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: one way of telling if a film is good or not is by the length .
if a film is only 90 minutes , but feels like 300 minutes , then it 's crap .
but if a film last 2 1/2 hours , and feels like 90 minutes , then it 's excellent .
boogie nights falls into the latter catagory .
the director , anderson , delivers a funny , hip , yet sometimes violent film , which flies along .
mark whalberg , a .
k .
a marky mark , plays eddie adams , a seventeen year old with a certain ' gift ' in the midriff area .
jack horner ( reynolds ) is a adult film director , who decides that eddie would be great in the adult movie business .
after running away from home , eddie joins jack , changes his name to dirk diggler , and starts making erotic movies .
in the movie business , dirk meets a whole load of characters ( which the film introduces very quickly and slickly ) such as scotty ( phillip seymour hoffman ) , rollergirl ( graham ) amber ( moore ) and floyd ( phillip baker hall ) , and little bill ( william h . macy )
all the characters are well written , well played , and the audience gets to know them pretty well , thanks to the excellent script .
we learn about ambers grief about not being able to see her child due to a divorce , rollergirls hard time at school , and little bills wife , who sleeps with everyone except her husband .
but the best thing about the excellent boogie nights is paul andersons direction and writing .
the direction is fast , thrilling , and never holds up .
there are some great shots , some lovely steadiocam and handheld camera sequences , and lots of other neat directional touches .
the writing is fabulous , with some intelligent dialogue , some funny dialogue , but none of the dialogue is crap , like most hollywood films ( such as the lost world : jurassic park ( 1997 ) , or tommorow never dies ( 1997 ) . )
boogie nights really is a spectacular feat of direction and writing , on par ( and sometimes betters ) quentin tarantino 's films resevoir dogs ( 1992 ) and pulp fiction ( 1994 ) the soundtrack is also excellent
.
like american graffiti ( 1973 ) , the film features some great old songs on the soundtrack , which heightens the atmosphere , and gives the film an extra lift . also ,
the costumes are great .
the clothes really do look like what people wore in the seventies and eighties .
the film , although excellent , does have some flaws .
firstly , wahlberg , although excellent , can not do highly scenes which require him to be angry .
in both scenes where he has to act angry , his acting is so ' off ' , the scenes tension and anger is lost .
but the rest of the cast are excellent .
burt reynolds is brilliant , julianne moore shows real emotion , and william h .
macy is great aswell ( but he always is . )
another flaw with the film , though , is that the ending seems a bit tacked on .
it seems anderson saw the film was going on a bit , and needed to wrap up quickly .
it 's a shame , really , as the rest of the film is perfectly paced .
but they 're small niggles really .
boogie nights is an excellent film . superb directing , writing , acting and music , all combine to make one spectacular film .
whatever you do , do not miss out on boogie nights .
Student:
P