TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: when 17 year old beau hall ( jonathan tucker , " the virgin suicides " ) gets in a car accident after drinking with his 30 year old companion , club owner darby reese ( josh lucas , " session 9 " ) , his mom , margaret ( tilda swinton , " the war zone " ) pays reese a visit to convince him to leave her son alone .
instead , reese travels out to their lake tahoe home and lures beau out to the boat house where beau learns that his mother was right about reese .
the next morning margaret discovers darby 's dead body on their beach and , suspecting the worst , weights it down in a distant part of the lake .
but her troubles are just beginning , as she soon learns with the arrival of blackmailer alek spera ( goran visnjic , " practical magic " ) in " the deep end .
" the incredibly pale , red - headed scottish actress swinton immerses herself into the role of the reserved american super - mom whose life revolves around serving the needs of her three children and live - in father - in - law jack ( peter donat , " the game " ) .
she shows great strength while allowing other emotions to glimmer through - discomfort at challenging reese in his gay disco ( named the deep end ) , near panic at having to dive down to his body to retrieve car keys , or even wry humor when an attempt to get help from jack becomes hopelessly miscommunicated .
gradually her loneliness becomes apparent ( her husband 's a naval officer , usually away at sea ) when her attempts to email him her concerns about beau are deleted and later , when a most unusual , yet chaste , romance turns tragic .
it 's a terrific performance .
the stendahl syndrome - like script , adapted from elisabeth sanxay holding 's 40 's noir novel ' the blank wall ' by directors scott mcgehee and david siegel , would be unbelievable if not for swinton and her costar visnjic .
alek spera is a wrong side of the tracks loser who arrives after reese 's body has been discovered .
he shows margaret a videotape of beau having sex with reese and demands $ 50 , 000 or he 'll turn the tape over to the reno police .
subsequent visits will turn his mind set upside down and backwards , though , as he comes to admire and even love the woman he set out to blackmail .
there 's yet another problem , though - his partner nagle ( raymond barry , " dead man walking " ) is a harder cored criminal who wo n't let up until his share of the money is delivered .
visnjic 's dark , brooding turn has an interior shading to it that makes us believe he 's a victim of circumstance and environment .
his turnaround is palpable as he witnesses margaret 's inherent decency and her workaday surroundings .
also outstanding is tucker as beau , who has a terrific character arc and pas de deux with his mother .
initially beau 's the typical sullen teen . '
you 're blowing this out of proportion , ' he says of her concerns about reese , not comprehending that his mom has enough insight to have divined the true nature of the relationship .
as his mom gets in deeper and deeper trying to cover up a crime he did n't commit , beau becomes suspicious of her actions and apparent new companion , turning tables .
his early black eye becomes her later split lip .
while the two can never be completely honest with each other , their love for each other comes through strongly .
the directors ( " suture " ) have a firm grip on their material and cast .
the story builds perfectly with bold strokes amidst a myriad of subtler underpinnings .
water imagery is constant ( an early shot of weirdly rushing green is revealed to be a young boy cleaning out an aquarium ) .
giles nuttgens ( " fire " ) cinematography , which won the 2001 sundance festival award , is crisp and startlingly clear .
the tahoe locations and production design by kelly mcgehee and christopher tandon provide a dual personality for the film , contrasting the calm , well off existence of the lake against the gambling city of reno .
"
the deep end " is a complex story of domino deeds and shifting relationships .
take the plunge .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: john carpenter makes b - movies .
always has ( " halloween , " " escape from new york , " " the thing " ) and , by the looks of it ( " they live , " " escape from l . a . , " " vampires " ) , always will .
carpenter 's latest horror opus with a science fiction bent ( or science fiction outing with a schlock horror bent ) is the aptly - titled " john carpenter 's ghosts of mars " ( in case , i suppose , you went looking for someone else 's " ghosts of mars " ) .
like all those films prefixed by the very possessive " john carpenter 's , " " ghosts of mars " is an unashamed b - movie punctuated by a b - movie plot , b - movie actors , and b - movie special effects .
in category one , above , we have a storyline that borders on idiotic
( and , at times , chaotic ) .
dormant martians ( i .
e . , swirling red gases ) awakened by meddling humans
possess the souls of hapless mining colonists rendering them testy marilyn manson lookalikes .
all this explained ( in flashback ) to some grand pooh - bah counsel by martian police official melanie ballard ( natasha henstridge , from the sub- " species " films ) , the only returnee on a silly - looking train .
