Mock answer for the quiz

Harrys article titled 101 movies to avoid watching before you die is a parody of a classic, familiar tile of something you should do before you die. In assigning a topic such as this, the writer plays with our expectations and then reinforces a sense of sarcastic humour as well as his sharp dislike towards the movie. In conveying a sense of unpleasant sarcasm to make fun of the poor quality of the movie, the writer employs different techniques to achieve his goal. One of the most dominant techniques deployed in the passage is the repetitive use of the brackets in which he asserts his extra comments on the movie, demonstrating his extreme disapproval of the movie. In paragraph 2, while complimenting the only actor who can act, the writer uses a bracket to show the contrasting negative side of the movie up to the point at which it turns gratuitously nasty emphasizing his opinion that without this particular actor, the movie could have been worse. The use of negative words nasty and gratuitously also suggests the writers extreme dislike of the movie. The other example worth discussing is also in the same paragraph when he attacks the most wooden character and then compares him to other actors (Arnold and Olivier). This also suggests that the movie is not good because of a poor quality of acting by its leading actors. In the final paragraph, when the writer spoils the ending for his readers to save their time, the last use of brackets to attack the irrationality and unconvincingness of Connellys acting (she cant even manage that) is asserted to stress the idea that the movie is bad from the very beginning to the end and that its plot/storyline is as the writer puts it implausible. The other dominant technique can be found right before the end of the article. A series of short phrases Cop goes to jail, Connelly survives, seemingly unscathed. The end. Badly acted, poorly written, gratuitously unpleasant. Dont bother .-is used to point out the writers feeling of disdain towards the movie. Everything is cut short by the poor quality of the movie: bad acting, implausible plot and the remaining feelings in audiences. The short phrases may also signify an idea that the movie is not worth lengthy discussions because it is a very bad movie. The final negative imperative is therefore very powerful when the writer dissuades, or even orders, us not to watch it. With the techniques mentioned in the previous paragraph, the reader can feel that the tone of the passage is full of humouristic sarcasm towards the movie which the writer despises. Phrases such as there was a perfectly good toilet to clean, He is unfortunately played by Ben Kingsley, who seems to be the only actor in the movie who can act and Well, the box promised a surprising ending are meant to make his readers laugh sarcastically. There was a perfectly good toilet to clean gives us a sense of contrast when juxtaposed with the previous sentence in the article as the writerd rather clean the toilet, a job not very pleasant, that watch this movie. Other people would have chosen to watch the movie. This signifies that the movie must be really horrible. Also, the toilet is perfectly good and therefore should already be clean but again the writer would rather clean the perfectly good toilet than watch the movie. The second phrase He is unfortunately played by Ben Kingsley, who seems to be the only actor in the movie who can act is very ironic in tone. As all the crews and casts in the movie are professional actors and actresses, the writer should not have said that Ben Kingsley is the only actor who can act. This immediately puts the rest in a bad spotlight. Also, the word unfortunately is used in a sarcastic tone because as he is the good actor, the word fortunately should have been used instead. This suggests that the quality of the movie is really poor and Kingsley should not have been in it at all. The last one Well, the box promised a surprising ending stresses the writers disappointment because a surprising ending should be positive in general. But for this movie, it is surprisingly and gratuitously unpleasant. In conclusion, the article reflects the writers dissatisfaction towards the movie. Different techniques are employed to convey the message, such as the repetition of brackets and the use of short, rhythmic phrases. They create the humourously sarcastic tone in the passage to show how bad this movie is.