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: this is one of the worst big - screen film experiences i 've had for a while .
with this film , plus ' showgirls ' and ' basic instinct ' , paul verhoeven has stamped himself as currently
one of the worst blockbuster directors .
his celebrated film ' total recall ' was ?
i admit ? successfully scripted , but it nonetheless contained directorial flaws .
obviously nobody wanted to invest too much money in a production from someone like verhoeven , the result being that much of the special effects in ' starship ' seemed fake .
but not everything bad in the film was the director 's fault , even though he was one of the guys who employed the actors .
it is surprising that none of the actors received nominations for the razzie awards ( i expected five for the acting categories ) .
casserole vanity devoid , dense ribald , dingy miasma , and jackass bushy
are in serious need of acting school .
no , they have to pass primary school drama classes first .
while ' total ' was written well , ' starship ' is purely pathetic .
all right , it is supposed to be a fast - paced entertainment film , and you 're supposed to turn off your intellect ( completely ) and enjoy the action sequences and special effects ( that is , guts and gore ) .
as a matter of fact , i found the activity incredibly boring , a complete waste of more than two hours .
half of the film was a bad episode of ' beverly hills 90210 ' ( dina meyer was in " beverly hills " ) , while another quarter was simply nothing ( things like presenting irrelevant information in an irritating way on the web ) , and the rest was a display of humans fighting computer - generated images .
the battles were all the same ? jumping around , shoot or get stabbed ? and on barren planets that only had giant insects .
there were n't even any stunts , which i consider slightly more exciting than pictures running around .
i wonder what the insects eat , if there 's nothing but them on the planets ?
there is so much laughable treatment in this film , and it is frankly not amusing when jokes are intended .
this type of story is obviously aimed at 10-year - olds , who ca n't see it anyway because of the violence and some sexuality .
but then , there are always 16-year - olds who have that frame of mind .
the pointless plot begins when johnny 's ( vanity devoid ) girlfriend carmen ( richards ) decides that she wants to join the troopers to fight the insects who are throwing asteroids at earth .
johnny then signs up as a trooper also , after an overacted argument with his parents .
but there is another girl , dizzy ( meyer ) , who likes johnny and then there is another boy who likes carmen , which results in a love quadrangle , which is n't better , because it means augmented worse - than - stereotyped soap opera , increased bitchiness , and more bad beverly hills + melrose .
and the result of this love quadrangle at the end is also rather stupid .
anyway , getting back to the thing you might call plot , johnny is too stupid to be a pilot and has to join the infantry , while his girl and the other dude are in the same league .
dizzy comes chasing johnny and joins the infantry also .
they then start training , which contains what roger ebert calls ips ( idiot plot syndrome , moments when only an idiot would have made such obvious mistakes ) , then real combat . and guess what ?
that 's about as complex as it gets .
oh , and one of their friends , carl ( neil patrick harris a .
k .
a .
doogie howser m .
d . ) , becomes involved in war intelligence , and his abilities at the end are really corny and make me want to spray insecticide on someone for it .
he 's my fifth nom for a razzie .
the troopers fight , fall in love , die , kill , and try to act .
naturally , they win , or sort of half - win .
of course , in between ( and at the end ) there are soldiers chatting and smiling while carrying grievous wounds caused by bug legs .
the bugs also suffer from ips : why would you release hold of your captive before killing it ?
is n't it also amazing that earthlings have n't invented better hand - held weapons by then ?
the only question that remains is why i gave it one star instead of zero .
well , maybe a - quarter ( of a star ) for the originality of the co - sex shower scene and the ( very ) brief moments of suspense , another quarter for copying ' zulu ' and letting the good guys ( the bugs ) win , and half a star for the sucking - out of the brain of one of those people who call themselves actors ( but there should have been more , the troopers deserved to die ) .
A:
N