In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.

[Q]: if i were one of those arrogant critics who thinks his review has some great impact on the success or failure of certain films , i might say that i review movies that do n't look particularly good because i 'm doing a service to my readers by warning them against seeing it .
if that were true , i could put a banner at the top of my site that reads : " shay casey : seeing bad movies so you do n't have to .
"
but i know that 's bunk
- you're going to see whatever movies you want to no matter what i say .
so i have to tell the truth : every once in a while
i get a nasty , masochistic urge to see a bad movie .
you know the feeling , when you 're sick of seeing all these damn academy award contenders and you want to see something you can have a ball trashing mercilessly .
sometimes i think that 's why anyone goes to see pauly shore movies , ever .
admit it : sometimes you like seeing bad movies .
so do i .
so i saw " supernova .
"
truth be told , " supernova " was n't quite as bad as i thought it might be .
maybe i just felt sorry for the actors , or maybe i thought it could have been decent if the studio had n't started tinkering with the director 's ( walter hill ) final cut , causing him to want his name removed .
maybe i 'm becoming a softy .
in any case , i did n't find " supernova " as bad as the advance buzz would have me believe .
but it 's still bad .
the film takes place aboard the medical space vessel " nightingale .
"
the crew includes captain a .
j . marley ( robert forster ) , his new second officer nick vanzant ( james spader ) , head medical officer kaela evers ( angela bassett ) , medical technicians yerzy penalosa ( lou diamond phillips ) and danika lund ( robin tunney ) , and computer technician benj sotomejor ( wilson cruz ) .
there are some attempts at " characterization , " but all that means is that nick has a shady past involving a drug addiction , which puts kaela on edge , yerzy and danika have a relationship that requires them to make kissy - faces at each other every five minutes , and benj ( apparently gay ) is in love with the computer ( apparently female ) .
do n't expect any more explanation , because you wo n't get it .
anyway , the crew gets a distress call from a location deep in space to which a failed mining operation had been sent .
during the dimension jump ( i think that 's what it 's called , but do n't hold me to it )
, the captain is killed and the man who sent the distress signal ( peter facinelli ) is brought on board .
he calls himself troy larson , making him the supposed son of a man kaela once had a relationship with .
then a bunch of really predictable stuff starts happening .
have you seen " alien ?
" have you seen " event horizon " ( a lame movie in its own right ) ?
good .
then you 've seen " supernova .
" post - production cuts or not ,
there is nothing original about this screenplay , and nothing unpredictable either . after all , no one 's going to think for a second that troy wo n't turn out to be a villain .
but the bigger problem with " supernova " is that it can ' t just stick to the simple plot it 's afforded .
numerous re - writes ( the script may be credited to three people , but it 's a gross underestimate ) have crammed this lean 90-minute film with tons of extraneous plot threads that all remain underdeveloped
.
was there something about a limping robot shaped like a fighter pilot ?
did the ship 's computer learn something about humanity ?
what was that glowing lava lamp artifact troy brought on board with him ?
and just what does the film 's title signify , if anything ?
as far as i can tell , it refers to a very small plot detail that is n't developed , just like the rest of these unnecessary story elements .
character relationships in this film also make very little sense .
for some reason , every person in this film keeps having sex .
we get an unusually early sex scene between phillips and tunney within the first 10 minutes .
bassett and spader 's characters start off hating each other .
fifteen minutes and one bottle of pear brandy later , they 're engaging in some hanky - panky .
when troy the creepy stranger shows up on the ship , of course both female crew members will fall in love with him .
every single shift in character interaction happens extremely suddenly , which is only one of the many obvious clues to how much this film has been cut .
the most prominent example , however , may be the fact that when the film starts , there are no opening credits !
furthermore , the end of the film looks like they took what were originally intended to be the opening credits and spliced them in right before the real end credits .
maybe that 's why the film 's title is mentioned twice during the end credits , right between james spader and robert forster .
right after you get over the shock of not being told what movie you 're seeing ( lest you decide to walk out upon making that discovery ) , you might notice that the movie seems to have dropped you right in the middle of a scene , with little - to - no introduction to any of the characters or situations .
the rest of the movie feels like they skipped over the middle stuff in the character changes ( you know , where they explain things ) and just went from point
a to point b . point
a : danika is thoroughly enamored of yerzy and is ready to have his baby .
point b : tunney is now shagging troy and yerzy is unusually obsessed with the lava lamp thing .
does n't make sense .
since i did n't understand anything about these characters ' motivations , did i care when troy abruptly starts murdering them one - by - one ( and he does , knocking off three of them in about 10 minutes ) ? not a whit .
it 's a shame , because this cast contains a lot of talented actors looking for something to do .
they do n't find it .
bassett and spader
say every line in the same monotone voice with the same blank expressions on their faces . sexual tension ? more like constipation .
maybe they 're just embarrassed at having to utter such howlers as " this thing was made by someone more powerful than god and a whole lot less nice .
" not that we ever find out who that is , mind you .
the climax of their relationship ( taking place in a transport pod ) is probably the film 's biggest forehead - slapper .
as troy , peter facinelli inhabits the most obvious villain in history that no one ever suspected .
he 's awfully one - note , but it 's not as if he 's given any more notes to work with .
the rest of the cast does even less .
tunney stands around looking cute , then scared .
phillips broods .
cruz flirts with the computer .
then they all die and a star blows up or something , but i really was n't paying much attention by then .
" supernova " is pretty awful , but i 'm cutting it a little slack merely because i expected less than what i got .
that 's it .
if you expect it to be good ( for whatever reasons you may have ) , you 'll probably hate it more than i will .
even the special effects are fairly unimpressive , nothing you have n't seen before , and suffice to say the script is n't going to save the film
.
honestly , though , what do you expect from a film with about a dozen writers and a director who had his name removed and replaced with a pseudonym ?
it usually results in a bad movie , and that 's what " supernova " is .
[A]: N


