Teacher: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? If you are still confused, see the following 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 )
Solution: N
Reason: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").

Now, solve this instance: it 's difficult to expect much from a director whose greatest accomplishments to date are a handful of " award - winning " tv commercials , as is the case with bubble boy director blair hayes .
that said , hayes 's feature film debut lives up to expectations , coming off mainly as equal parts offensive and moronic .
but occasionally , bubble boy transcends its substandard roots with glimmers of humor and scathing social commentary .
those moments of intelligence are delivered mostly by the film 's two stars , jake gyllenhall as the immuno - deficient jimmy and swoosie kurtz as his over - protective , hyper religious , reagan - loving mother .
gyllenhall 's sweet - natured delivery of jimmy 's hilariously na ?
ve narration serves as the backbone for an otherwise flimsy coming - of - age story :
jimmy is a bubble boy , a kid born without immunity who could die if he comes in contact with a single germ -- a plight explored more seriously in the john travolta tv movie boy in the plastic bubble and less so on seinfeld .
his mom home - schools jimmy , filling his head with wildly twisted conservative propaganda and anti - sexual messages , until he 's befriended by chloe ( marley shelton ) , the beautiful girl next door .
jimmy falls in love with chloe , but is afraid that his love will literally kill him , as evidenced in a scene when she drunkenly tries to enter his bubble for a kiss .
but when chloe decides to marry her high school boyfriend , jimmy builds a bubble suit and embarks on a hijinks - addled cross - country voyage to stop the wedding by professing his love .
the offensive bits have little to do with jimmy 's rare handicap ( regardless of what the film 's protesters would have you believe ) , but instead center on
outrageous racial stereotypes , including a screaming chinese strip club owner and a devout east indian hindi .
but even if you find stereotype humor funny , it 's hard to muster more than a giggle for these shallow gags .
they even manage to bungle some potentially great moments with a group of carnival freaks .
but a few of the harsh jabs manage to work , especially in the case of kurtz , who very bluntly shows the dark , hypocritical side of the religious right , and a wacky send - up of a cult called " bright ' n
shiny , " led by the inimitable fabio . unfortunately ,
a few giggles ca n't make bubble boy the riotous , off - the - wall comedy it so desperately wants to be . honestly ,
it 's a mystery how on earth this movie was ever made , and i 'm not just saying that because it 's so mediocre . how odd for disney to take a gamble on a film with an unknown director starring virtually unknown actors that does n't seem to appeal to any particular demographic and
has the potential to offend so many .
and now that the studio is suffering through a very public protest against the film by the parents of real - life bubble boy david philip vetter , maybe disney 's wondering the same thing .
hope the opening box office take makes it worthwhile .
Student:
N