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: until i saw the night of the hunter , it had been a long time since i had gasped while watching a movie .
forget the others and the deep end ( which veered toward strained dramatics ) , the night of the hunter is by far the scariest movie i 've seen so far this year .
even though the movie is nearly 50 years old and there 's a not drop of blood to be seen .
luckily , the night of the hunter , charles laughton 's first and final directing gig , has been restored by the ucla film and television archive and is being re - released in october 2001 .
so , there 's still plenty of time to spill your popcorn all over the place .
robert mitchum stars as harry powell , a reverend with a nasty habit of courting and then killing widows for their cash .
his newest target is young mother willa harper ( shelley winters ) ,
whose murderer husband ben ( peter graves ) has hidden $ 10 , 000 somewhere .
powell finds out about the stash and decides to court mrs .
harper after he 's released and ben is hanged .
but finding the money is n't easy for powell , who must contend with his stepchildren ( billy chapin and sally jane bruce ) , who know where the money is , but are n't telling .
the hard part about seeing a classic now is the pop culture monster has usually drawn and quartered and then flaunted all the memorable moments , thus ruining the spontaneity and adventure when we finally watch it for the first time .
how many spoofs or salutes to the shower scene in psycho have we seen in other movies ?
what about the brilliant baby stroller sequence from battleship potemkin ?
( no , i 'm not blaming brian de palma entirely for this sampling problem . )
yes , there are some visual elements that other directors seem to have borrowed from the night of the hunter .
powell 's " love " and " hate " knuckle tattoos obviously influenced spike lee in do the right thing ( remember radio raheem ? ) .
and powell 's black suit , with black tie and white shirt , could have shaped quentin tarantino 's early visual style .
seeing the night of the hunter for the first time , i was amazed at how much it crackled with wicked wit and fright and how much intensity was intact .
you can now sign me up as president of the robert mitchum fan club .
he plays the role with a controlled malice that induces unease every time he appears .
he 's like the senior class president with an evil streak .
if i ever need to stay awake , i 'll just picture him crooning , " leaning . . . leaning . . . .
"
any actor who wants to play a character with a touch of evil should study his performance the way a rabbinical student studies the torah . and credit must be handed out to laughton and cinematographer stanley cortez , who create a series of haunting , surreal shadowy images over the rural depression - era backdrop .
it 's a testament to both men that they 're able to invigorate what has become a hackneyed storyline ( kids harassed by evil guardians ) by sticking to the old maxim that we 're more scared by what we do n't see .
screenwriter and legendary film critic james agee
does a beautiful job giving shape and substance to an array of supporting characters : the drunk birdie ( james gleason ) who 's haunted by his wife , and the spoons ( evelyn varden and walt spoon ) whose marriage has become a verbal vaudeville act .
the only lapse is the movie 's third act , when pearl and john run away from home and find a home with the motherly , bible - reading mrs .
cooper ( lillian gish ) .
her showdown with powell is memorable --
a battle done with dueling hymns .
however , the whole segment feels a little rushed and underdone , but it 's still a thrill seeing the queen of the silent film era handling a shotgun .
do yourself favor and do n't miss this if it comes to a nearby theater .
note : a series of revealing , but overlong , outtakes preceded the movie .
the highlights included the legendary laughton ( who sounds eerily like mr .
pitt from seinfeld ) running winters ' lines with mitchum , and the adorable , tiny bruce having trouble descending a coal pile .
hours more of such footage exists , as laughton liked to keep the cameras constantly rolling .
screened as part of the 2001 new york film festival retrospectives ( feature story coming soon ) .
A:
P