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: capsule : this is a harrowing look at a rarely dramatized chapter of wwii , life in a japanese prison camp .
to end all wars is a moving film about the struggle of prisoners to retain their humanity and their dignity .
the somewhat religious interpretation may not be to everyone 's taste .
,
+3 ( -4 to +4 ) more than any other people the japanese seem capable of acting with one goal and not letting any other consideration get in their way .
this may be a holdover from the code of bushido when loyalty to ones master was the only law .
during world war ii , of course , the one goal was winning the war .
this led them to do some very inhuman things in pursuit of that goal .
when the japanese had captured prisoners , they were very much treated in whatever way would be optimum for achieving the one goal .
minimum resources were to be spent in maintaining prisoners in keeping with maximal positive output .
while the germans , not known for their kindness in those days , had a 6 % mortality rate among captured prisoners of war , the mortality rate of japanese prisoners of war was 27 % .
the best thing for the war effort was working prisoners nearly to death on the thailand to burma railroad .
that railroad was needed if japan was to attack india as it planned to do .
the best thing for the effort was not to waste much food on the prisoners so short and amazingly wretched food was the order of the day .
and just being in the jungle without proper medical aid took its toll .
in the public mind japan has never been held as accountable for war atrocities as was germany .
filmmakers have been reticent to tell the story , perhaps for fear of offending the japanese .
there are comparatively few films about the japanese pow camps .
certainly there was david lean 's the bridge on the river kwai .
there were some low - budget british exploitation films and that was about it .
then there were tv series " a town like alice " and " tenko .
"
lest the experience be forgotten we have a new film to end all wars directed by david cunningham and written by brian godawa .
it is based on the account of ernest gordan who survived the horror of that world war ii prison camp and went on to become for 26 years the dean of the chapel at princeton university .
the film while realistic shows the conditions in the camp as being considerably more brutal and sadistic than bridge on the river kwai portrayed them .
the story opens with six or so soldiers being marched into the prison camp only to be immediately placed in front of a firing squad .
it turns out to be a grim joke , one of many that the sadistic japanese play to amuse themselves .
beating and torture are commonplace events .
men already imprisoned tell the new arrivals to enjoy the last of their health ; it will not last long with parasites and disease almost inevitable .
however , unlike as in kwai , the prisoners want to avoid going to the hospital , called by the prisoners the death house .
so goes a war within a war with the prisoners trying to maintain their humanity and with the japanese trying to make them interchangeable and highly expendable cogs in a rail - laying machine .
this is more than just a battle of who will win the war but a battle of ideologies .
the japanese believe that the individual is nothing , that conformity to group 's norms is all that gives a life meaning .
conformity is purpose .
before the film is over there will be some surprising revelations about the character of the prisoners and the character of those running the camp .
if this story showed nothing but sadism from the japanese it would be one kind of story .
if the british ( with one american , by the way ) and the japanese learned to respect each other it would be another kind of story .
it is neither .
it is a stirring and believable account of camp life .
the color has been distorted in the film to give a washed out yellow .
this serves a double purpose for cunningham .
it gives an effect of technicolor film that has been left in heat .
it also creates a distancing effect .
the only touch that seems a little out of place is the use of gaelic music .
this is a powerful and philosophical view of the prison camp experience .
i rate it a 9 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale .
A:
P