TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: i rented this movie with very high hopes .
this movie got praise as one of the best films of 1998 , and unfortunately , was not as good as i hoped , but was still very intriguing and thought provoking .
first of all , the casting for this film is great .
tobey maguire and reese witherspoon are the future of hollywood .
they play their roles as the parker brother and sister perfectly .
with a plot as unbelievable as this film , you need chemistry and honest acting from your cast .
tobey and reese ( bud and mary sue parker ) play their roles perfectly and display their characters with honesty and believability .
william h. macy , an actor i have grown to love over the past year , turns in another great performance as the tv dad who is torn over his wife , a " colored " person and his friends , the " non - colored " ones .
he also displays believability and must display a certain lack of chemistry with his wife .
he does this perfectly and yet again shows why he should be one of the top actors in hollywood .
joan allen is equally great as betty parker ,
the ideal tv mom .
her character is the most ambitious .
she is very na ?
ve , and must display this well to make her character believable
and she does just that .
her lack of chemistry with macy , which the role calls for , and her developed chemistry with jeff daniels is terrific , and if daniels would have been as stellar as the rest of the cast , then this film would even been even better .
as said before , jeff daniels gives a bad performance .
his character displays the change going on throughout the town , yet he does not display it with enough conviction .
his character is very confusing and he is not very believable .
this film could have been elevated to a whole new level had daniels been able to give a better performance .
the movie is very provocative .
it challenges the issues of racism that existed in the past and that still exist today .
i really was not expecting all of the elements they brought up ,
but they pulled them off with such flair that it was mind blowing .
they demonstrate the racism issue without a hitch , but do it in a slow pace .
the only major flaw in the film besides the performance by daniels is length .
some films are not meant to be that long .
pleasantville is one of those films .
this film could have been so much better had they not moved so slowly to it .
first , they are amazed by the implementation of color .
then they want to have it .
then they do not want to .
then the war ensues between the colored and non - colored .
this is all strung out over two hours , which was way too long .
some movies need a lot of time .
saving private ryan was a little bit under three hours long and i thought it could have used more time .
this film is only two hours long , and seems much longer .
length is everything in films .
if you can nail down the perfect timing and pace , you can win half the battle .
pleasantville can move at a good pace at times , but it is not consistent enough .
overall
, pleasantville is a very pleasant and provocative departure from the predictability of most films these days .
i went in expecting a light - hearted film about change .
i left learning an important lesson about racism and the way things change .
luckily
, pleasantville teaches this lesson in such a way to make it appeal to all audiences .
only if it could have done in a shorter amount of time .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: sandra bullock in high heels and wielding a chainsaw ?
yup , it 's got ta be summer .
just when you thought the pointless sequel had gone the way of franchise films and direct - to - video releases , into port slams speed 2 : cruise control , the gloriously godawful follow - up to the 1994 sleeper about a bus rigged to explode if it slowed below a certain speed .
the gimmick , this time , is an ocean liner rigged to , well , crash into stuff .
sound exciting ?
dennis hopper 's disgruntled bomb squader , the villain of the first film , has given way to willem dafoe 's disgruntled computer programmer , a maniac whose main beef has something to do with having to use live leeches , i kid you not , as a self - treatment for copper
poison- ing .
( and said poisoning induced by prolonged exposure to electro- magnetic fields , no less !
calling dean edell . . . )
so , he overrides the boat 's computer , convinces the crew to abandon ship , and sends the remaining passengers , those who could n't evacuate in time , on a col- lision course with destiny .
( oddly , no one thinks to just . . .
jump off the back of the boat . )
with keanu reeves electing not to return--
perhaps he read the script ?
-- the job of john mcclane goes to jason patric ( sleepers ) , as the * second * la cop and swat team member that that bus drivin ' babe annie ( bullock ) has dated .
( what are the odds ? )
they 're on this caribbean cruise for pleasure , as are a handful of requisite stock characters , including a deaf teenager
( ! ) who has a crush on the hero
( ! ! ) who also knows how to sign
( ! ! ! ) .
( and you thought the raptor slam was a cool summer movie move ?
wait till you see the feats that * this * little girl can do , when stuck on a shipboard elevator ! )
bullock is her pesky , perky self , though she ends up with far less screen time than her top billing suggests .
( those paying attention to her bikini-
and tank- tops probably wo n't complain , however ) patric is the main man in motion and that 's damn good , 'cause when he stops to talk , he 's only slightly less monotone than his predecessor .
( his first lol line is to ms .
bullock :
" i 'd like to boogie with you .
" ) of course , nobody in front of the camera embarrasses themselves quite the way that returning director jan de bont does .
he also produced this mess , which is insulting even by the most lax summer standards .