[Q]: there 's a thin line between satire and controversy , and mike nichols ( the birdcage , wolf ) has directed a sharp and very honest look at a us presidential election .
based on the book written by " anonymous " ( actually former " newsweek " writer joe klein ) , john travolta plays governor jack stanton .
but he does n't actually play stanton .
he plays bill clinton ; just the same as emma thompson no doubt plays the first lady and billy bob thorton is the campaign manipulator james carville ( although the credits will of course say otherwise ) .
the film is taken from the perspective of henry burton ( adrian lester ) , a morally correct and somewhat hesitant new advisor to stanton .
he searches for justice and dignity in the ugliest possible situations , and whether it be keeping the history of his boss ' pants under wraps or contemplating digging up dirt on another politician , he approaches his work with a keen desire to skillfully serve his country and his fellow workers .
richard jemmons ( billy bob thorton ) and daisy green ( maura tierney ) team up with henry as the would - be president 's advisors , and hire lesbian veteran libby holden ( kathy bates ) as the campaign 's eccentric " tougher than dirt " incriminator .
together they face all sorts of sexual allegations , the irritatingly discourteous media and other witty politicians in the election race .
in its satire and controversy , primary colors is a similar film to wag the dog : they both are not afraid to wipe their noses in the nitty - gritty and take a bold look at something that will never has honesty as a virtue .
but whereas wag showed us how much affect a few people can have on the media , primary colors is much more concerned with fleshing out it 's characters , letting us understand what they want and why , and making us truly appreciate the humanity and rectitude that they graciously represent .
seeing john travolta play bill clinton
so confidently and justly is enough to make the film more than worth a look . and the rest of the cast also make
superb performances - adrian lester sharply portrays the intellect of henry whilst kathy bates is perfect as the robust and energetic libby holden .
at occasions , you ca n't help but feel that these terrific characters are going to waste .
there are long slabs of time where john travolta ( unquestionably the most interesting to watch ) is missed from the screen ; and since it is awkwardly structured as henry 's story we are often forced to watch scenes that perhaps are not so necessary to the central plot - or even the point of the film .
having said that , make no mistake - primary colors is always enjoyable to watch
.
but frequently we have to ask ourselves - exactly what are we watching ?
most of the first half of its duration is a lightheaded look at melodramatic confrontations that seem so genuine we can not help but laugh , but the way primary colors chooses to finish tackles aspects that are very contrary , and almost unsuitable , to the rest of the film .
but as i mentioned before , there is a thin line between satire and controversy - and for the most part , primary colors delivers an entertaining indulgence of political matters combined with a far - from - overpowering look at winning the public 's opinion .
although at occasions the film may jump around a little too freely , focus is never lost on how important and vulnerable the subject matter really is .
thankfully , it is clear to make the distinction on what is entertaining movie cosmetics and what is a provocative documentation of something
so really it 's scary .
[A]: P


[Q]: unfortunately it does n't get much more formulaic than one tough cop .
there 's the renegade cop with the loser partner who has to many problems to explain .
the renegade has to prove his good name and is trapped between the good guys , the bad guys and some woman who really has nothing to do with the story other than being there for the purpose of providing sex for the hero in the middle of the film .
bo dietl ( pronounced deedle , baldwin ) is one tough cop , a guy who is being investigated by hardass fbi agents due to his association with the ny mafia .
on top of that problem , he has a drunk , gambling addicted partner ( penn ) who has a penchant for collecting parking tickets ( i guess cops are n't immune ? ) .
then , throw into the mix the femme fatale ( gershon ) .
right there you have plenty of ammo for a decent cop drama .
but right in the middle of the film , they throw in a completely un - related plot point .
dietl and his partner duke try to solve a case that they have been warned to stay away from .
the film spends over half an hour tracking the case of a nun who was beaten and raped to near death .
once the case is solved , the film shifts focus back to the mafia issue .
whatever neat mesh the screenwriter wanted to create between the two stories failed miserably . aside from being asked to accept michael mcglone as a mafioso ( an insult if you ask me ) the performances were pretty good .
baldwin , though he occasionally slips into an impression of his brother alec , does a fine job as one tough cop .
penn , who also slips into an impression of his brother sean , is even better as a loser tough guy cop .
what one tough cop lacks is originality .
this film offers nothing new .
nothing that you ca n't get from any cop film .
it screams sidney lumet all over the place , perhaps because it was produced by marty and michael bregman , producers of lumet 's dog day afternoon and serpico .
but even the masterful sidney would not have been able to make one tough cop into a good film .
too much else is lacking .
i also saw the boom mic pop into the top of the frame twice early on in the picture , something that i almost never notice .
but once i saw that , i had it in the back of my mind every time i saw a medium or long shot .
at times , i was hoping to see it .
one tough cop is n't laughable , nor is it a terrible film , but it just is n't unique .
it is a classic example of a film that did n't need to be made .
but one thing is for sure , it could really use a better title .
[A]:
N