In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
One example is below.
Q: plot : two teen couples go to a church party , drink and then drive .
they get into an accident .
one of the guys dies , but his girlfriend continues to see him in her life , and has nightmares .
what 's the deal ?
watch the movie and " sorta " find out . . .
critique : a mind - fuck movie for the teen generation that touches on a very cool idea , but presents it in a very bad package .
which is what makes this review an even harder one to write , since i generally applaud films which attempt to break the mold , mess with your head and such ( lost highway & memento ) , but there are good and bad ways of making all types of films , and these folks just did n't snag this one correctly
.
they seem to have taken this pretty neat concept , but executed it terribly .
so what are the problems with the movie ?
well , its main problem is that it 's simply too jumbled
.
it starts off " normal " but then downshifts into this " fantasy " world in which you , as an audience member ,
have no idea what 's going on
.
there are dreams , there are characters coming back from the dead , there are others who look like the dead , there are strange apparitions , there are disappearances , there are a looooot of chase scenes , there are tons of weird things that happen , and most of it is simply not explained .
now i personally do n't mind trying to unravel a film every now and then , but when all it does is give me the same clue over and over again , i get kind of fed up after a while , which is this film 's biggest problem .
it 's obviously got this big secret to hide , but it seems to want to hide it completely until its final five minutes .
and do they make things entertaining , thrilling or even engaging , in the meantime ?
not really .
the sad part is that the arrow and i both dig on flicks like this , so we actually figured most of it out by the half - way point , so all of the strangeness after that did start to make a little bit of sense , but it still did n't the make the film all that more entertaining .
i guess the bottom line with movies like this is that you should always make sure that the audience is " into it " even before they are given the secret password to enter your world of understanding .
i mean , showing melissa sagemiller running away from visions for about 20 minutes throughout the movie is just plain lazy ! !
okay , we get it .
. .
there are people chasing her and we do n't know who they are .
do we really need to see it over and over again ?
how about giving us different scenes offering further insight into all of the strangeness going down in the movie ?
apparently , the studio took this film away from its director and chopped it up themselves , and it shows .
there might 've been a pretty decent teen mind - fuck movie in here somewhere , but i guess " the suits " decided that turning it into a music video with little edge , would make more sense .
the actors are pretty good for the most part , although wes bentley just seemed to be playing the exact same character that he did in american beauty , only in a new neighborhood .
but my biggest kudos go out to sagemiller , who holds her own throughout the entire film , and actually has you feeling her character 's unraveling .
overall , the film does n't stick
because it does n't entertain , it 's confusing , it rarely excites and
it feels pretty redundant for most of its runtime , despite a pretty cool ending and explanation to all of the craziness that came before it .
oh ,
and by the way , this is not a horror or teen slasher flick . . .
it 's just packaged to look that way because someone is apparently assuming that the genre is still hot with the kids .
it also wrapped production two years ago and has been sitting on the shelves ever since .
whatever . .
. skip it !
where 's joblo coming from ?
a nightmare of elm street 3 ( 7/10 ) - blair witch 2 ( 7/10 ) - the crow ( 9/10 ) - the crow : salvation ( 4/10 )
- lost highway ( 10/10 ) - memento ( 10/10 ) - the others ( 9/10 ) - stir of echoes ( 8/10 )
A: N
Rationale: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").
Q: one of the first films of 1999 is this mtv pictures release which marks the first leading feature role for james van der beek , the star of the wb 's runaway hit dawson 's creek .
following in the foot steps of mtv 's two other live action films , joe 's apartment ( 1996 ) and dead man on campus ( 1998 ) , varsity blues is a bad film and is unlikely to cause much of a sensation in the marketplace .
set in west cannan , texas , the film examines the small town obsession with high school football through the eyes of second string quarterback john " mox " moxon ( van der beek ) .
we know he 's smart because he reads kurt vonnegut instead of the playbook .
coach bud kilmer ( jon voight ) has been around so long there is actually a bronze statue commemorating him .
the star quarterback , lance harbor ( paul walker ) , is a handsome , blonde , hero who has his own billboard in his front yard and dates the sexy head cheerleader , darcy ( ali larter ) .
also on the team are an enormous guy ( ron lester ) with some health problems and the token african - american team member ( eliel swinton ) whose only real dialogue scene deals directly with the color of his skin .
when lance is seriously injured , mox gets his chance to shine and he runs with it , undermining kilmer with his unusual playing strategies .
his relationship with his dutiful girlfriend , jules ( amy smart ) , is threatened and there 's a big game at the end .
guess who wins ?
nothing about varsity blues is inspired and the whole film simply moves through the sort of conventional motions that coach kilmer would love .
there 's a chance for some smart satire on small town obsessions but the humor here is decidedly lowbrow
.
van der beek does a decent job of carrying his first film although a silly accent trips him up sometimes .
also , the role is n't very much of a stretch from his dawson leary character .
he 's still a pseudo - intellectual , whiny , nice guy , except here he also happens to be a jock .
voight is a terror as he chews up every single piece of scenery and spits it out .
the other adults are all notably awful while the younger performers do n't fare much better
.
on the positive side , walker is a charismatic actor who is due for a breakout role following this and his supporting turn in pleasantville ( 1998 ) .
scott ( son of james ) caan has some lively moments as tweeder , the team 's wild man .
larter , as a gorgeous seductress looking for a one way ticket out of texas , gets to show off the film 's most interesting costumes , including a very eye - opening " whipped cream bikini .
"
it 's interesting to note that the film definitely earns its r - rating with a lot of harsh language , alcohol abuse and an unusually high amount of nudity ( including a gratuitous trip to a strip bar that reveals a not very surprising surprise ) .
all this is likely to come as a shock to the young female fan base of dawson 's creek , presumably the target audience for the picture .
director brian robbins previously helmed the kids feature good burger ( from nickelodeon films , a sister company of mtv ) and changes directions here a bit but still fails to make much of an impression .
the look of the movie is as bland
as the town and characters who populate it .
the football scenes are generally unexciting and the entire film looks a bit washed out .
there 's an ok soundtrack featuring music from collective soul , foo fighters , green day and aaliyah
but it 's not as impressive as one would expect from a mtv film .
A:
N