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: in " the 13th warrior , " arab poet ahmed ibn fahdlan ( antonio banderas ) finds himself kicked out of baghdad for feeling up the king 's old lady .
with his translator ( screen legend omar sharif in a small role ) , ahmed heads north to act as ambassador to the northmen ( vikings ) .
he finds a group of warriors mourning the loss of their king .
a messenger soon arrives from another kingdom requesting assistance .
a soothsayer says that thirteen warriors must answer the summons , twelve northmen and one outsider .
thus , ahmed becomes the " 13th warrior .
" on the trip , ahmed manages to learn the vikings ' language by listening to their fireside conversations .
a bit far - fetched , it 's true , but we have to swallow it if this flick is going to manage a few lines of dialogue amidst the grunting .
ahmed , who 's called " ibn " by the vikings , forms friendships with herger the joyous ( dennis storh ?
i ) and the viking leader buliwyf ( vladimir kulich ) .
when they arrive in the other kingdom , the thirteen warriors discover that they 're facing an army of supernatural cannibals that live up in the caves .
hereafter , most of the movie is battle scenes : the cannibals attack the vikings , the vikings attack the cannibals , the cannibals attack the . . .
well , you get the idea .
just to add some action , there 's also a viking vs . viking duel .
other movies insert scenes between the fights ; these scenes are called character development .
i suspect that " the 13th warrior " had a better script at one time and that it fell through the cracks because of the tag - team direction .
the movie started off in the hands of john mctiernan ( you 'll notice a lot of similarities between " warrior " and mctiernan 's " predator , " including the chittering jungle sounds ) .
somewhere along the line , mctiernan bailed and michael crichton took over .
crichton , whose novel " eaters of the dead " is the basis for " warrior , " has directed a small assortment of goofy science - fiction " thrillers " : " westworld , " " coma , " " looker , " " runaway .
" their result of their consecutive efforts is a murky and pointless movie .
perhaps what " the 13th warrior " needs more than anything else is a villain .
the " eaters of the dead " are a faceless mob in blackface .
they have no personality , and by the end they do n't even seem particularly threatening .
the audience has no target toward which to channel its aggression .
mctiernan should know about the importance of an interesting villain ; it was his " die hard " that made villains seem fun and attracted big - name stars to the evil roles in action films .
"
the 13th warrior " suffers from a lack of vision .
it wants to be " predator " meets " braveheart " meets " the magnificent seven " meets " dances with wolves .
" with so many competing goals , all it can do is echo what it might have been .
it might have been a satisfying action film .
it might have been a beautifully - rendered medieval epic .
it might have been a thought - provoking examination of the meeting of cultures .
what a shame it turned out to be nothing in particular .
bottom line : if you want to see antonio swing his sword , rent " the mask of zorro .
"
A:
N