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: magnolia left me relling from the theatre , staggering from the relentless assault of an adventurous director reveling in his craft .
at nearly three and a half hours , magnolia will strike some as a brute of a film .
it not only demands your attention , but challenges you to grasp the significance of seemingly unrelated storylines and hidden intentions .
it is delirious , depressing , heady , pretentious , surreal filmmaking .
it 's also a movie that will polarize its viewers .
director paul thomas anderson takes a talented cast , wraps them in a net of interrelated stories and sets them spinning in a symphony of despair whose song does n't let up until an oddly exhilerating , biblically influenced pseudo - climax .
the character 's make up a modern day gomorrah in the soulless way in which they live their lives .
there is frank mackey ( tom cruise ) , a slithery snake charmer of men whose " search and destroy " seminars teach how to mentally rape a woman to get into her pants .
there is earl partridge ( jason robards ) , a dying media tycoon yearning to make amends for a lfe of callousness by finding his estranged son .
there is game show host jimmy gator ( phillip baker hall ) , a self absorbed tv icon who is hiding more than a few secrets from his public .
and there is police officer jim kurring (
john c . reilly ) , who cloaks himself in the codification of organized religion and the legal system , perhaps masking a man who needs rules to fuel his decision making process .
given equal weight are stories involving a coke - addled emotional cripple ( melora walters ) , a former tv quiz show champion ( william h . macy ) .
a materialistic , adulterous wife ( julianne moore ) , a child ( jeremy blackman ) victimized by a mentally abusive parent , and a caring , empathetic nurse ( philip seymour hoffman ) .
hovering over all these characters is a cloud of death , lies and despair .
it is not a pleasant movie .
there is not one bad note in the acting .
it is affecting and layered and wonderful .
there is a moment where tom cruise wordlessly implodes that rivals work he has done in whole films .
then he tops himself with a mesmerizing deathbed scene .
walters plays her character with red - eyed rawness and a fierce self - destructiveness that is anxiety inducing .
robards convincingly portrays a fading whisper of a man , who still hears a lion 's roar when he speaks .
director anderson has apparently given the actors lattitude to emote .
the problem is that he stays on them too long .
julianne moore 's character , linda , quickly escalates to a frenzied pitch of guilt , tears , screaming and remorse and never backs off from it .
after a few hours , it turns from interesting to chinese water torture .
quite a few scenes , such as the game show , go on just a bit too long and will be off - putting for those used to a pat 90 minute film where the main theme is reiterated several times just in case you missed it the first go around .
and just what is the theme ?
alienation ?
hopelessness ?
anderson challenges you to draw your own conclusions and he does n't make it easy .
the film starts by showing three , strange and seemingly unrelated events .
it 's a harbinger of the synchronicity to come .
at times , different stories reach reach key moments at the same time .
other times , stories seem to veer off into uncharted territory , regardless of what else is happening .
anderson is audacious enough to even have a group sing in the middle of the film !
what 's surprising is that it mostly works .
if you have doubts about anderson 's intentions , i 'll ask you to pay attention to the final frame .
despite all the sturm und drang , magnolia ultimately speaks to man 's capacity for hope and attempts at redemption .
despite magnolia 's needlessly long running time and its propensity for uneven editing as anderson plays the auteur , showing off fro the masses , i have to admire his guts .
this is truly adventurous filmmaking
that spits in the face of conventional storytelling .
my rating : a bulleye .
( stars ) a side note : helping anchor the film is a perfectly matched soundtrack featuring aimee mann .
her lyrics often add depth to a scene thematically while the actual music is both morose and beautiful .
when she sings " save me " at the end , it enhances the yearning felt by the characters , just as " wise up " mirrors the anguish felt by all as they contemplate their lives .
Solution:
P