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 characters in jonathan lynn 's " the whole nine yards , " yet another in an endless recent string of mob comedies ( 1999 's " analyze this " and " mickey blue eyes , " 2000 's " gun shy " ) , are rarely ever written as real people , but
merely as one - dimensional caricatures .
when an added layer to one of their personalities is revealed , it is not to service the character development , or to naturally offer up instinctive characterizations , but to accommodate the convoluted plot . in a lightweight comedy , you might say , it is not required to have perfectly realized figures , just as long as they get the job done .
unfortunately , for a comedy to work , it has to at least succeed at being funny , and if there was a laugh - o - meter available , i 'd guess that it briefly ascended around 2 . 5 % of the time for me .
suffice to say , the comedy in " the whole nine yards " works about as well as the broken - down lawnmower in my backyard , and when a giggle surprisingly arises every twenty to thirty minutes , it is by sheer luck .
nicholas " oz " oseransky ( matthew perry ) is an amateur dentist living in the quiet suburbs of quebec .
trapped in a hateful marriage with the conniving sophie ( rosanna arquette , delightfully hamming it up with a clearly artificial french - canadian accent ) , one day oz sees that someone is moving into the house next - door .
walking over to greet him , he is horrified to discover it is jimmy " the tulip " tudeski ( bruce willis ) , a former contract killer for the mafia who has just been released from prison .
once getting to know him and becoming his friend , oz is more comfortable with his identity , but for sophie , it means a possible hitman to do away with oz .
in her scheme , sophie sends oz to chicago to cash in by informing his old mob boss ( kevin pollak ) about jimmy 's whereabouts , but in the process , he falls in love with jimmy 's wife , cynthia ( natasha henstridge ) , who is being held hostage .
upon return to quebec , and with one contrivance after the next , oz 's dental assistant , jill ( amanda peet ) , is overjoyed to discover that he lives beside " the tulip , " and forces him to set up a meeting , since jill 's dream in life turns out being a contract killer herself .
have you got all that ?
because there is more .
much , much more .
and this is a movie that , without credits , is little over 90 minutes and feels only like an hour .
"
the whole nine yards " is an ultimately unsatisfying and empty - headed excursion into well - worn terrain already set by far superior pictures .
how the cast , most of which are respectable actors , got caught up in such a cliched , deficient film remains a mystery , unless they thought it might aspire to match the congenial screwball zaniness of director lynn 's 1985 comedy classic
, " clue : the movie .
" going into the theater , preliminary comparisons between the two movies were unavoidable , but by the twenty - minute mark , when i had chuckled once and laughed nary a single time , it was clear this production was in serious trouble .
since the entire running time depends on the mechanisms of the plot , and the screenplay , inauspiciously written by mitchell kapner , collapses with every failing " comedy " bit , the film is an inevitable dead zone in the way of substance and , frequently , entertainment value .
"
the whole nine yards " is neither facetious nor , aside from the subplot about jill 's shocking eagerness to become a professional hitwoman , inventive , and more often than not , just lies there , the film spinning drearily around and around in the projector , but never igniting any sort of spark .
a few select actors do what they can with the material , while others make no impact at all .
on the mediocre side are actually those playing the two central characters : matthew perry and bruce willis .
perry , innocuously enjoyable on tv 's " friends , " plays the same exact sitcom - style character in all of his movies ( from 1997 's " fools rush in " to 1999 's " three to tango " ) , and it has become a crushing bore .
meanwhile , willis makes next to no impression
, and because of the limited guise of his jimmy " the tulip " tudeski , oftentimes disappears into the background .
their three female counterparts fare noticeably better .
best of all is natasha henstridge , far more radiant than in the exploitative " species " movies , who adds unanticipated depth and emotion to cynthia .
henstridge has the talent , for sure , to break out of these countless throwaway roles , but first she must fire her agent .
amanda peet has a lot of fun as the quirkily straightforward and giddy jill , and seems to know more about the art of comedic payoff than even perry who , thus far , has strived on a career based solely on comedy .
it is too bad , then , that peet is unnecessarily asked to disrobe in a climactic scene , with the obvious sole purpose being to show off her breasts .
finally , rosanna arquette is awful as sophie , but something tells me that was her purpose , and her clear overacting only aids in brightening up her limited screen time .
also popping up is michael clarke duncan , fresh off an oscar nomination for his role in " the green mile , " as jimmy 's largely built friend and fellow killer , frankie figs .
when " the whole nine yards " eventually sputters to its underwhelming conclusion , one is left pondering how such a film ever got greenlit .
a great deal of movies of this type have been made in the past , and this one is nothing but a duplication of better films , so what was the point ?
without a passable screenplay or any notable technical accomplishments , " the whole nine yards " rests solely on the presumed charm of the cast , and half of the actors are not charming at all .
now , what does that tell you ?
Student:
N