In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
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Question: one of these days , i 'll make good on my promise never to rent another abel ferrara movie .
king of new york and body snatchers notwithstanding ( and
bad lieutenant is only fit for a single , emotive viewing ) ,
his exploitation flicks have fallen into a rut of hoary art - house trappings .
it 's a perfume - drenched , coke - addled visit to the seedy pornography shop , where beautiful models ( no , hookers -- no , courtesans ) usher you through the silk curtains .
ferrara 's only consistently smart move has been casting
christopher walken over and over again , since walken can make a good movie great and a loathsome movie durable whenever he 's onscreen .
his 8-minute scene in the addiction is the saving grace of that otherwise abysmal , unwatchable , and pretentious failure .
when he starts talking about his vampiric bowel movements , or questions whether lili taylor has ever read naked lunch , there 's a much - needed dose of humor in an otherwise terminally unfunny affair .
you know those gothic club kids who are too cool to smile and let you know they 're actually having fun ?
the addiction is that movie .
walken , sadly , does not appear in the blackout .
the central role of matty , a junkie film star whose lightning paced hollywood life among the beautiful people is inevitably leading to his destruction , is played by matthew modine ( who takes what he can get after cutthroat island ) .
much like the protagonists of michelangelo antonioni 's terminally bored cultural elite , matty is involved in a bitter pill " relationship " with high fashioned model annie ( at least i think she 's a model . )
matty 's lady is played by french actress b ? atrice dalle , arrested twice for cocaine possession during filming of the blackout -- not that you needed to know that , but it lends credence to the idea that ferrara 's entire oeuvre has been filmed in a fucking blackout .
no kidding .
requiem for a dream has nothing on the junkie presentations seen in ferrara 's movies and his controversial urban lifestyle .
matty and annie struggle over her decision to have an abortion without consulting him .
no doubt , he was off chasing the dragon .
in his despair , matty indulges in a chemical induced weekend of debauchery , tooling around the streets of miami with video filmmaker mickey wayne ( dennis hopper , in full " dirty ol' man " mold smacking models on the ass and telling them to spread their legs .
wider ! )
toward the end of the night , they pick up a teenage waitress also named annie ( sarah lassez ) , start shooting a hastily improvised sexual scene , then matty thankfully blacks out .
something happened that night which haunts him throughout the rest of the movie , and it 's exactly what you think it was .
suffice to say , there 's some confusion over whether he killed annie one or annie two , or anyone at all .
the blackout is typical ferrara :
no plot to speak of , plenty of raunch , and horribly vogue images of matthew modine downing a bottle of jack daniels and a beer while wrapping himself in a see - through curtain in his hotel room by the sea , by the sea , by the beautiful sea .
cinematographer ken kelsch finds inconsistent glory in alternating gorgeous painterly sunsets with docu - style sleaze ( and we 're back to dennis hopper leering at girls in bathing suits .
"
yeah ! ! !
yeah ! ! !
arrrghhh ! " says mr .
hopper .
dirty old sod . )
it 's compulsive viewing in a tacky sort of way , leading to a ridiculous climax where modine seizes control of his destiny .
how 's that for cryptic ?
never fear -- ferrara finds time for some female full frontal nudity to remind us what he 's all about .
i can picture it now .
" take off yer clothes , kid -- it 's essential to depict the inner maelstrom of my central protagonist , and you 're his visual
i
d .
you 're the soul , the heart , the bloodstream of the picture .
take it off !
take it all off ! ! !
ha ha ha !
" friggin ' vampire .
yeah , you , ferrara .
a final word about matthew modine : he 's actually a fine actor when properly cast , but there 's something too squeaky - clean in his demeanor .
he 's ideally suited for sarcastic men in tightly controlled situations , such as his private joker in full metal jacket or the time - bomb nebbish in short cuts ( who is every bit as superb as julianne moore in that famous scene , though no one seems to notice him ) .
[ he was in that scene ?
-ed . ]
here , he 's asked to let it all hang out , sporting a three - day stubble and oily bangs .
he throws around furniture like stanley kowalski , but it 's somehow lacking .
modine lacks the feral intensity of brando , entirely miscast in ferrara 's flesh fair .
better luck next time
, matt .
someday , you 'll be forgiven for cutthroat island , which was n't really your fault in the first place .
maybe atom egoyan will find a place for you somewhere , and all will once again be well in your world .

