TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: city of angels is the kind of love story that i enjoy the most : thought - provoking , moving , and completely unsentimental .
i find it interesting that this film has been released the same day as my giant , which is a film that is undone completely by its wretched sentimentality .
city of angels is a wonderful film , enhanced by interesting and well - rounded characters and some of the most immersive imagery of the last couple of years .
it 's a love story that takes the familiar angel themes and makes them new and necessary to the story , and avoids most of the cliches we 're so used to seeing in films like this .
city of angels is an apparently loose remake of wim wenders ' 1988 film wings of desire .
i have yet to see wings of desire , so i am , unfortunately , unable to make a comparison of the two .
i have heard , however , that city of angels is dissimilar from the original in numerous ways , which makes me glad that this film is n't a rip - off of its source material .
nicolas cage stars as seth , an angel who , like all of his angel counterparts , is present to lead the dying to heaven ( or somewhere just like it ) .
one day , he is forced to take the life of a patient of dr .
maggie rice ( meg ryan ) , and his attention is called to her .
the angels can make themselves seen to humans , but they ca n't experience any of the senses ( most importantly , touch ) .
he shows himself to maggie , and she falls for him , unaware that he is slightly unavailable because of his apparition status .
seth wants to become human so he can feel her .
that 's when he meets nathaniel messinger ( dennis franz ) , " former celestial messenger and recent addition to the human race .
"
( as a side note , i found messinger to be the most fascinating character , for i can only imagine how incredibly liberating it must be to live knowing what lies beyond death . )
messinger explains to seth that it is possible for angels to become human .
seth manages to convince maggie that he is an angel ( i know , it sounds ridiculous , but
the scene in which she finds out is exceptionally well - done ) ; after much deliberation , she tells him that she could only be with a man who can feel .
this , of course , is when seth decides to take the plunge ( literally ) from a building ; when he wakes up from the fall , he is human , and happy to feel what it 's like to have a split lip and blood oozing from his forehead .
since i love this film so much , i 'll make a minor note that it certainly is n't perfect .
although it is original and mesmerizing , it does fall prey to a few of the cliches of the genre .
the plotting of the story by writer dawn steel is rather formulaic ( though the details are what make the story excellent , and steel has done a great job with them ) .
the ending , too , could have been more powerful and less predictable .
these elements are minor , though , and barely detracted from my overall enjoyment of city of angels .
the acting is superb from everyone involved .
this is perhaps my second - favorite performance from cage ( my favorite being the rock ) .
he 's quiet and pensive , and his eyes are engaging when he speaks his softly - toned words .
he 's perfect for a role like this , and at the same time he reassures us
he 's not bound by playing the psycho ( though he is good at it , as he shows in face / off ) .
meg ryan is a powerful , enticing , and appealingly - chirpy actress , and her work here is some of her best .
dennis franz , however , steals all of his scenes as the energetic former - angel .
what i admire most about city of angels is its overall presentation .
director brad silberling is a talented man , and he knows that a story like this is driven by the characters , rather than forced sentimentality .
his direction is steady , and he shows this in just about every scene : near the beginning , maggie has to tell a mother and her two children that their father is dead .
there is no music or elaborate camera work ; we simply see the reactions of the characters to the information .
this is the way stories should be told , and the strength of scenes resonates more completely when the emotions are real .
the film also appeals to the senses in a way that few love stories do .
cinematographer john seale ( the english patient ) provides some of the most stunning images
i 've seen on the big screen : hundreds of black - clad angels stand on a dim beach in the early morning hours ( just as an example ) .
the music , by gabriel yared ( also of the english patient ) , is perfect for this film :
it 's quiet and moody music ( but not sentimental ! ) , and adds to the atmosphere and tone nicely .
the visual presentation of city of angels is easily the best of 1998 so far .
all of this adds up to a film that is instantly set apart from other members of this genre .
it 's a film that relies on character development and imagery to get the story across -- the excellent actors and the professional production values make city of angels
one of those rare films that both entertains and instigates thought simultaneously .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: ugh .
that about sums this movie up .
just , ugh .
the original godzilla movies are somewhat of a cult classic , and when reviewing the previous films , each film had a certain degree of intelligence .
and that was the reason they found such an enviable cult following ; in spite of bad special effects , horrible dubbing , and a man in a lizard suit , they maintained a certain degree of . . .
how to put this ? . . .
dignity ?
not quite the word i 'm looking for .
you understand , right ?
and in 50 years , godzilla has maintained that degree of ' whatever ' . leave it to america to screw the whole thing up .