( con air , buddy , father 's day , romy and michelle 's high school reunion , murder at 1600 , 8 heads in a duffle bag , anaconda , vegas vacation , meet wally sparks , metro , bevery hills ninja , the relic , all is forgiven ) .
worse , he 's spent a hundred mil on a premise that does n't even live up to its title !
there 's no sweat - inducing motion of the ocean here-- just two hours of shaky handheld camera work and a handful of cross - cut exteriors , all leading up to the big slam , when the love boat sideswipes an oil tanker and then plows into a harbor town .
( oh , how far we 've come in twenty years .
remember the simple fun of seeing a locomotive smash into railway station in the silver streak ? )
admittedly , either of the aforementioned sequences is worth the price of admission .
it 's just the rest of the movie-- the other hundred or so minutes-- that 's pure nonsense .
and wonderful nonsense at that .
i know he did n't intend to , but de bont has done one thing right : he 's created the hands - down funniest film of the year .
so , now , allow to present a few more things that made me laugh :
o a box with a big label :
" fiber optic converter " o plain english , whole - sentence computer instructions o an entire sequence devoted to opening a fire door o jason patric 's character walks onto the bridge and immediately understands everything that 's happening o a ships ' navigator who speaks in a scottish accent and actually gets to say " i canna override it !
"
o willem dafoe 's amazing arm - mounted keyboard o two living , breathing adults ( bullock 's character and the first mate ) who have to be told , step by step , how to disconnect a trip wire from the pin of a hand grenade .
duh
o " no wait !
"
screams
the ship 's intercom o
yet another damn dog in peril
o fishing reel .
pontoon plane .
memories of weekend at bernie 's

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: when 17 year old beau hall ( jonathan tucker , " the virgin suicides " ) gets in a car accident after drinking with his 30 year old companion , club owner darby reese ( josh lucas , " session 9 " ) , his mom , margaret ( tilda swinton , " the war zone " ) pays reese a visit to convince him to leave her son alone .
instead , reese travels out to their lake tahoe home and lures beau out to the boat house where beau learns that his mother was right about reese .
the next morning margaret discovers darby 's dead body on their beach and , suspecting the worst , weights it down in a distant part of the lake .
but her troubles are just beginning , as she soon learns with the arrival of blackmailer alek spera ( goran visnjic , " practical magic " ) in " the deep end .
" the incredibly pale , red - headed scottish actress swinton immerses herself into the role of the reserved american super - mom whose life revolves around serving the needs of her three children and live - in father - in - law jack ( peter donat , " the game " ) .
she shows great strength while allowing other emotions to glimmer through - discomfort at challenging reese in his gay disco ( named the deep end ) , near panic at having to dive down to his body to retrieve car keys , or even wry humor when an attempt to get help from jack becomes hopelessly miscommunicated .
gradually her loneliness becomes apparent ( her husband 's a naval officer , usually away at sea ) when her attempts to email him her concerns about beau are deleted and later , when a most unusual , yet chaste , romance turns tragic .
it 's a terrific performance .
the stendahl syndrome - like script , adapted from elisabeth sanxay holding 's 40 's noir novel ' the blank wall ' by directors scott mcgehee and david siegel , would be unbelievable if not for swinton and her costar visnjic .
alek spera is a wrong side of the tracks loser who arrives after reese 's body has been discovered .
he shows margaret a videotape of beau having sex with reese and demands $ 50 , 000 or he 'll turn the tape over to the reno police .
subsequent visits will turn his mind set upside down and backwards , though , as he comes to admire and even love the woman he set out to blackmail .
there 's yet another problem , though - his partner nagle ( raymond barry , " dead man walking " ) is a harder cored criminal who wo n't let up until his share of the money is delivered .
visnjic 's dark , brooding turn has an interior shading to it that makes us believe he 's a victim of circumstance and environment .
his turnaround is palpable as he witnesses margaret 's inherent decency and her workaday surroundings .
also outstanding is tucker as beau , who has a terrific character arc and pas de deux with his mother .
initially beau 's the typical sullen teen . '
you 're blowing this out of proportion , ' he says of her concerns about reese , not comprehending that his mom has enough insight to have divined the true nature of the relationship .
as his mom gets in deeper and deeper trying to cover up a crime he did n't commit , beau becomes suspicious of her actions and apparent new companion , turning tables .
his early black eye becomes her later split lip .
while the two can never be completely honest with each other , their love for each other comes through strongly .
the directors ( " suture " ) have a firm grip on their material and cast .
the story builds perfectly with bold strokes amidst a myriad of subtler underpinnings .
water imagery is constant ( an early shot of weirdly rushing green is revealed to be a young boy cleaning out an aquarium ) .
giles nuttgens ( " fire " ) cinematography , which won the 2001 sundance festival award , is crisp and startlingly clear .
the tahoe locations and production design by kelly mcgehee and christopher tandon provide a dual personality for the film , contrasting the calm , well off existence of the lake against the gambling city of reno .
"
the deep end " is a complex story of domino deeds and shifting relationships .
take the plunge .

SOLUTION:
P