Answer: N


Question: star wars : ?
episode i -- the phantom menace ( 1999 ) director : george lucas cast : liam neeson , ewan mcgregor , natalie portman , jake lloyd , ian mcdiarmid , samuel l. jackson , oliver ford davies , terence stamp , pernilla august , frank oz , ahmed best , kenny baker , anthony daniels screenplay : george lucas producers :
rick mccallum runtime :
131 min .
us distribution :
20th century fox rated pg :
mild violence , thematic elements copyright
1999 nathaniel r. atcheson a fellow critic once stated his belief that a reviewer should not speak of himself in his own review .
i 've attempted to obey this rule in recent months , but to do so would be impossible in this case .
the fact is , nearly every person who goes to see the phantom menace brings baggage in with them .
the original star wars trilogy means so much to so many people .
for me , they calibrated my creativity as a child ; they are masterful , original works of art that mix moving stories with what were astonishing special effects at the time ( and they still hold up pretty darn well ) .
i am too young to have seen star wars in the theater during its original release , but that does n't make me any less dedicated to it .
on the contrary , the star wars trilogy -- and the empire strikes back in particular -- are three items on a very short list of why i love movies .
when i heard that george lucas would be making the first trilogy in the nine - film series , i got exited .
when i first saw screenshots from the film , well over a year ago , i embarked on a year - long drool of anticipation .
and when the first previews were released last thanksgiving , i was ready to see the film .
but then there was the hype , the insane marketing campaign , and lucasfilm 's secretive snobbery over the picture .
in the last weeks before the picture opened , while multitudes of fans waited outside of theaters and stood in the boiling sun days in advance just to be the first ones in the theater , i was tired of hearing about it .
i was tired of seeing cardboard cut - outs of the characters whenever i went to kfc or taco bell .
i just wanted to see the movie .
reader , do not misunderstand .
i did not have an anti - hype reaction .
the hype was unavoidable .
i understand and accept the hype -- it 's just what happens when the prequel to the most widely beloved films of all time get released .
five minutes into the phantom menace , i knew there was a problem .
" who are these jedi knights ?
"
i asked .
"
why are they churning out stale dialogue with machine - gun rapidity ?
" " why are n't these characters being developed before their adventures ?
" " why is there a special effects shot in nearly every frame of the entire film ?
" these were just some of my questions early on .
later , i asked ,
" where 's the magic of the first three films ? " and
" why am i looking at my watch every fifteen minutes ? '
by the end of the film , i was tired , maddened , and depressed .
george lucas has funneled his own wonderful movies into a pointless , mindless , summer blockbuster .
the phantom menace is no star wars film .
take away the title and the jedi talk and the force , and you 're left with what is easily one of the most vacuous special effects movies of all time .
it 's an embarrassment .
i looked desperately for a scene in which a character is explored , or a new theme is examined , or a special effects shot is n't used .
there are a few of each , but they 're all token attempts .
the fact is , george lucas has created what is simultaneously an abysmally bad excuse for a movie and a pretty good showcase for digital effects .
this is not what i wanted to see .
i did n't want to leave the phantom menace with a headache and a bitter taste in my mouth , but i did .
the story centers mostly around qui - gon jinn ( liam neeson , looking lost and confused ) and his apprentice , obi - wan kenobi ( ewan mcgregor , who scarcely has a line in the film ) and their attempts to liberate the people of the planet naboo .
naboo is the victim of a bureaucratic war with the trade federation ; their contact on naboo is queen amidala ( natalie portman ) , the teenage ruler who truly cares for her people .
after picking up jar jar binks ( a completely cgi character , voiced by ahmed best ) , they head to tatooine , where they meet young anakin skywalker ( jake lloyd ) and his mother ( pernilla august ) .
qui - gon knows that the force is strong with young anakin , and so the jedi knights take the boy with them on their journeys .
the bad guys are darth maul and darth sidious , neither of whom have enough lines to register as characters .
there is n't anything particularly wrong with this story when looking at it in synopsis form .
the way lucas has handled it , however , it unsatisfactory .
first of all , we do n't learn one single thing about qui - gon jinn .
not one thing .
what was his life like before this film ?
well , i imagine he did n't have one .
that 's why he feels like a plot device .
this probably explains why neeson looks so hopeless in the role , and why he 's recently retired from film ( i do n't blame him , honestly ) .
obi - wan , a character i was really looking forward to learning more about , is even less interesting .
mcgregor has just a few lines , so
anyone hoping to see the engaging young actor in a great performance is urged to look elsewhere .
since these two men are the focus of the phantom menace , lucas has served us a big emotional void as the centerpiece of his movie .
things start to pick up when our characters reach tatooine ; young anakin is perhaps the only truly fleshed - out character in the film , and lloyd does a thoughtful job with the role .
i was also hugely impressed with the sand speeder scene ; rarely is an action sequence so fast and so exciting .
and when anakin says goodbye to his mother , i found it moving .
also fairly good is portman , and she manages to give a little depth to a character where no depth has been written .
jar jar binks is one of the most annoying characters i 've ever had to endure , but he 's more interesting than most of the humans .
as soon as the relatively - brief segment on tatooine is over , it 's back to the mind - numbing special effects and depthless action scenes .
i 've seen many movies that qualify as " special effects extravaganzas , " but the phantom menace is the first one i 've seen that had me sick of the special effects fifteen minutes into the movie .
the reason is obvious : george lucas has no restraint .
i ca n't say that i did n't find the effects original , because i did -- the final battle between darth maul , obi - wan , and qui - gon is visually exceptional , as is most of the film .
but i also found the effects deadening and tiresome .
my breaking point was near the end of the picture , as anakin is getting questioned by yoda and the other jedi masters ; in the background , we see hundreds of digital spaceships flying around through a digital sky ,
and i wanted that to go away .
ca n't we have one stinking scene that is n't bursting at the seems with a special effects shot ?
i got so sick of looking at the cgi characters and spaceships and planets and backgrounds
that i really just wanted to go outside and look at a physical landscape for a few hours .
and then there 's the question of magic .
what was lost in the sixteen years between the phantom menace and return of the jedi ?
i have a feeling that lucas was so focused on how his movie looked
that he forgot entirely the way it should feel .
john williams ' familiar score is no help , nor is lucas ' direction .
i think it comes right down to characters
: there are none here .
i longed for the magnetic presence of han , luke , and leia , but i got no such thing .
and what about the ridiculous expectations ?
mine were n't that high ; i simply wanted a film that showed me the roots of the films that i grew up loving , a story that had a few characters and a few great special effects .
instead , i got two hours and fifteen minutes of a lifeless and imaginative computer graphics show .
i do n't hate the phantom menace as much as i resent it : i 'd like to forget that it exists , and yet i ca n't .
it 's here to stay .
i can only hope that episodes ii
and iii have something of substance in them , because if they do n't , then lucas will have pulled off the impossible task of destroying his own indestructible series .