officer ballard went in to bring back incarcerated felon james " desolation " williams ; what she found was not a pretty picture .
in the second category we have ms .
henstridge , her blonde hair pulled back tightly and awkwardly into a ponytail , ice cube ( as the appropriately - named " desolation " ) , pam grier ( briefly , oddly -- who wanted to work with whom i wonder ? ) , and a host of extras
all assuming that the story and special effects were going to carry this film and therefore they did n't need to try too hard
.
in category number three we have , in addition to those swirling red gases and the silly - looking train , a couple of bird's - eye - view shots of a sprawling martian metropolis ( reddish also ) .
state - of - the - art special effects have never been a carpenter trademark and once again the writer / director ( who seems to have no problem finding work , however ) does n't waste any of the film 's budget in that department .
"
ghosts of mars " is lock , laughing stock , and barrel
all your standard carpenter fare : dingy interiors , cluttered exteriors , inane dialogue , lots of leather , scarred , crazed - looking aliens , and lots and lots of weaponry .
the film often and always explodes into warfare without warning -- spontaneously , stupidly .
carpenter might like to think he 's made a western here
but it 's a western without any real heroes , villains , or border conflicts .
it 's just the shootouts minus a hissing snake plissken .
i never thought i 'd miss the guy
but i do .
it 's not
* all
* the same , however .
dubbed the " one - note wonder " for his minimalist music soundtracks , carpenter seems to have graduated from simplistic ( yet effective ) scoring by highlighting his action with loud , screeching guitar work .
fortunately this drowns out a lot of the dialogue .
the final exchange between henstridge and , er , cube though is both audible * and * priceless .
mars has proven an infertile breeding ground for hollywood in the last year or so , what with the stillborn " mission to mars " and " red planet " ( with val kilmer ) .
" ghosts of mars " sadly adds to those disappointing returns ( in its opening weekend it was overshadowed by a bunch of sequels , among them " american pie 2 " and " rush hour 2 " ) .
the irony is that the mars in carpenter 's film feels sadly absent .
there are occasional references to the red planet , of course , but the film might as well have been set in perth amboys than on earth 's closest neighbor .
two things keep " john carpenter 's ghosts of mars " from getting a huge slap upside the head .
1 . henstridge keeps her top on ( miraculously ) , and 2 .
the film does n't pretend to be anything it 's not .
what that means , however , is that fans of superior , intelligent , grade a sci - fi / horror are singularly out of luck .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: "
a breed apart " casts rutger hauer as a crazy , bird - loving recluse who picks his feathered friends over kathleen turner .
a bit hard to swallow ?
that 's only the first of many improbabilities in this film .
hauer stars as a man obsessed with keeping the birds on his island safe , while boothe plays a guy hired to steal a couple of rare eagle eggs by a rich egg collector .
turner is the woman caught between the two men .
"
a breed apart " is n't a bad movie , exactly .
indeed , i found myself rooting for both the hauer and boothe characters , even though their goals could n't be more different .
the problem with the film is that there are just too many inconsistencies .
for example , early on in the film , hauer physically assaults two drunken rednecks shooting at " his " birds .
later on , the rednecks come back for revenge with four other people , and hauer kills a few of them .
i have a tough time believing that the police would n't get involved at that point .
another problem is the silly love - triangle that develops .
i did n't care one way or the other who ended up with turner .
i was more interested in finding out which of the two men would be victorious in their respective missions .
however , despite this uninteresting sub - plot , turner did manage to give a great performance as the woman who reminds the two men that sometimes there 's more to life than money and birds .
as for hauer , he 's an actor i 've always admired .
he has a penchant for picking strange and unusual characters .
and this one is no exception .
he 's frequently seen riding around his island on a white horse , wearing pirate 's clothing , and holstering a cross - bow .
despite all his eccentric mannerisms , though , hauer always manages to let the human side of his character shine through
.
for example , there 's a scene in which he barks at turner and her son because they came onto his island a day early .
he comes off as crazy loner in that scene , but a few minutes later , he is apologizing to turner , and we believe his intentions .
soon after , we find out he 's a vietnam vet , and his actions become fairly clear to us . " a breed apart " is n't a great movie by any means , but it does contain good performances by all three leads , and it 's worth seeing for that reason alone .

SOLUTION:
P