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
"
i 've been told by several people , ' you 're old fashioned .
you want to do everything by hand , ' " topiary gardener george mendonca complains , defending his continued resort to hand shears in trimming his intricately privet - sculpted animal creations .
"
this is the only way you can do it and do it right . " snip , snip .
"
some people believe that we are gon na replace ourselves by building these machines , and that may be , " muses mit robot scientist rodney brooks , who builds robots that run on instinct .
"
there may not be a place for humans in the future , if we 're really successful . "
" you feel that there 's a and looking directly into errol morris 's camera .
"
i know you are .
you know i am .
" in some ways the slickest film yet from nonfiction auteur morris ( the thin blue line , a brief history of time ) , fast , cheap & out of control is reportage of the highest order .
journalism students should dream of making connections like these .
cross - cutting among interviews and filmed segments , morris traces the lives of four disparate professionals who seem to share nothing but an immersion in their work , and then threads them around one another in an intricate quadruple helix .
the fun is settling into your theater seat and wondering just what the hell one story can possibly have to do with the other .
what morris manages is something akin to an intellectual magic trick , an interrogative sleight of hand .
one of the things that feels different about an errol morris documentary -- besides the always - striking visuals -- is the interview style , where subjects seem to look directly at the viewer .
weary of pressing his cheek against the camera lens to get this effect during conversations , morris developed an elaborate double - camera gadget he calls , half - jokingly , the interrotron . through a rig that uses a pair of teleprompters to project video images of the interviewer for the subject and vice versa , these folks talk , startlingly , right to the camera -- to the video image of morris , and by extension to the audience .
the gardener wonders whether , after his death , anyone will be interested in maintaining the garden that he 's devoted half his life to tending .
the robot scientist is more than a little pleased to note that his creations may be primal examples of what an insect or even an animal is -- a complicated set of sensory receptors .
the mole rat specialist is delighted to catalog the ways in which these vermin animals behave like insects , and notes that they may be more suited to long - term survival than people .
and the circus trainer pines for a long - lost ideal that was exemplified by world - renowned trainer and showman clyde beatty , who starred in such serials as zombies of the stratosphere ( excerpted at some length here , with affection ) .
starting to detect the patterns ?
fast , cheap & out of control contains a multitude of parallels and tiny intersections , culminating in what feels like an elegy ( the film is dedicated to morris 's late mother and stepfather ) .
the film is balanced on that airy precipice dividing the already musty past from the alternately exhilarating and terrifying space that is the future .
( the title is taken from brooks ' wish that nasa would send a payload of hundreds of expendable robots to scurry about the martian surface , creating a sort of road map for the terrain -- fast , cheap , and out of control . ) with able assists from editors karen schmeer and shondra merrill and cinematographer robert richardson ( oliver stone 's longtime collaborator ) , this becomes a cinematic contraption that 's a wonder of narrative divergence and coherence .
( further enhancing the picture 's wacky intellectual mood is the playful score by alloy orchestra founder caleb sampson . )
different story threads inform and comment on one another with the serene inscrutability of a kieslowski film , or a surrealist dream .
by cobbling together out of these motley musings a thesis on the nature of craftsmanship , invention , and existence itself , morris reveals the presence of cosmic themes -- creation , evolution , death -- in earthbound lives .
at the same time , and just as significantly , he pays tribute to a consuming passion for one 's work .
this breakdown of the dichotomy between the everyday and the extraordinary is likely as profound as anything you 'll encounter in pop culture this year , and the visuals cry out for the big screen .
do n't miss it .
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directed by errol morris edited by karen schmeer and shondra merrill cinematography by robert richardson music by caleb sampson u
. s . , 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------
Answer:
P