Teacher: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? If you are still confused, see the following 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: N
Reason: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").

Now, solve this instance: after watching " rat race " last week , i noticed my cheeks were sore and realized that , when not laughing aloud , i had held a grin for virtually all of the film 's 112 minutes .
saturday night , i attended another sneak preview for the movie and damned if i did n't enjoy it as much the second time as the first .
"
rat race " is a great goofy delight , a dandy mix of energetic performances , inspired sight gags and flat - out silliness
.
hands down , this is the most fun film of the summer .
the movie begins with zippy retro - style opening credits that look like they were torn straight out of a ' 60s slapstick comedy , featuring animated photos of the cast attached to herky - jerky bodies bounding around the screen .
then comes the setup .
donald sinclair ( john cleese ) , the extremely rich owner of the venetian hotel and casino in las vegas , enjoys concocting unusual bets for his high rolling clients .
to that end , he places a half dozen very special tokens in his slot machines .
gathering together the lucky token holders , he explains , " today you have a chance to play a game where the odds of winning are one in six .
"
the competition is simple : each contestant gets a key that opens a locker in silver city , n .
m . , containing $ 2 million in cash .
there is a transmitter in every key , so that sinclair and his cronies can keep track of who is ahead .
the race has no rules ?
whichever contestant reaches the locker first gets the money .
since it would be wrong to spoil any of the jokes , let 's use the next few paragraphs to profile the racers .
decked out in flashy , trashy clothing and sporting big hair , vera baker ( whoopi goldberg ) is in town to reunite with the daughter she gave up for adoption as a baby .
she finds that grown - up merrill ( lanai chapman ) is erudite , conservative and more than a little bit wary of this stranger trying to jump into her life .
thrown together , it becomes clear that both women share a fierce competitive nature .
owen templeton ( cuba gooding jr . ) is currently the most hated man in america .
an nfl referee , he cost gamblers all over the country enormous amounts of money by blowing a call in a high - profile game .
after escaping from a vengeful cab driver , owen gets to new mexico by masquerading as the driver for a busload of lucy ricardo impersonators heading to a convention .
mr .
pollini ( rowan atkinson ) is a cheerful , odd little italian man on holiday in america .
he also is narcoleptic and falls asleep at the most inopportune times .
pollini hitches a ride with zack ( wayne knight ) , a hyper - tense ambulance driver carrying a human heart across country for a transplant operation .
randy pear ( jon lovitz ) promised his wife beverly ( kathy najimy ) and two kids a fun - filled vacation in las vegas .
fearful that beverly will be angry over his involvement in the race , he claims that he must travel to silver city for a job interview .
beverly insists the family stay together , so they hop in the mini - van and tear off into the desert .
brothers duane ( seth green ) and blaine ( vince vieluf )
cody are young , crooked and stupid .
blaine has a speech impediment due to his poorly self - done tongue piercing , and duane is the only person who can come close to understanding him .
the boys will stop at nothing to reach their goal .
finally , nick shaffer ( breckin meyer ) is a no - nonsense lawyer - in - training who recruits helicopter pilot tracy faucet ( amy smart ) for the journey .
at first glance , they seem blandly wholesome , but all that changes when tracy buzzes the home of her boyfriend shawn ( dean cain ) and spies him swimming with another woman .
director jerry zucker ( " airplane , " " ghost " )
leaps from racer to racer , periodically returning to las vegas where sinclair and mr .
grisham ( dave thomas ) , his personality - impaired right hand man , continue cooking up bizarre bets for the gamblers .
as with any zucker production , a few jokes fall flat , but the momentum of the comedy zooms past those missteps .
high points for me include a bit involving kathy bates as a roadside squirrel salesperson and an intricately set up gag that carries jon lovitz and family from a bizarre museum to an outdoor rally , with an utterly tasteless and screamingly funny pay - off .
had i been part of the filmmaking team , i would have ditched a joke where a key is dropped into a baby 's clothes and instead had the key get lost in the cleavage of a dozing society matron .
it would have drawn the same laugh without the squirm - inducing hint of child molestation .
i also would have selected a different band for a concert sequence .
my god , do we really need yet another movie with smash mouth performing " all star ? " but enough carping .
" rat race " is a riot , with terrific no - holds - barred performances from the diverse cast . see it , see it again and when the dvd comes out , buy it , because a movie this hilarious will surely have outtakes to die for .
Student:
P