In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
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 )
Example solution: N
Example explanation: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").

Problem: i 'll be the first to admit it .
when you mention the book great expectations , i immediately begin experiencing flashbacks to junior high english class , where i was confronted with a torturously boring book filled with people with such nonsensical names as pip and magwitch .
yes , it 's a classic of literature , but it was a rather dry one , shoved down my young throat like a spoonful of bitter medicine .
certainly , the experience was n't truly that bad , but , to quote ethan hawke in the latest movie adaptation of said book , " i 'm not going to tell the story the way it happened . . .
i 'll gon na tell it the way i remember it .
"
anyway , to return from nostalgia lane , and get back to the present , hollywood , in it 's trendy attempt to modernize the classics , now presents an updated film version of great expectations .
instead of pip , this time the central character is named finn ( played as a boy by jeremy kissner , and by ethan hawke as an adult ) .
finn is an orphan being raised by his unfaithful sister maggie , or should that be mrs .
joe , ( kim dickens ) , and her boorish fisherman husband , joe ( chris cooper ) .
the setting is the florida coast during the mid-70s .
finn is a blooming artist , and spends his time running around the beach drawing fish ( one of his two favorite subjects ) .
during one of these escapades , he literally stumbles upon an escaped criminal ( robert deniro ) .
borrowing a page from the superhuman max cady , deniro 's criminal has a seemingly limitless lung capacity , and favors hiding on the ocean floor .
ok .
. .
maybe that 's an exaggeration , but he certainly beats any of houdini 's records in the opening scenes of the film .
and that 's nothing next to the fuel efficiency of finn 's motorboat , but i digress .
anyway , finn does the convict a good deed , just to show that he 's a really swell guy .
and then the plot moves on .
enter miss havisham . . .
or ms .
dinsmoor here ( anne bancroft ) .
abandoned at the altar some 26 years ago , ms .
dinsmoor is the epitome of the crazy rich old maid .
with bizarre clothing , eccentric mannerisms and a few pounds of makeup , anne bancroft seriously overacts in this role .
although
she ends up nowhere near a believable character
, she does add some humor to the film .
joe is hired to help with the gardening at her unkempt manner , but the insane ms .
dinsmoor soon hires finn to be a plaything for her niece , estella ( raquel beaudene as a young girl , gwyneth paltrow as an adult ) .
for no apparent reason , other than to provide the main plot of the film , finn is instantly stricken for the estella .
perhaps it 's her snooty attitude or her utter disdain for his person , or maybe finn has simply never met a girl before .
in any case , neither as children nor adults , chemistry simply does n't exist between the two , and yet finn spends the remainder of the film pining for her .
even when , as an adult , finn arrives in new york at the behest of a mysterious benefactor , reacquaints himself with estella , and draws her portrait in the nude , there 's nothing .
in fact , there is more sexual tension between helen hunt and greg kinnear 's gay artist during a similar scene in as good as it gets .
at this point , the audience has grown as cold and detached as estella 's character , and could n't care less about the two characters .
the bulk of the blame here falls upon gwyneth paltrow .
she fails to imbue estella , a remote character in the book , with even the vaguest traces of humanity .
there 's obviously something wrong
when , watching the film , you 're more interested with how big her nose looks in silhouette than you are about her character .
without a strong estella , finn 's obsession seems baseless .
you wish he would just stop whining , let estella marry his rival , walter plane ( an oddly subdued hank azaria ) , and just get on with his life .
in fact , the two relationships that work in the film are purely tangential to the main plot .
finn 's relationship with his brother - in - law , joe , is interesting , if a bit stereotypical .
what 's more fascinating are his interactions with deniro .
although it 's only a bit part , it goes to show how much vitality a strong actor can create .
it is apparent that director alfonso cuarsn put a lot of work in creating the imagery of the film .
some of the shots work , but others are too obviously staged ( for example , both of the water fountain scenes ) to have any impact .
finn 's art ( actually the creations of italian painter , francesco clemente ) is used throughout the film , but it mostly fails to have the intended effect .
we never see why finn would generate this style of art , which is simultaneously crude and insightful .
as a result , it ends up as distant as the rest of the film .
modernizing the classics is currently in vogue ( just see william shakespeare 's romeo+juliet ) .
simply update the action to a modern setting , and apply plenty of modern rock .
but such adornments do little to perk up great expectations . as much as i dreaded the novel when i first read it ,
you 'd probably be better off suffering though a reading than watching this romanceless film .
Solution: N