In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
One example is below.
Q: 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 )
A: N
Rationale: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").
Q: when i first heard of contact , the hype was building it up as a sci - fi blockbuster .
now , with that in mind , coupled with the knowledge of jodie foster 's involvement in the project , i thought " what in the world is foster doing in a sci - fi blockbuster ? ? ?
" . as it turned out , my expectations were completely nullified and turned topsy - turvy .
robert zemeckis , back from the euphoria created by his last film , forrest gump ,
once again proves his mastery in fusing tales of adventure with along the endearing lines of human spirit .
do n't get me wrong , contact is sci - fi ?
but with a definite difference .
based on the late carl sagan novel of the same name , the story delves itself in questions on science and god ; fact and faith .
allie ( foster ) is a radio astronomer .
she spends her time listening to the stars , via ultra - huge communication dishes in search of intelligent life beyond the solar system .
her passion for ' long - distance communication ' is the result of her younger days being spent avidly in front of a ham - radio system ( a hobbyist radio communication device ) which her late - father bought for her .
a scene which particularly strengthens the audiences ' view of the passion is when she asked her father whether she could contact her late - mother through the ham - radio system in which her father replied " not even the most powerful radio in the world can do that , now " .
allie 's research is based on the seti project ( search for extra terrestrial intelligence ) , in which she listens to radio emissions from other galaxies in the hope of finding one which would suggest intelligent manipulation .
her work has never been off the scrutiny of the us government , which considers it a waste of taxpayer 's money and politically unviable , her supervisor ( tom skerritt ) pulls the plug on seti .
undaunted , allie managed to gather a loyal group of ' believers ' and eventually found funding from a large private corporation .
the following months were treacherous to their hopes and research as they are contantly pressured by the government but all that changed when one day , she caught an emission of a seemingly intelligent repeating sound - wave .
the news of her find attracted hordes of alien believers , cultist , the media and of course , the government .
the situation became intense upon her discovery of pictorial plans on building a form of transport which were embedded within the repeating sound emission .
as the world join forces to build this transport , allie is desperate to be the one to go .
she enrols herself among a few hopefuls , to represent the world when the transport is ready for operation .
her eligibility for the spot failed when she is questioned on her beliefs in the existence of god by the president 's spiritual advisor ( mcconaughey ) ; allie , being an atheist , a result of her belief in fact and science , refuses to budge upon questioning .
at this point the movie plot thickens considerably as she is romantically involved with the president 's spiritual advisor .
a strong point which propelled the movie is the depth of its main characters played by foster and mcconaughey .
from the very first meeting scene , it is obvious that the two of them was sort of kindred spirits but they were worlds apart in almost all aspects , foster being a person drawn to science and facts and mcconaughey being one who believes in faith , hope and the power of the unseen .
the meeting of their worlds , added with the situation which they are put into makes the entire storytelling process near flawless .
many people who read the synopsis of this film would find it a tad too ridiculous , but by actually immersing yourself in it , gives you an entirely different perspective ; one which is free from bias and pre - conceptions .
zemeckis and his team of screen writers have done a remarkable job in telling this tale through film .
contact works by not delving in controversy but rather , touches the thinking audience , urging them to ponder upon the questions raised in the film concerning fact and faith ; whether one can actually find compromise within .
i consider contact as one of the must - sees for this year .
A:
P