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: " jack frost , " is one of those dumb , corny concoctions that attempts to be a heartwarming family film , but is too muddled in its own cliches and predictability to be the least bit touching
.
this does not come as a surprise , since the studio that made it is warner brothers , who is on a current streak of one bad film after the other .
jack frost ( michael keaton ) is a struggling middle - aged rock musician who loves his wife , gabby ( kelly preston ) , and 11-year - old son , charlie ( joseph cross ) , but does n't spend nearly enough time with them .
when he receives a call from a music label that wants to hear him play , he has to cancel his planned family outing up in the mountains for christmas .
halfway there , jack has second thoughts , but on his way back home , is in a car accident and dies .
switch forward a year , christmas is approaching once again , and charlie and gabby are still having a difficult time coming to terms with jack 's death .
when charlie begins to play the harmonica his father gave him the night before he died , the snowman outside the house is taken over by jack 's spirit .
jack wants to spend some time with his son before the upcoming warm front melts him , but charlie desperately tries to prevent his melting demise .
" frosty the snowman , " is a classic cartoon , and the idea of a snowman that is alive works splendidly when animated , but as a live - action film , it does n't work at all .
after a somewhat promising prologue in which the frost family is established , " jack frost , " quickly goes downhill , especially once the snowman comes into play .
since jack has been deceased for a whole year , you would think there would be many questions to ask him , such as , " what happens after you die ?
"
or , " how does it feel to be a snowman ?
"
but instead , the film focuses on a snowball fight subplot and an inevitably oversentimental climax that could be telegraphed before i even sat down to watch the movie .
the performances are respectable enough , but no one deserves to be punished by appearing in a silly film like this .
michael keaton at least got off easy , since he disappears after the first twenty minutes , but what exactly does he think he is doing with his career here ?
i have always liked kelly preston .
she is clearly a talented , charismatic actress , but has never been given a good role in her life , usually having to settle for a one - dimensional supporting character , as in , 1997 's , " nothing to lose , " and , " addicted to love .
"
joseph cross was probably the highlight in the cast , since he believably portrayed a boy suffering the loss of a parent .
in one of the only subplots that actually works , due to its wittiness , henry rollins is highly amusing as a hockey coach who becomes terrified and paranoid after seeing the live snowman .
this brief hint of cleverness is pushed to the side , however , by the tried - and - true main plot at hand , which is the sappy story of a father and son .
since i knew what was going to happen by the time the conclusion came around , i had no choice but to sit there and listen to painfully insipid , cringe - inducing lines of dialogue .
some of my favorites was an interaction between the son and father :
" you da man , " says charlie .
"
no , i da snowman , " replies jack .
or how about this little zinger , coming from a school bully that miraculously becomes friendly towards charlie and tries to help him out : " snowdad is better than no dad .
" do people really get paid in hollywood for writing pieces of trash like this ?
the snowman , created by john henson 's creature shop , is more believable than the snowman from last year 's unintentionally hilarious direct - to - video horror flick , also called , " jack frost , " but it still was difficult to tell if it was a person in a suit or computer effects .
either way , it was an awful lot of work to go through , just to come up with a final product as featherbrained
as this project .
as a seasonal holiday picture , " jack frost , " is pretty much a clunker .
a better christmas film from this year is , " i 'll be home for christmas .
" better yet , my suggestion would be to stay home and watch a quality film , such as , " it 's a wonderful life , " " a christmas story , " or , " prancer .
" " jack frost , " is an earnest , but severely misguided film , and children , as well as adults , deserve better .
i doubt they would want to see a movie about the death of a parent , anyway .
Student:
N