Part 1. Definition
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
Part 2. 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 )
Answer: N
Explanation: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").
Part 3. Exercise
remember back in the mid 1990s when crime and macabre movies were all the rage ? " pulp fiction " and " fargo " both managed to get oscar nominations for the best picture , and not surprisingly , a slew of rip - offs followed in the years thereafter .
that fad seems to be over but here comes christopher mcquarrie writing and directing " the way of the gun
" that at first glance looks like another of those wanna -
be 's but upon closer inspection does n't look like anything comprehendable .
it 's a crime story
so wrapped up in its own little world
it has a claustrophobic atmosphere - a film that wo n't allow the story much room to expand outside its handful of characters and somehow still manages to turn a simple premise into something so complex its ridiculous .
complexity should come as no surprise to anyone who 's familiar with mcquarrie , he wrote " the usual suspects , " which has become a cult favorite despite little critical acclaim .
that film had a great story and was well directed but had such an elaborate , confusing screenplay it leaves many viewers scratching their heads after repeated viewings .
you have to wonder if mcquarrie really had everything mapped out or if he was going for the hollywood idea that " if it 's really confusing and about criminals and cops that makes it fascinating .
" with " the way of the gun " mcquarrie seems to be capitalizing on the same idea , but this time the story is far less commercial - a shame because maybe that would have helped .
the film tells the story of two drifters with no ambition and barely a reason to live but are n't hell - bent on death either ( played by ryan phillipie and benecio del toro ) .
they get lucky when they hear about a scheme between a big - shot exec guy and his trophy wife who are going to have a baby through in vitro fertilization .
they figure they can kidnap the surrogate mother ( played by juliette lewis ) and get a nice ransom .
along the way we continually learn of the shady dealings between the exec , his wife , their hired goons and the " bag man " ( played by james caan - the only actor in the film who looks like he knows what he 's doing ) .
the exec is some kind of money launderer so he obviously ca n't call the authorities for help .
his goons and the bag man are on the kidnappers ' trail and each make different offers to get the mother back .
the exec 's son is a doctor who also gets pulled into the fray and wants to make sure his patient is all right .
meanwhile each of these characters has something hidden up their collective sleeves and the double - crosses , secret love affairs and torrid pasts come as no surprise even though little of it has any relevance at all .
mcquarrie does n't know the meaning of the word simple .
he seems to be more interested in showing us how clever he is than making a good movie .
everything has to be complicated and confusing , so much so that it 's to the point of surrealism .
nothing is what it seems in this reality , it 's one of those movies where you get dropped right into the middle of the criminal world and are expected to know most of the industry 's rules and regulations .
every scene with caan 's character exemplifies this perfectly - the kidnappers already know who he is and even chat with him , getting into conversations about " the business " and how it works and we 're hardly given a clue as to what they 're talking about .
these characters are probably supposed to be great criminal sketches but
they 're more like ideas ripped - off from sketches found in david mamet 's trash .
no one here really acts like a real person , and the story is even further removed from reality .
it 's like a dream without any appeal .
take the opening scene for example ; the phillipe and del toro characters are in a parking lot across the street from a bar or a club counting their money and stuff .
they sit on a brand - new mercedes and the car alarm goes off , the owner is waiting in line and yells at them to get away from his car
but they do n't move .
the guy and his loud - mouth , potty - mouth girlfriend and about 20 other people cross the street and gang up on them .
you 'd think phillipe ?
and del toro are ? going to pull out guns and scare them away
but they do n't , instead phillipe throws one punch and the two get beat down by a mob .
there 's a lot of things i did n't understand about this scene : first of all the owner of the mercedes is n't some yuppie or old rich snob , he 's like a hippie straight out of the 60s .
secondly , the two main characters seem to believe that they can actually take on the mob unarmed . lastly ,
it serves no purpose in the long run because later in the film the two are packing more artillery than a small country 's army . if they were suicidal they would n't have gone on the kidnapping job in the first place ( and where they get all those guns is never explained either ) .
there 's a lot more i could pick apart about this film but that would be an exercise in futility .
what it all comes down to is that nothing here is what it seems - which would be great if this movie were about pretty much any other story than what it is .
absolutely none of the characters are likable or believable .
and it 's all coated with a thin layer of black comedy which is good for a chuckle here and there
but this film is definitely not a flat - out black comedy and its use of such seems like a desperate attempt to kill screen time .
with any film you see , whether you like it or not , you can at least understand what the appeal was to it , why someone would want to make it and why someone would want to see it .
i ca n't say either for " the way of the gun , " because it has very little going for it and
i ca n't imagine anyone intelligently defending it .
Answer:
N