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: the first scene of operation condor has jackie chan preparing for a secret mission .
he attempts to pop a couple of pieces of chewing gum into his mouth , but misses .
after they ricochet off his face , he says , " not a good start .
"
as it turns out , this line not only gives foreshadowing to the opening sequence , but to the rest of the movie as well .
in this , the latest of the jackie chan movies to be released in america after first runs in hong kong , chan plays an international operative codenamed " condor " , and is tasked by the united nations with finding a stash of gold hidden at a secret base by the nazi 's during their retreat across the saharan desert during the second world war .
for some reason , condor is given his mission at the u . s .
embassy in spain .
i think this may have been done so that in a chase scene , they could honor the time old tradition of knocking over a fruit cart .
watch for it in any chase scene set in a foreign country , most notably in europe .
the chase will take itself through a marketplace , and a fruit cart will be overturned .
it 's almost a guarantee .
anyway . . . . condor is given a key which is supposed to unlock a giant vault in which the gold is hidden ; the problem is that the key has insulators integrated into it , which may mean a booby trap might be electronically triggered if the key is used improperly .
to help him figure out where the gold is hidden and how to use the key correctly , condor is accompanied by a desert expert ( carol cheng ) and the granddaughter of the captain who was in charge of hiding the gold ( eva cobo ) .
there are n't supposed to be any relatives of the nazi captain living in spain , but condor finds the granddaughter by looking her up in the phone book or something .
although these two women are supposed to be integral parts of the mission , they prove no help at all except to get in trouble and provide an excuse for chan to jump into his martial arts .
in fact , most of the scenes are so ridiculously contrived that it seems everything is just a way to set up a fight .
i suppose this is n't so bad , since chan 's action is really the best part of the movie , and the only reason you go to see one of his films anyway .
if you 've never seen a jackie chan movie , do n't expect a great plot , but do expect to be entertained by his moves .
they are so well choreographed and often so amazing that you wonder if this guy is human . knowing that he does his own stunts , and knowing that this is the real stuff ( no computer - masked bungee cords here ) makes the action sequences all the more exciting .
you 've got to hand it to a guy who 's probably broken every bone in his body for the sake of his art .
also of note in this , as in any jackie chan movie , is the humor . as far as i know , none of his films take themselves too seriously , and even the dramatic parts have a certain tongue - in - cheek quality about them .
what is almost masterful is the way that humor is even integrated into the fight scenes .
unlike a martial arts film such as anything with jean claude van damme , where the fights get you on the visceral level , fight scenes in chan 's movies are simply entertaining .
you marvel at both his moves and at the way he employs them in such a way to make you laugh .
unfortunately
, even chan 's mastery ca n't save this film .
the plot and characters are so weak that they do n't hold the movie together at all , and
the acting is terrible .
carol cheng has apparently won best actress honors at the hong kong movie awards in the past , but since operation condor is a dubbed movie it kind of takes all bets off .
this , combined with an obviously low production value made we want to turn away from the screen until i heard those kicks start flying .
A:
N