Detailed Instructions: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
See one example below:
Problem: 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
Explanation: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").

Problem: plot : set in the future , a courier has uploaded some data into a " hard drive " that resides in his head , and must now escape the bad guys who are after that very important information . since he overloaded his " hard drive " , he 's also racing against the clock before the information seeps into his brain and kills him .
critique : incoherent , boring , one - act drivel with no suspense , horribly unbelievable futuristic environment , bad dialogue , career - defining bad acting by keanu reeves and a hilarious ending .
it 's too bad because the premise of the film was interesting , but unfortunately for my friends and i , this movie turned out to be just as bad as everyone had warned us .
it 's one of those films that makes you start laughing half - way through , when you realize that most of the actors in it suck , the location shots are filmed in dark " junkyard " type areas which they would like to have us believe to be futuristic ( whatever . . . ) , and all the sets look like . . . .
well , sets .
there is also absolutely no arc to this story .
it basically starts off with keanu uploading info into his brain , and then a bunch of folks chasing him from place to place until a laughable ending puts a stop to the former uneventful proceedings .
gibson should stick to writing novels and " x - files " episodes , since his segue into the paranormal tv series was much more entertaining than any of this garbage .
some other hilarities of this film include dolph lundgren as some futuristic jesus character whose supposed to kick ass , henry rollins as a pumped - up cyber - doctor or something , and ice - t
as some kind of a hobo dude with paint all over his face ( do n't ask ) .
the ending is the funniest with some robot dolphin and a stupid ghost - lady
from inside the computer doing some stuff that no one really cares about by that point .
i 'm ashamed to say this film was shot in my hometown of montreal , canada , but sadly enough for us all , it was .
some of the cyber - travelling special effects were okay ( hence , the 2/10 ) , but overall , it 's one of those bad movies that 's just funny to watch and cringe at
.
thankfully for keanu , he redeemed his sci - fi career with 1999 's the matrix ( 7 . 5/10 ) .
it 's too bad that he has yet to redeem his lack of acting talent .
little known facts about this film and its stars : as of 1999 , director robert longo never directed another full - feature film .
hmmm .
. . now is n't that odd ? : )
writer william gibson immigrated from the us to canada in 1968 , after being rejected for the draft .
he lived in toronto at first , but since 1972 , has made vancouver his home .
his 1984 novel " neuromancer " and its sequels 1986 's " count zero " and 1988 's " mona lisa overdrive " are generally considered to be the definitive works of the " cyberpunk " science - fiction sub - genre .
this film garnered keanu reeves a nomination in the " worst actor " category in the 1996 razzie awards .
Solution:
N