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

Problem: capsule : combine one quart of raiders of the lost ark , a dash of a jackie chan movie ( sans jackie ) , two teaspoons of gun- and swordplay , and a dollop of cgi .
simmer for 100 minutes .
yields :
zilch .
the phantom is a depressing and tired retread of so many earlier , better movies that after the fifteen - minute mark i started cataloguing them out loud .
it 's hard to make a good action - adventure movie that does n't simply recycle its predecessors , and i 've seen movies that even at least did the recycling gracefully .
the phantom , allegedly based on the long - running comic of the same name , does n't even bother to be graceful .
it 's a stupid and incompetent movie in too many ways to list , but i 'll try .
the film opens up with a " prelude " sequence that looks like it was slashed to ribbons in the editing and then given a heavy voice - over to compensate for whatever got thrown out .
we go from there to a jungle sequence that , i swear to god , recycles the truck - chase scene from raiders of the lost ark note - for - note , possibly even shot - for - shot , right down to the moment where indy wrenched open the door and slung one of the drivers out into the brush -- and
then goes on to rip off the rope - bridge scene from " sorcerer " as well !
sorcerer , as you may well remember , was a remake of a french movie , the wages of fear , in which a bunch of lowlifes were paid piles of money to drive a truck loaded with nitro through horrible jungle terrain .
both versions of that movie were far more interesting than this flick , but i 've got my job to do , so back to the salt mines we go .
anyway ,
the cinematic theft does n't stop there . or at least the lack of inspiration .
there is n't a single thing here we have n't seen , and it 's not given to us in a way that remotely evokes our interest .
we have ( where 's my list ? )
a bad girl , a tough good girl , a secret cave hideaway ( which seems inspired more by dr .
no than anything else ) , a boardroom meeting that drips with greed and venality , magical artifacts of terrible power , and cary - hiroyuki tagawa wasted in another stupid role where he gets to wear a fu manchu mustache and sneer a lot and generally humiliate himself .
what else is there ?
the plot is a waste of time .
the sets alternate between big but hokey -- and tiny and still hokey .
there are lines in the script that are just begging to be mst3ked --
and i 'm sure once mike and
the ' bots get the cash , they 'll stick it on their sked .
the only thing in the movie worth noting is billy zane -- he 's a good actor , and he tries very hard , even when the script is sending him down one dead alley of a scene after another .
all i can say is that i pray this is n't the beginning of the end for him --
although it sure looks like the final nail in the coffin for the comic - book super - hero movie .
Solution:
N