instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
it 's probably inevitable that the popular virtual reality genre ( " the matrix , " " existenz " ) would collide with the even more popular serial - killer genre ( " kiss the girls , " " se7en " ) .
the result should have been more interesting than " the cell .
"
as the movie opens , therapist catharine deane ( jennifer lopez ) treats a catatonic boy ( colton james ) by entering his mind through some sort of virtual reality technique that 's never fully explained .
after months of therapy sessions in a surreal desert , catharine has no success to report .
meanwhile , killer carl stargher ( vincent d'onofrio ) has claimed another victim .
his particular hobby is to kidnap young women , keep them in a glass cell overnight , and drown them .
he takes the corpse and soaks it in bleach , then suspends himself over the body and jerks off while watching a video tape of the drowning .
although carl 's been doing this for awhile , he 's recently become sloppy , and fbi agent peter novak ( vince vaughn ) is closing in fast .
not fast enough , though , to keep carl from sticking another woman ( tara subkoff ) in the cell or to catch him before he suffers a schizophrenic attack that leaves him in a coma .
from the videos in carl 's house , peter can see that the drowning cell is automated and will fill with water forty hours after the abduction .
to save the kidnapped girl , peter has to find the cell before the end of the day , and comatose carl 's not talking .
so off they go to catharine in the hope that she can go inside carl 's mind and find out where the cell is in time .
the focus of " the cell " in on the ornate interior of carl 's mind , but the universe director tarsem singh creates seems more an exercise in computer - generated spectacle than an exploration of the psychotic personality .
for the most part , it 's style without substance .
in his own mind , carl is a decadent emperor in flowing robes , ming the merciless , as well as a frightened boy ( jake thomas ) abused by his father .
all in all , the mind of a psycho killer turns out to be a strangely dull place , and i kept wishing i could fast - forward to the next development .
singh is best known for directing music videos , particularly rem 's " losing my religion , " and " the cell " seems very much like a really long , really slow mtv video with the sound deleted .
singer lopez seems to think she 's in a video as well ; she devotes more time to posing in elaborate costumes than she does to acting .
the premise had great promise .
the computer - generated world within carl 's mind could have been a bizarre , surreal universe governed by insanity and symbolism rather than logic .
the first room catharine enters in carl 's head shows this promise .
she finds a horse standing in center of the room ; suddenly , sheets of sharp - edged glass fall into the horse , dividing it into segments .
the panes of glass separate , pulling apart the pieces of the still - living horse .
this scene is twisted , disturbing , and thought - provoking , because the psychological importance of the horse and its fate is left to the viewer to ponder .
another element that should have been developed is the effect on catharine of merging with the mind of a psychopath .
their minds begin to bleed together at one point in the movie , and this should have provided an opportunity to discover the dark corners of catharine 's own psyche .
like sidney lumet 's " the offence " or michael mann 's " manhunter , " " the cell " could have explored how the madness of the killer brings out a repressed darkness in the investigator .
however , catharine 's character is hardly developed at all , and lopez has no depth to offer the role .
bottom line : do n't get trapped in this one .
answer:
N


question:
note : ordinarily , moviereviews .
org will not give away any critical plot points of a film that could be interpreted as " spoilers . " however , being that music of the heart is based on a true story and that moviereviews .
org feels the film can not be properly credited without such revelations , plot giveaways will appear in the following review .
if this bothers you , please note the 3 star rating of the film and stop reading now .
"
what does it take to play carnegie hall ?
practice .