> from the ' geniuses ' that brought us " independece day " , arguably the worst sci - fi movie of all time , to ruin whatever reputation godzilla had .
while they do bring us eye - popping special effects that will amaze you ,
they lost what was at the center of all the original godzilla movies -- a storyline .
summing up the movie is simple .
heck , i can do it in one sentence : giant lizard attacks a giant city and a bunch of nobodies stop it .
simple as that .
matthew broderick
stumbles over his lines , and it 's hard to picture hank azaria in any role besides his classic dog - walking character on the television show " mad about you " .
the dialogue seems to be improvized , almost as if there was no rehearsel done at all .
i can see the scene on the set right now .
"
all right !
we spent all of this money making big special effects , and we 've got ta get this movie out by summer
or it 's going to bomb in our faces .
so , you actors just say what ever comes to the top of your head , all right ?
make up something , m'kay ?
good .
roll film ! !
"
the special effects are enough to keep you interested through one viewing , and some of the cinemtography is well - done ( the scene with the black umbrellas comes to mind ) .
still , an hour into it , you will become antsy , wondering how long they can drag it out . and drag it out they do ! !
i have to laugh .
the slogan for the film is , " size does matter " .
i think they cut this too short .
it should read , " size does matter .
acting does not .
"

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: i have never been a " star trek " fan , and , to tell the truth , out of the five films in the series that i have seen ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 8 , 9 ) , i have disliked all of them .
i do , however , always go into one of these with an open mind , and the ninth film in the series , " star trek : insurrection , " is no exception .
dropping almost completely the hard - core sci - fi element of the previous one in the series , " first contact , " " insurrection , " tells the story of a planet that holds only 600 people , known as the ba'ku , as well as the fountain of youth .
at the start of the picture , the villagers go under attack by a second alien species , known as the son'a , who want to push all of the ba'ku out so that their own race will not die out .
also attacking the ba'ku is data ( brent spiner ) , a robot from the star trek enterprise .
after returning to jean - luc picard ( patrick stewart ) and the gang on their space ship , no one can understand why data was somehow taken over by another force .
so several of the star trek members travel down to the planet of the ba'ku , where picard meets up and starts to fall in love with one of the inhabitants , a sultry , kind alien woman ( donna murphy ) , who is over six - hundred - years - old , but looks to only be in her thirties .
"
star trek : insurrection , " is a completely unoriginal and cheap - looking installment in the series , and is a big step down
from , 1996 's " first contact , " which at least appeared to try to make something a bit different .
in , " insurrection , " however , it plays like a low - rent episode of the television show , due to the small - scale , generic storyline , and an emphasis on one - liners rather than excitement .
the film was filled with nearly non - stop comedy , and worse yet , most of it fell flatter than a cartoon character that drops off a cliff .
meanwhile , when there were action sequences , they were not at all interesting or inventive , relying on that old reliable ticking timer that counts down very , very slowly .
this plot device , which is seen in just about every action film made nowadays , is getting old fast . are filmmakers
so bankrupt of ingenuity and ideas that they must always have a timer ticking away during the climax ?
another element of , " star trek , " films in general is that picard seems to always have to have a love interest , but then she always miraculously disappears when the next film is made two or three years later .
although donna murphy , who falls victim to this thankless love interest role here , is actually one of the few characters that we get to know in the 103-minute running time , alfre woodard was far superior in , " first contact .
"
she should have returned for this one , but i do n't blame her for not wanting to waste her time with this movie 's disappointing and often lifeless screenplay , by michael piller .
"
star trek : insurrection , " is perhaps the weakest film in the " star trek , " series , although i have not seen what is widely considered the worst , " star trek v : the final frontier .
" " insurrection , " is the type of " safe " sequel that will bewilder non - fans , since it is so low - tech compared to most of today 's blockbuster action films ( although most of these are honestly not very good , either ) , and should disappoint the loyal trekkies , since it could have easily been better if the makers had realized that the screenplay needed to go through a few more drafts .
on second thought , they probably should have completely thrown the script out .
that way , they could have come up with a story that at least had a sign of intelligence and freshness .

SOLUTION:
N