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: the previews for the movie are pretty good .
they show a little plot , all the characters , and the emotional highlights , all spliced together to give a general impression of the script .
unfortunately , the full movie adds nothing but 115 minutes .
the residents of mystery love hockey .
mystery and hockey go together like texas and high school football .
the townsfolk love hockey so much that they even acquit a player who 's guilty of shooting another man ( yes , that 's one of the movie 's jokes . )
every saturday , the best players pair off for a game , and the whole town comes to watch .
the town 's prodigal son charlie ( hank azaria ) wrote an article on the weekly game for sports illustrated .
mystery 's national fame has the town abuzz .
a week later , charlie actually shows up in person , and he brings with him an offer from the nhl .
the new york rangers will come to mystery to play the locals .
the mysterians see this as both good and bad .
on the one hand , they 'd love to have the fame and the money of such an exhibition .
on the other hand , they do n't want to turn up as the butt of leno and letterman jokes .
the movie follows a handful of lives that are affected by the proposition .
biebe ( russell crowe ) has just been retired from the team and is asked to coach the boys , including his new replacement .
he 's already resentful , and to top it off charlie has been making eyes at his wife .
crowe is not given a lot of room to act in this film , so he 's just kind of stuck with constantly brooding .
charlie , meanwhile , is resentful of having born in a town where hockey is the only measure of a man 's worth .
his " gift " of the feature story , and of the new york rangers , was his way of compensating for not being a better skater .
he hoped it would earn him some respect and merit , but the townspeople find reasons to continue disliking him .
burt reynolds could have been interesting as walter , the judge whose courtroom was befouled by a moronic jury of hockey fans .
walter actually has some experience with collegiate hockey , but he actively tries to put it behind him .
he wants his son to take the game more seriously , but he wants his community to just get over it .
reynolds could have been good , but sloppy writing and/or editing
keep walter in the corner , and so reynolds never really gets to pull his performance all together .
one character actually was interesting .
biebe 's wife ( mary mccormack ) , like the judge , understood that there was more to life than hockey .
but unlike him she has come to accept the skewed view of the community .
she chose the town and her husband with her eyes wide open .
her unique insight is verbalized once , and it lasts only a scene before it is gone , but her performance carries the hint of some deeper wisdom .
mysterty , alaska follows a handful of other characters , but none are well developed or worth mentioning
. the biggest problem with this movie is that there is no real heart to the story ,
no underlying thing that the movie is really about .
instead , roach and screenwriters david e . kelley and sean o'byrne try to cram the entire human condition into this sports comedy .
they try to make you laugh and cry , to feel outrage and pride .
they present the framing and cadence for jokes , but there 's nothing truly funny
.
they show appropriately staged scenes of sadness , but they give you nothing to be really sad about .
as columnist molly ivins would say , it 's all hat , no cattle .
the perfect opportunity arises for roach to say what this movie is really about .
there is a funeral scene , played with appropriate gravity and somber music .
it is a chance for the characters to reflect on their lives and decide what 's truly important .
russell crowe steps forward to speak , about to spell out the movie 's metaphor for us .
he says that what really matters in life is " community . . . .
"
then adds " and hockey .
"
i guess these mysterians really are as shallow as they appear .
only mildly bad , mystery , alaska probably deserves 2 stars .
i even laughed out loud , genuine laughs in places .
but i docked it an extra half star when mike myers , a friend of roach , turned up in a role that did n't suit him .
myers is a comic character actor .
he puts on masks , becomes an outrageous caricature , and is funny .
he 's great as austin powers , dr .
evil , or any of his scottish characters .
nobody else in mysterty , alaska is a comic caricature .
all the other people have the feel of dramatic characters in semi - serious roles .
for roach to bring in myers for a few cheap laughs shows incredible contempt toward the rest of his cast , toward his audience , and indeed toward the film itself .
it 's an acknowledgment by the director that the film is not worth taking seriously .
A:
N