"
it takes two hours for music of the heart to " play carnegie hall , " both figuratively and literally .
like the children it portrays , the movie starts from the dark realms of awful cinema and works its way up to a show - stopping performance at the legendary concert hall .
roberta guaspari ( academy award winner meryl streep ) has two kids , a husband who left her and 50 violins she bought from a small shop in the mediterranean .
her life desperately needs a jump start and gets one when she meets a man who introduces her to a job as a music teacher at an east harlem elementary school .
she soon finds her job is on the rocks as the men in her life continue to rotate through revolving doors .
that is the pattern - like plot of this production .
ultimately , the film chooses a zero - sum answer to these problems and finds her music career at an all - time high when the men in her life finally vanish .
the first hour of music of the heart is rather painful .
roberta 's character lacks development and consequently seems to be flat .
also lacking depth is the film 's " bad guy , " a narrow - minded music teacher ( josh pais ) who rejects roberta out of principle ( the movie never explains exactly which principle that is ) and conveniently comes and goes from the plot according to when it might be dramatic to have a villain around .
the next 15 minutes of the film are mediocre .
they are highlighted by one child 's return to roberta 's class ( coming after the great old hollywood scene where he explains be ca n't be around anymore because " my mom said . . . " ) and a glowing concert .
not knowing the running time , you may expect the credits to role at this point .
but they do n't .
instead the film uses the next 45 minutes to finish its journey from bad to mediocre to excellent .
director wes craven , known for his works of horror , uses some old sentimental tricks to get the audience tearing .
one romantic break up scene is highlighted by the classic
" but . . .
last night . . .
" and roberta 's two children also have textbook conflicts with their single mother regarding their father 's absence .
the city of harlem plays a strong role in the movie .
roberta 's mother is initially reluctant to see her daughter move to that part of town and the film does nothing to combat that stereotype .
the noise tracks for these scenes are dominated by sirens ; predictably one of roberta 's students is gunned down and killed off screen .
one thing the film does lack is subtlety .
the fact that a little boy was playing " we shall overcome " on his violin after the aforementioned shooting was a cute and discreet reference .
the fact that the entire orchestra begins to play it over and over soon after is an overdone reference that shows how little credit he gives the audience .
( of course , in horror films the foreshadowing and between - the - line moments are meant to be overdone , so perhaps he too is just learning to play the game . )
even with all its flaws , music of the heart is a beautiful film .
that is not an excuse for the movie 's poor beginning .
but as i watched the scenes in carnegie hall , i thought of some of the great acts that have taken that stage .
in december of 1979 a comedian named andy kaufman put on a show that will forever be remembered as one of the most original in theatre history .
the performance included a dead - on elvis impression , robin williams in disguise and a moment at the end when kaufman announced he would take the whole audience out for milk and cookies .
so , how did this comic genius choose to open the show of his life ?
he had a character named tony clifton take the stage for the sole purpose of irritating and angering the audience .
perhaps it is okay for music of the heart to start off rusty because just as kaufman had santa 's favorite food ,
this movie has an amazing finale .
answer:
P


question:
14 years ago , national lampoon introduced us to a new family - the griswolds .
in 1983 , the griswolds embarked on a cross - country journey with the destination of wally world , a world - renowned theme park in california .
we laughed our heads off as we shared the wild and crazy mishaps the family endured .
two years later , we watched again as they went to europe , and four years after that , we shared christmas with them .
now , eight more years have passed , and the laughs have done more than die .
they 've been cremated .
vegas vacation brings back chevy chase as clark griswold , the good intentioned but ill - fated father of two .
the premise is basically the same .
clark has a wonderful idea to take his family on a bonding vacation , this time to las vegas .
his wife ellen ( beverly d'angelo ) and teenage kids rusty and audrey ( always played by different actors - this time around , by ethan embry and marisol nichols , respectively ) join him and they soon find themselves in sin city where casinos will make the backdrop for ninety minutes of slapstick .
of course a " vacation " movie would n't be complete without good ole eddie ( reprised by randy quaid ) , the misfit cousin , showing up at all the wrong times .
there is n't too much of a plot here when it comes right down to it .
it 's really just a skit movie .
there are a couple of ways to define a skit movie , which is not a real term as far as i know .
the first would be a movie that basically has one running gag for two hours , therefore coming off like a two hour skit .
the second would be a movie that seems comprised of about twenty shorter skits , each lasting about five minutes .
vegas vacation comes off like the first .
a good example of the latter would be last year 's black sheep .
