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

Now, solve this: seen february 15 , 1998 on home video ( borrowed from chris wessell ) .
when it comes to modern gangster movies , it 's really difficult to describe and review them without making comparisons to other films of the genre and/or just using the word " routine .
"
i 've always subscribed to the philosophy that any idea ( no matter how many times it 's been used before ) can provide for a good story and " donnie brasco " clinches this idea .
it 's not unlike most of the great films of the genre , yet it never apes another 's style as it has a good layer of authenticity , even if its core is a tad stale .
the film starts off in typical fashion by defining its atmosphere of new york city in the late 1970s and the mobsters who inhibit it .
we meet lefty ( pacino ) , an aging wiseguy who can still walk the walk and talk the talk .
he and his associates go through the generic motions you expect to see in crime films like this .
somehow he comes across donnie brasco ( depp ) , a younger guy with a lot of spunk who is n't afraid of lefty and his rep , and even manages to befriend him after lefty was ready to kill him .
it 's clear donnie is new to the life and lefty
recognizes this immediately , telling him all the tricks of the trade .
i have never seen this technique of actually revealing the mafioso idiosyncrasies done before and for this the film deserves credit .
however , we soon realize donnie is actually joe pistone , an fbi agent working undercover - a character who symbolizes the viewer as he will soon be purged into the lifestyle and treated as a newcomer .
the first act works as a guided to ot of rhetoric about wiseguy honor , a brief history of the mob , definitions of their slang , and where their money comes from and who it goes to .
the screenplay is rather sketchy on the details surrounding these elements , however ,
the fact they are mentioned at all is quite original .
most gangster movies seem to be made with the notion the viewer already knows how the mob works ( probably from watching other gangster movies ) , and although this attitude comes across , the film tries to fill in all the holes where and when it can and the effort is appreciable .
thankfully the film does n't become too caught up in the tedious details of organized crime , and instead opts for character development .
much of the story is told simply through the interaction between lefty and donnie .
pacino is outstanding here as the pathetic hood who speaks of his job in the same manner any blue collar worker would .
he 's old and exhausted but seems to enjoy what he does , just as anyone loyal to the same employer for over 30 years
might be .
we learn of his accomplishments , which are quite impressive within their context , and when he complains about not being made top boss , it 's easy to sympathize with him .
newell constantly plays up this aspect , making it a major theme which works well in the long run
.
as donnie is constantly impressing and even one - upping lefty , it 's hard to tell which emotion is more powerful : the fact donnie is getting closer to nailing the mob ; or the fact lefty has once again been over shadowed .
most of the film tells the story of donnie 's life in mafia , which creates for many sub - plots and individual conflicts , but does n't always seem to come together as a whole .
the storytelling is genuinely interesting throughout , even when the motions the characters go through seem familiar .
the resonance to donnie 's actual assignment varies , he often reports back to the feds with detail of his progress , but it does n't always seem to have much meaning .
back home , his wife maggie ( heche ) is ready to divorce him because he 's never a and the family is suffering .
since this is based on a true story i would n't doubt this would happen , although the way it is handled often borders on the melodramatic .
my only major complaint is the film seems to have no final act , or at least any real sense of closure .
a climax of sorts does occur , but there 's little feeling of a payoff .
we get a happy ending , which is good , but perhaps a sad ending would have been more powerful .
aside from a few minor , general flaws , " donnie brasco " manages to be a solid piece of storytelling and character development .
it may be routine , but it 's good , and that 's respectful .
Solution:
P