Answer: N


Question: the central focus of michael winterbottom 's " welcome to sarajevo " is sarajevo itself , the city under siege , and its different effect on the characters unfortunate enough to be stuck there .
it proves the backdrop for a stunningly realized story which refreshingly strays from mythic portents ( " platoon " ) , racial tumultuosness ( the risible " the walking dead " ) or a tinge of schmaltziness ( " schindler 's list " ) .
the two leads , stephen dillane as a reporter and emira nusevic as an orphan with a plight few can identify with , are extremely believable ; not one moment with them involved rings false .
the question is not what went right .
the question is what went wrong .
for one , the film fails to provide a political overview of the war as it progresses ( the dillane characters reports an american plane departing from sarajevo as it departs , and that 's about it . ) .
the assortment of high - profile supporting actors , ranging from woody harrelson as a yankee reporter " into " liquor and cigarrettes to marisa tomei as a huggable children 's aid or somesuch are incapable of rising above the sketchiness of their characters , albeit they strive .
the interrupted use of authentic war footage somewhat hampers the rest of the film , it makes the fictional characters seem powerless by comparison .
still , winterbottom eschews mawkishness through flashy , frantic editing and imaginative use of music .
and it 's a plus , because he does n't toy with our emotions with sentimental blandness .
he wants us to know that in war , no one is victorious .
the sweet hereafter starring ian holm , sarah polley , bruce greenwood , tom mccamus , gabrielle rose , arsinee khanjian , alberta watson , maury chaykin , caerthan banks .
produced by atom egoyan and camelia frieberg .
script by atom egoyan ( based on the novel by russell banks ) .
directed by atom egoyan .
running time : 110 mins .
rated r .
_
_
_
_
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ atom egoyan 's powerfully meditative " the sweet hereafter " is as anything as haunting and transcendental as i 've seen this year .
it not only explores the aftermaths of a terrible tragedy with magnificent subtlety , with cold , and stunning shots of the backdrop of this mistfortune but also by telegraphing the sense of devastation that has permeated the small town with an enormous amount of dignity and respect for each and every soul affected .
ian holm as the somber , lonely lawyer seeking compensation for the townspeople , has a decency and a restraint uncommon with lawyers , he 's a lion for the wrong reasons :
the pain for having lost his daughter ( she 's a druggie who frequently calls him begging for money ) is reflected on the town .
and in
some mesmerizing flashbacks , we witness how she lost her purity .
it 's one of the most strikingly breathtaking takes on the loss of innocence i 've ever seen .
but the most astounding part goes to sarah polly , the peaceful , benevolent girl who , in contrast to the other characters , remains the most mentally stable during past , present or future .
her ability to convey concealed pain and unconditional love is the opposite , yet near - revolutionary role that won emily watson an oscar nomination for " breaking the waves " .
both women are torn apart by an extraordinary incident but it is only then that we truly see , truly feel , their wordless , omnipotent love .
"
the sweet hereafter " though , is atom egoyan 's movie and as of now , he is emerging as the definite face of independent cinema .
after surging to worldwide recognition with 1994 's " exotica " , " the sweet hereafter " makes him something
few people in this industry can call themselves : an artist .
he interweaves time with a delicacy and sees a soul with a purity that is just not common .

Answer:
P