the problem with this format is that it becomes old fast , and it does n't really fit into a movie mold . in these cases , a " plot " , which is generally very thin , is used either as a shameless filler between scenes or to simply add convenience to the gags ( i .
e . have a good vegas joke , make a vegas movie ) .
such is the case with this movie 's mini - plots .
clark gets gambling fever and begins spending all of the griswold 's money , ellen is on the verge of an affair with wayne newton ( ! ) , rusty has a fake
i
d
and is using it to his gambling advantage , and audrey is desperate for fun and winds up joining her cousin vickie ( shae d'lyn ) as an exotic dancer .
the simple fact is : this movie is n't funny .
at first , i did find myself chuckling heartily at a couple of little jokes , but when the movie got rolling , my interest suddenly stopped .
chase plays clark griswold really well .
he made the character and he is the character .
d'angelo , to be quite honest , never was too impressive as ellen , and this movie does n't show any signs of redemption .
as for the two new griswold kids , the word " blah " comes to mind .
the " vacation " series seems out to prove that anybody can play these two characters , the simple reason being that there is nothing to them .
they 're so generic , you 'll expect the credits to read " girl # 1 as audrey griswold " .
vegas vacation differs from the first three in the series by more than just laugh factor .
yes , it 's true that vegas vacation is n't even close to being close to being as funny as the others , which were actually pretty fun in their own doofy ways , but there are a couple of other things that set this one negatively apart .
first off , why did they leave off the national lampoon 's heading on the title ?
i could n't find any reasons why , but maybe the fact is even national lampoon did n't want to be associated with such a lame film .
that 's saying a lot , especially when you look at what else the company has proudly presented : loaded weapon 1 , pcu , etc .
if they expected this to be another hit , you would assume they 'd be proud to tack on the notorious header , but for reasons only we can guess at , like the movie sucking , they did n't .
there is another difference here that makes an obvious impact .
the first three films in the " vacation " series were written by john hughes , a talented writer who is behind several popular films of the 80 's including mr .
mom , sixteen candles , the breakfast club , weird science , pretty in pink , ferris bueller 's day off , planes , trains , and automobiles , and uncle buck .
wowzers !
what a r ? sum ? !
looking at the names , you 'd think this guy wrote everything that now stands as a movie icon for the 1980 's .
well that 's not all .
this guy also brought us 90 's hits including the home alone series , the remake of 101 dalmatians , dennis the menace , and the current flubber .
vegas vacation , however , did n't have john hughes behind it , and the loss is very obvious .
this time around , the script is in the hands of elisa bell , whose only credits thus far include four made - for - tv movies .
vegas vacation plays very much like one , and it would actually work much better as a made - for - tv sequel .
if this sounds like a wild idea , it 's not .
revenge of the nerds third and fourth installments were both television movies , and they seemed like it .
vegas vacation would fit in well on the fox network as a 2 : 00
a .
m . sunday morning movie , but as a silver screen major motion picture , it 's quite out of place .
stephen kessler 's jejune direction does n't help things either .
he only makes the film even more tv - movie - ish .
each consecutive " vacation " movie has suffered a drop in directing power .
we started the series off with harold ramis , who also directed caddyshack and groundhog day as well as co - writing ghostbusters .
not too bad .
then we had national lampoon 's european vacation being directed by amy heckerling , who would go on to direct the hits look who 's talking and clueless , as well as having already directed the infamous fast times at ridgemont high .
lastly we had national lampoon 's christmas vacation , directed by jeremiah s .
chechik , who went on to direct the charming benny & joon .
kessler , so far , has one title under his belt , the short film birch street gym , which received an oscar nomination in 1992 .
granted that this was his first attempt at a feature length film , we can allow for some amateurish quality , but instead we get a movie straight from the text book - boring , bland , and deeply unoriginal
.
if you loved the " vacation " movies , and i know
* some * of us did ,
there still is n't anything here worth seeing .
if you loved them , do n't ruin your good impressions of the series by indulging in
this tragic example of cinema ala carte .
if you never did like the series , why the need to confirm why ?
answer:

N