In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
Example: 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 )
Example solution: N
Example explanation: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").

Problem: synopsis :
cro - magnon ayla loses her mother to an earthquake and escapes certain death by a lion .
reluctantly rescued by a neanderthal clan who likes to have sex doggy - style , ayla grows up to become a blond , feminist supermodel who challenges the neanderthal patriarchy by throwing rocks and giving birth without a mate .
comments : allow me to state for the record that i find daryl hannah an appealing presence in movies .
she proved quite charming as the intelligent astronomer in the romantic comedy roxanne and equally creepy as pris in the sci - fi classic blade runner .
the clan of the cave bear clearly tries to capitalize on hannah as a selling point : the poster art bears a striking closeup of hannah in tribal paint and the video box prominently features her name in lettering the same size as the title .
not even her starring role in this turkey , unfortunately , can save it from being an unbelievable exercise in cheese .
it 's so uniquely bad ( a film dealing with prehistoric man that actually tries , and miserably fails , to be serious ) that it 's oddly fascinating .
the ridiculous attempt at drama here leaves the audience somehow transfixed , wanting to see how this dud plays out .
the clan of the cave bear is based upon a popular novel by jean m. auel .
to this day , the book possesses a loyal cult following .
i remember a dear friend of mine had a dog - eared copy of the novel she had read as a child with all the so - called dirty parts blacked out with marker by her grandmother .
i have never read this book , but i sure hope it 's 10 , 000 times better than its film adaptation .
if not , then i 'm at a complete loss to explain its popularity .
the clan of the cave bear immediately opens with a comically absurd scene .
a young ayla , looking much like drew barrymore in e. t. , tramps about in the woods .
with her cute little ponytails and fur wrapped about her , the audience 's expectations of a convincing portrayal of prehistory are immediately shattered .
what follows is a laughably choreographed sequence in which an earthquake swallows up ayla 's mother ( a blonde with fur pants .
..
er , leggings ) .
tearful ayla looks on as the cameraman shakes the camera .
..
well , as the earthquake slowly recedes .
a hungry lion becomes interested in her for lunch , but the screaming six - year - old manages to outrun the king of the wild and find a safe haven .
i wo n't detail the story any further ; this seems enough to illustrate my point .
this movie is really stupid .
it never even gives the audience a chance to suspend their disbelief .
also , the obvious comparison between the appearance of cro - magnon man in prehistory and the rise of feminism in our century is about as subtle as burning a wonderbra in front of charlton heston .
the movie does n't just suggest this message ; it whacks the message into the audience with a two - by - four .
a blond , gorgeous woman challenges the social laws of a bunch of people in gaudy brown wigs .
she 's of the " new people "
; they 're of the " old people " with " the memories .
"
yep .
we get it .
we get it .
the clan of the cave bear apparently received an academy award nomination for best make - up , which surprises me .
the movie depends upon a lot of make - up obviously , but much of it is unconvincing . as stated before , daryl hannah is daryl hannah here ; she looks like she just stepped out of the shower all the time .
the rest of the characters have dark make - up of some sort smeared over them to look like dirt .
the face - painting that 's occasionally seen is perhaps the only notable work here in my mind .
this movie also suffers from its new age trappings .
maybe the music sounded a lot more fresh or original during 1985 , but now it sounds dated and cliched , like poorly conceived elevator music .
add to this the film 's faux - mysticism , including spirit animals and dream visions , and a narrator who sounds like a psychic you 'd expect to hear on a 1 - 900 number , and you get a movie that has serious problems being serious .
the clan of the cave bear is rated r , though it 's probably one of the most inoffensive offensive films i 've seen in quite a while .
it contains several scenes of sex sans nudity .
the violence mostly consists of hunting scenes .
the funniest moment of the movie occurs when a neanderthal in love with ayla attempts to rescue her from a ferocious bear .
the bear bites his head off and the audience sees it rolling about .
although this may sound gratuitous , i 'm sure
, it 's so cheesy that it probably wo n't bother most people .
the clan of the cave bear is a bad movie .
however , as i wrote at the beginning of this review , it does have the distinction of originality .
typically when i think of bottom - of - the - barrel films dealing with early man , fantasy movies involving dinosaurs ( who did not exist at the same time as man ) and raquel welch come to mind .
the clan of the cave bear tries so hard to be serious that , though it 's so bad , the audience is still interested by the unique setting and characters of the movie ( which is why i awarded this turkey two stars ) .
i have to think that fans of the book would be disappointed with this film version
; however , i 'm only basing this observation on the fact that the book is almost invariably better than the movie .
i shudder to think that it could be otherwise . . .
Solution: N