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: this is the movie that could single - handedly bring " mystery science theater 3000 " out of cancellation .
it 's one of those movies that 's so bad
it 's absolutely hilarious ,
due in no small part to its big star , supermodel cindy crawford .
if you only remember one thing about fair game , it should be that it singlehandedly proves crawford should stick to the sports illustrated swimsuit issues .
if you thought kathy ireland was laughable in alien from l .
a .
, you 'll change your mind when you see fair game .
ireland would win handfuls of oscars if this was her only competition .
in a real casting coup , crawford plays a super - intelligent lawyer ( in a jogging bra , of course ) .
we all know this is a stretch , the only legal opinion crawford has ever put forth being that she favors the death penalty for anyone who wears white after labor day .
nonetheless , someone out there thought she 'd make a good lawyer , but we 're reminded of her true function in the movie when she takes two showers in a period of twenty minutes .
and for you horny teenage boys out there , you actually get to see her topless for two seconds in the dark . . .
come to think of it , that may have been a body double .
cindy crawford is n't black , is she ?
like i said , crawford is a lawyer with a bunch of russians after her .
billy baldwin
( or is it stephen ?
alec ?
adam ?
kim basinger ?
) is the police detective who has to save her life , time after time , chase after chase , explosion after explosion .
there 's absolutely nothing original about this movie .
it 's every cop show of the 70 's mixed with every action thriller of the 80 's and every technology- exploitation movie of the 90 's .
three decades of crap
all in one place , driven further into the ground by crawford 's complete lack of acting talent . and
it 's all completely predictable .
you know the mistakes baldwin and crawford are going to make before they make them , you know when the " sexual tension " will finally end up in them consummating the relationship , you know when the villains will capture crawford so baldwin has to rescue her in the climax
and you know the movie 's going to suck from the first scene .
the plot is n't really explained until the end .
all we know is these russians have every detail about crawford in their computer .
in the words of one of the villains , " we even know what size pantyhose she wears .
"
( yeah , you and every 14-year - old boy in america . )
he goes on to add , " we know more about her than she does .
"
(
_ that _
i find very easy to believe . )
i hope you enjoyed those two sample dialogue quotes , because i wrote down plenty of other bad ones ( " if it were n't for me , you 'd still be pulling bananas out of your ass in cuba ! " )
because , you see , fair game is not only a showcase for recycled action cliches and terrible acting , but also some seriously bad dialogue .
it all adds up to a really terrible movie that made me laugh in plenty of places i was n't supposed to and grimace in places i was supposed to laugh .
one more thing fair game has against it is some awful comic relief .
would you laugh at a scene where crawford tortures a computer nerd with double entendres like
" i 'm very interested in _ hard_ware " and other crap about playing with his joystick ?
i would n't , but not because i 'm a computer nerd .
it 's just not funny .
crawford 's only contribution to the information age are a few gif files floating around with her head on a nude traci lords ' body . . .
or was it
jack lord 's body ?
i 'll leave you with the final line of dialogue in the movie .
the boat with all the russians has just blown up and baldwin and crawford are floating on a life raft .
crawford says woodenly , " that was my client 's boat you just blew up .
i 'm filing a lawsuit against you .
you 're in big trouble , " or something to that effect , and baldwin replies smugly , " what do i have to do to get out of it ?
"
they of course begin making out and the credits roll .
i 'm not going to talk about how stupid the line is or how , if they 'd really wanted to go for a bad closing line
they would have had baldwin say , " you think i could settle out of court ?
"
but i will tell you that , if anyone ever suggests you watch fair game with him or her
, you quote the final line of the movie to that person : " what do i have to do to get out of it ?
" serving america for over 1/50th of a century !
A:
N