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: the most absurd remake of 1998 ?
it 's a toss up between gus van sant 's psycho and mighty joe young , the new disney picture based on the old rko picture .
( i knew i was in trouble when a polished , computer - generated version of that famous rko logo appeared before the head credits . )
there is no great demand for another giant ape movie - make that ape movie , period .
( witness the quick deaths of buddy , born to be wild and congo . )
and while this latest entry is inoffensive and watchable , it 's also an assembly line product through and through , lacking the charm and unpredictability of the jungle serials that partly inspired it .
theron is jill young : as a young girl in the wilds of africa , she befriended a baby gorilla after both their mothers were slain by poachers .
that baby gorilla ( nicknamed joe ) grows to immense proportions , and adult jill basically bides her time looking after him , playing hide and seek with him and guarding him against poachers .
enter conservationist greg ( paxton ) , who convinces jill to move with joe to california , where they can protect him better in a controlled environment .
joe is restless at first ; no sooner does he finally settle in to the new place than those nasty poachers show up in l . a . , plotting joe 's demise .
suffice it to say , the movie could have been called " joe : ape in the city .
" theron ( so good in devil 's advocate ) and paxton ( so good in the recent a simple plan ) are fine actors , but not fine enough to transcend the material , a paint - by - numbers script from the hack writers of superman iv and mercury rising .
the plot arguably borrows more from steven spielberg 's the lost world than the 1949 original , with the computer - generated t - rex - i mean , joe - wreaking havoc on the busy streets for an encore ; the storytelling becomes especially lazy during this final third , with jill shouting , " look , joe 's headed for the movie theatre ! " followed by a shot of joe scaling mann 's chinese theater ; a moment later , jill shouts again something like " look , joe 's headed for an amusement park ! " and what do you know , there 's joe at the pallisades carnival , scaring the bejesus out of innocent thrillseekers .
the seams of last - minute edits to mighty joe young show - unrelated scenes are patched together with quick dissolves .
the movie sure feels uneven , regardless : act two is underdeveloped , while a little of joe smashing cars in act three goes a long , long way .
underwood ( tremors , speechless ) was perhaps not the director for the job ; even the plentiful , untamed landscape looks dull in his hands .
( capturing the beauty of nature requires more than his point and shoot style . )
i did enjoy certain sequences , especially the demoliton of a black - tie dinner sequence ; and the prologue , however implausible , is touching .
( as a tyke , joe acts just like e .
t . )
rick baker 's make - up effects and puppetry are outstanding , the real star of the show - yet , for all its technical flawlessness , the creature remains too grumpy and homicidal to love .
( his facial expressions are variations on a scowl . ) to be fair , i saw mighty joe young in a cinema packed with wailing children - it 's a wonder i was able to decipher the dialogue .
it 's certainly not a film for very young kids - intense fighting scenes may scare them , while any time joe 's not on camera may bore them to tears .
( note : older boys are more likely to be dazzled by theron 's colourful array of tank tops . )
i suspect bland mighty joe young is passable entertainment for a family outing , but they sure do n't make ?
em like they used to .
Student:
N