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: capsule : an insult .
a stupid and incompetent movie that does n't even have the benefit of being trashily enjoyable .
weslely and woody would do well to leave this off their resumes .
money train is one of the worst movies i have ever seen .
it 's not simply idiotic , it 's contemptuous of its audience .
it tries to make us swallow things that a better movie would be stopped cold by or just plain omit entirely .
it 's a waste of wesley snipes and woody harrelson , who are enjoyable actors in their own rights but are nauseating here .
it 's not even fun as trash .
woody and wesley star ( maybe that 's not the right word ) as new york city transit authority police .
they have a job which could actually be the core of a really interesting movie : one of them plays drunk possum to attract chain - snatchers and the other does lookout .
i had a whole headful of legal and ethical questions surrounding this , raised by a documentary i 'd seen on the subject once , but the movie does not waste any time with being intelligent or thought - provoking .
see if you can follow this .
they chase a kid down the tunnel and into the station where the " money train " , the heavily armored car that picks up all the cash from the token books , is parked .
the guards on the train see this kid running at them , lift their machine guns , shout " halt ! " and then open fire when the kid does n't stop running at them .
blam , the kid 's dead .
then woody and wesley show up , and of course the other ta cops hate them ( why ? ) , and a pushing match starts , and someone gets decked , and . . .
i covered my face .
i 'd seen enough .
i 've never seen a movie work so hard and in so little time to destroy , systematically , any chance of being credible or interesting . fed up with the bs at their job ( most of it their own goddamned fault ) , woody and wesley hatch this plot about how to rob the money train .
hence the title , in case some of you ( all two of you ) did n't figure it out yet .
then there 's this subplot about a maniac who torches token book clerks , * and * a love story , * and * a holdup -- no , two holdups , sorry , easy to lose track in a movie
this braindead
--
* and * a mob boss who wants his money .
there was n't a minute when i gave a horse 's ass about any of it .
neither woody nor wesley play characters that are interesting for a single minute .
we do not care about them .
they are not interesting .
they are noisy , loud , stupid , foolish jerks who whould have flunked out of the police academy .
they deserve to get shot -- or run over , as the case may be .
they only exist to rehash the kind of dynamics that was * written * into a movie like white men ca n't jump , and which simply does not exist here .
they are idiots , and we 're expected to root for them . bullcrap .
the movie is completely schizophrenic in its tone and texture .
what exactly is this mess ?
a cop movie ?
police procedure is not given a moment 's genuine thought anywhere .
a thriller ?
the subplot with the token booth killer is inept , a throwaway that should have been ditched in the rewrite .
a comedy ?
the few jokes that do work are wasted . a drama ?
all dramatic tension between both principals is freeze - dried and off - the - rack .
there 's not a moment in the movie where i felt like i was listening to genuine human beings talk ; it 's all screenwriterese , that bizarre analect where every sentence ends in a punchline and the primary mode of expression is the unique conjunctions of four - letter words .
( actual dialogue excerpt : " fuck you . "
" what ? "
" you heard me :
fuck * you * . "
" no : fuck * you * ! " )
look .
i 'll be honest here .
i 've tried writing screenplays , and even * i * suspect that if i tried to pitch this mess , i 'd get laughed out of the office .
anyone interested in hearing my ideas for a few good movies can write me and hear my pitch , because god knows i know i can do better .
i 've weasted enough time on this piece of tripe .
Solution:
N