a white photographer ( robert knepper ) is mugged by a black gang while he 's on a freelance assignment to take a photo shoot of harlem at night .
he becomes a victim of amnesia and his head is bloodied as he 's left in a deserted harlem building , as the gang leaves him for dead ; but , one of the muggers , rumor ( michael williams ) , comes back and pretends to help him .
he 's a would - be photographer , who keeps a scrapbook entitled mugshots in the project apartment he shares with his mother and younger brother .
keeping his victim in the dark about who he is by calling him joe and not telling him what 's happening , he becomes the photographer for a few days .
he enters the photographer 's stylish greenwich village apartment and steals his expensive camera , and decides to hold the mugging vic for ransom when he finds out he has a black girlfriend , stella ( belinda becker ) .
she 's the only one in the film who could act .
the film is stuck with a clumsy dialogue and an overuse of symbolism , as it ends with nothing more to tell after the shock and the violent situation it created except to beat it into the ground .
it could only be commended for how appealing the film looks , as if it 's a scrapbook of still photos put together to celebrate a mugging .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: bob the happy bastard 's quickie review : the odd couple ii grumpy old men , it ai n't .
hell , my fellow americans
, it ai n't .
walter matthau and jack lemmon team up again for an even more worn out vehicle
than any of their films over the past few years .
odd couple ii feels terribly generic , where in the first movie , made thirty one years ago , feels like a wonderful tale .
that 's like repackaging campbell 's soup in a generic food can , really .
how writer neil simon could 've made such a horrible mistake
in screen writing is beyond me .
throughout the movie , i really did n't laugh once . honestly .
i mean , there were dumb situations , yeah , like the cropduster who let these old geezers have it without any notice , but they just really did n't seem funny to me .
and that car rolling off the cliff ?
the only way i would 've seen humor in that is if they were still in it .
and the ending gets all super - mushy , too .
in the final twenty minutes or so , lemmon meets a girl he thinks is the one , then loses her ; matthau talks to his son ( a wasted jonathan silverman ) about his amrriage to lemmon 's daughter ; and , of course , lemmon and matthau have another roomie situation on their hands .
ooh , i really gave a lot away there , i 'm sure .
consider it a hospitable gester ,
you wo n't waste your time renting this muck .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: have you ever been in an automobile accident where you 've miraculously walked away with only a few scratches , yet the car has been obliterated into an unrecognizable , mangled wreck ?
well , that has never actually happened to me and i hope that none of us will ever experience this situation .
but
after watching this inane exercise of a movie , i certainly feel that i 've miraculously walked away unscathed after a two - hour ride that mercilessly careens back and forth before finally plummeting into an icy pond .
oddly , ` eye of the beholder , ' which is a psychological - romance - thriller , starts off promisingly enough when the opening sequence introduces us to a british intelligence agent , called the eye ( ewan mcgregor ) , working in washington dc .
in the humorous opening scene , he eyes a top lawyer across the street in his office with his pants down . using an array of high - tech surveillance and communications equipment , he proceeds to transmit pictures of the bared lawyer to pc screens and fax machines in his office .
the law firm 's employees get a good chuckle .
the audience gets a good chuckle .
the eye is later given an assignment where he encounters a beautiful woman ( ashley judd ) .
there is something compelling about this mysterious woman .
despite her glamorous looks , however , we learn that she is a psychopath with a propensity to kill men that get too close to her .
after the murders , she sobs while singing the christmas tune ` little bluebirds ' and laments about being abandoned by her father long ago .
after each killing , she puts on a different wig , assumes a new name , and then makes her way to another state .
the eye has witnessed all her murderous transgressions .
but he does not alert the authorities .
he somehow empathizes with her sense of loss .
the eye , it turns out , also is haunted by his past .
his daughter was taken away from him and he anguishes this loss every day of his life .
his tormented psyche creates a ghost - like image of his daughter with which he engages in conversation .
she becomes a sort of spectral adviser , and one thing that the ghostly daughter says is that he must help the woman .
he now diverts his energies into trying to help her find some kind of salvation .
it does n't matter that he has witnessed all of her murders .
and it does n't matter that the eye is abnormally reticent , hiding his entire life behind computer screens .
he follows her to a dozen different locales and shadows her every move to keep her out of trouble .
when a crazed druggie ( jason priestley ) attacks her , he shows up for some quick butt kicking .
when the police are closing in to arrest her , he provides a distraction so that she can escape .
all the while , the woman has no idea who her guardian angel is and the eye stays just out of sight .
peculiar .
how bad is this movie ?
i refer you to my ` review quote source ' litmus test .
just take a look at the full - page ad in the newspaper and see where they are pulling quotes .
for this movie , they are from magazines called ` flaunt ' and ` mirabella . '
no doubt , they were impressed with judd 's series of catwalks and disguise changes .
the major problem with ` eye of the beholder ' is that the film jerks forward , always unsure of its ultimate destination .
if it was a thriller , there was little to keep us entranced .
if it was a love story , there was absolutely no emotional pull .
completely disjointed in structure , it 's only saving grace was its stylish look which reminded me of my favorite car commercial ( the one where the ` 6 ' on the tachometer dissolves into a winding road and a passenger rail car dissolves into a small miniature on a child 's train set ) .
i am also still hopeful that ashley judd will find a serious role to showcase her potential talents .
beyond that , the film is hopelessly out - of - control and is in need of seriously better traction and handling .

SOLUTION:
N