Part 1. Definition
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
Part 2. 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 )
Answer: N
Explanation: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").
Part 3. Exercise
the general 's daughter is a heartless , absurd film , a movie so hopelessly dedicated to its inane plot that it forgets entirely about its own characters .
director simon west treats issues like rape and sexual fetish with ham - handed obscenity , creating a film that banks almost entirely on exploitation and offensive pseudo - depth .
what 's worse is that the movie is haphazardly glued together by two characters who are neither interesting nor sympathetic --
the ridiculous story requires them to do unbelievable things in the interest of reaching a dark conclusion in a sudden rain storm .
john travolta finds himself in the middle of the mess , playing warrant officer paul brenner ; brenner is assigned to find the murderer and rape of captain elizabeth campbell ( leslie stefanson ) , daughter of general joe campbell ( james cromwell ) .
brenner is teamed up with ex - spouse sarah sunderland ( madeline stowe ) , and they check out all the suspects on the base , including elizabeth 's mentor , colonel moore ( james woods ) .
soon , it becomes apparent that elizabeth was into kinky sexual stuff , but the question comes down to why -- and , of course , who .
ebert 's law of the economy of characters can be applied here ; one interesting thing i noted is that not only are all the characters suspects at some point ( including the two protagonists ) , but almost all of them end up directly intertwined with the story .
perhaps i should have issued a spoiler alert before mentioning that , but it 's painfully obvious from the beginning that everyone in the film is hiding something .
on a story level , the general 's daughter is ineptly constructed .
the film , adapted by christopher bertolini and william goldman from nelson demille 's novel ( which was apparently based on a true story ) , plods along to its conclusion , filling in the blanks with stale , unrealistic dialogue and " shocking " plot developments .
having not read the novel , it 's difficult to determine if these problems are the fault of the adapters or the original author , but i suppose they all are guilty to some degree .
scene after scene stumbles with pointless insincerity ; minutes after finding the dead young woman , brenner and sunderland engage in sarcastic dialogue , which includes endless strings of forced lines .
( sunderland actually asks brenner , " why was she killed ?
"
to which i would have answered , " if i knew , then the movie would already be over . " ) only after we 've spent twenty minutes or so with these characters
do we learn that they have a sordid history together ; this angle , though apparently present to develop their characters , is never explored .
not that it really matters , since the characters consistently do ludicrous things for no other reason than to drive the plot .
in one scene , sunderland is attacked by a man in a mask .
she sees one of his rings , and she and brenner find the man later that day based on the ring .
instead of questioning him like as they would a real suspect , they take him to brenner 's houseboat , beat him up , and pour hot coffee in his lap .
this scene really pushed me over the edge , not because it 's gratuitous and mean - spirited , but because it illustrates the film 's complete disregard for the characters and the audience .
it was impossible for me to feel anything for these people beyond this scene , mostly because nothing they do comes as a surprise .
i realized that these constructs on screen are n't actually characters , but devices present only to serve the story .
this would have been bad enough without the west 's need to hose his movie down in tasteless images of rape and sexual misconduct .
compelling films about sexual crimes do n't spend a lot of time on rape flashbacks , and they certainly do n't show as much skin and sweat as a typical pornographic picture .
these scenes are not the least bit powerful ; on the contrary , they 're intended simply to provide the audience with the necessary resentment for the villain , whomever that may turn out to be .
in addition , the movie treats sexual fetishes -- and sadomasochism in particular -- as if it 's a perversion of everything we know to be pure .
this standpoint is certainly allowed , but only in accompaniment with well - developed themes to back it up .
as it is , the film forgets that a lot of people have sexual fetishes , and that putting on a pair of handcuffs does not make a person insane .
perhaps the only positive elements in the general 's daughter are a couple of the performances .
james woods has a few terrific scenes , and plays his role with sharp , witty subtlety .
i also liked james cromwell , mostly because he comes across as slightly sympathetic despite the obvious intent of west to make him villainous .
nonetheless , these performances are undermined entirely by the dreary , obligatory atmosphere and the senseless neglect of characterization .
the general 's daughter is the worst kind of hollywood film -- it pretends to have a soul , to be of strict moral code , when in fact
it has nothing more than a group of cardboard cut - outs force - feeding the audience a toxic landfill of plot contrivances and one - sided moral judgments .
Answer:
N