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

Now, solve this: as a revolutionary war hero in the patriot , mel gibson provides another macho man performance for hollywood audiences .
you know the type : his shirt is always shredded , his face always scarred , he has a soft spot for his loved ones and a " to kill " list for his enemies .
oscar - hungry director / executive producer roland
emmerich did not intend to , but he made the stereotypical action hero for the 18th century .
as gibson delivers lines like , " before this war is over , i am going to kill you , " schwarzenegger in commando or stallone in cobra immediately come to mind .
oddly enough , the patriot is as much an epic three - hour - tear - fest like gladiator , as
it is a ninety - minute guilty pleasure .
at times absorbing , at others enjoyably insipid , this is good , bloody summer fun .
i probably would have despised this film had it not been released over the july 4th weekend .
some of the images are so zealously americanized ( the flag is used as a lifesaving weapon for example ) , that independence day seems the only appropriate time of year to wholeheartedly accept it .
like emmerich 's id4 , this is obvious propaganda where the americans are the hapless underdogs motivated by freedom for all .
sure it 's predictable and melodramatic , but for a moment after leaving the theater , i was dumbfounded with patriotism .
and is n't that the point of the patriot ?
gibson plays benjamin martin , the lionized french and indian war veteran , who , at the beginning of the film , is emotionally suffering after his loving wife passed away .
he is left to father seven children at his south carolina estate along with black servants ( not slaves ! ) . as the revolutionary war rumbles miles away , martin swears to keep his family close and away from the battlefields .
but when the oldest son enlists anyway and another is murdered by a wicked redcoat colonel ( jason isaacs ) , martin quickly decides to save the day ( or save the fate of america as presented by emmerich ) .
forming a band of aggressive farmers and using guerilla tactics considered unfair in the art of war , martin becomes the number one target of the british army .
the best parts of the patriot are the scenes in which martin and his rugged militia men outsmart the british armies left and right .
every time the farmers attacked the unsuspecting enemy , to see the disbelief on british general cornwallis ' ( tom wilkinson ) face was priceless entertainment .
and as the tension gradually formulates with the running time , a final battle is inevitable .
as for the numerous battle scenes , they are expertly done . clearer and more realistic
than those of gladiator , the gruesome images are what give this film an r rating .
you really get a sense of how warfare was performed during that time period .
everything is performed in an orderly ( but still quite gory ) fashion - one side shoots , then the other side , then the remaining soldiers charge .
it 's organized , strategic and , according to martin , ineffective .
there is a very interesting contrast between the traditional battle style and martin 's take - no - prisoners method .
what drives martin to these supposedly unfair actions , are the originally brutal tactics of colonel tavington . played wonderfully by jason isaacs , tavington is the type who loves to glare down from his horse at civilians , who nervously avoid eye contact .
this character is viciously evil ; he kills women and children and then laughs about it on the way home ; even his eyes are evil .
his portrayal has sparked some controversy in britain , some claim that he falsely represents his countrymen as " cowardly " and " sadistic .
"
i disagree with this accusation .
tavington does not represent his country ; his unnecessary executions shock his own colleagues and even anger his general .
besides tavington , the redcoats remain stick figures that are neither glorified nor patronized . and stick figures make the easiest enemies in these kinds of movies - why give the audience a reason to love the bad guys ?
heck , why not spend the entire film glossing up the good guys ?
the patriot is three hours of fictional fireworks .
with an action hero seeking revenge and a comic book villain ready to take him down , it 's a lethal weapon for the colonial times .
god bless america !
and god bless the patriot !
Solution:
P