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

[EX Q]: any remake of an alfred hitchcock film is at best an uncertain project , as a perfect murder illustrates .
frankly , dial m for murder is not one of the master director 's greatest efforts , so there is ample room for improvement .
unfortunately , instead of updating the script , ironing out some of the faults , and speeding up the pace a little , a perfect murder has inexplicably managed to eliminate almost everything that was worthwhile about dial m for murder , leaving behind the nearly- unwatchable wreckage of a would - be ' 90s thriller .
almost all suspense films are loaded with plot implausibilities .
the best thrillers keep viewers involved enough in what 's going on so that these flaws in logic do n't become apparent until long after the final credits have rolled .
unfortunately , in a perfect murder , the faults are often so overt that we become aware of them as they 're happening .
this is a very bad sign .
not only do such occurrences shatter any suspension of disbelief , but they have the astute viewer looking for the next such blunder .
of course , in the case of a perfect murder , at least that gives an audience member something to do besides concentrating on the inane plot and the lifeless , cardboard characters .
a perfect murder is n't a strict remake of dial m for murder , but it does borrow heavily from frederick knott 's play ( which was also the source material for hitchcock 's version , as well as a 1981 made - for - tv retelling ) .
emily hayes ( gwyneth paltrow ) is the wealthy wife of powerful wall street mover - and - shaker steven hayes ( michael douglas ) .
their marriage is n't going well -- emily resents steven 's controlling instincts , and , as a form of rebellion , she is having an affair with a penniless painter , david shaw ( viggo mortensen ) .
when steven learns of the relationship , he decides to confront david , but his approach is n't that of a typical cuckolded husband .
instead of yelling or threatening , steven offers david a proposal that 's too good to resist : for $ 500 , 000 in cash ( $ 100 , 000 before , the rest after ) , he is to break into steven 's new york apartment and kill emily .
( of course , after getting the first payment , david never bothers to ask how he 's supposed to get the rest . )
ultimately , i 'm not sure which of the three main characters we 're supposed to be sympathetic to : the cold - hearted husband , who wants his wife dead so he can get his hands on her fortune ; her mercenary lover , who is willing to do the deed for half - a - million ; or the woman , who is happily carrying on an extramarital affair .
not only are these individuals all profoundly dislikable , but they 're not interesting .
( it 's possible to make a good movie with detestable characters -- see reservoir dogs -- but there has to be something compelling about them , which , in this case , there is n't . )
steven , emily , and david are all lifted directly from the screenwriting 101 text book on stereotypes .
the actors in this film are obviously just on hand to get their paychecks .
michael douglas is playing the kind of heartless tycoon that he can do in his sleep -- he 's gordon gekko with an unfaithful wife .
gwyneth paltrow , who was recently delightful and appealing in sliding doors , is simply awful here .
she now has the dubious distinction of have starred in two of 1998 's worst thrillers ( the other being hush ) .
at least viggo mortensen ( g .
i .
jane ) has a little fun with his part , but then he usually does interesting things even in bad movies .
the thin supporting cast includes david suchet , the star of " poirot , " as a police inspector , and sarita choudhury ( kama sutra ) as emily 's best friend .
a perfect murder is a plodding production that generates almost no suspense from beginning to end .
there are n't many twists and turns in the unexpectedly linear script , which makes the ending inevitable almost from the start .
it 's surprising to see director andrew davis , the man behind the fugitive , involved in this mess
, but , like his stars , he too needs to earn a living .
it 's just that remaking hitchcock , and doing it so badly
, hardly seems to be an honorable way to go about getting the dough .
[EX A]: N

[EX Q]: the reunion film is not an original idea in any way , shape , or form .
it 's been done throughout film history over and over again , and has become one of the many sub - genres , like the prep school sub - genre , the angst - filled teen sub - genre , and the slasher sub - genre .
what makes " peter 's friends
" so remarkable is not how it does n't follow the rules of this sub - genre , but how it follows it so well , and creates characters that i would n't mind hanging with .
what are the rules of the reunion sub - genre ?
well .
. .
. 1 .
you need a group of friends , most of them married or at least dating , and sometimes even married or dating eachother .
2 .
you need to have them brought back together over some sort of a crisis .
3 .
they are not to have spoken together much since they split apart .
4 .
the reunion has to come in intervals divisible by 10 . 5 .
they all have to be slightly to highly neurotic .
6 .
the reunion has to bring them together , seperate them with little crises , then bring them back together because , after all , they 're friends .
7 .
there has to be some sex or at least some making out either between the friends or with other people that are there or were invited .
8 .
eightly , they 're all unhappy or marginally so .
9 .
there 's some sort of sexual tension amongst some of them that 's built up over the years .
10 .
the friends are all wildly successful in the world of entertainment and the arts , sometimes internationally so .
11 .
the film is filled with nostalgic radio hits from the time when they were friends , sometimes causing them to get together in dance / song .
since it follows these rules so closely , it will probably be ( and has been ) coined off as just a " british ' big chill . '
" and in some ways it is .
both follow the rules , as i said , and both feature lots of bitching , big confessionals , and broken relationships .
but while " the big chill " was , at least to me , a tad too whiny and unsatisfying , " peter 's friends " hits its mark , making this film funny , dramatic , and poignant .
the friends of peter 's were all in the same theatre group back in ' 82 , performig wildly outrageous british acts for people far too stuck up to enjoy them
( the opening scene has them all dancing in tux tops and tutus ) .
after peter 's ( stephen fry ) wealthy father ( richard briers , hardly on screen enough to register , but oh well ) dies , leaving a giant mansion to him , he has to decide whether or not to keep it .
not sure what to do with it immeadiately , he decides to throw a giant reunion party , inviting back all his old chums .
of course , all or most of his chums follow the tenth rule .
andrew ( kenneth branagh , also directing here ) is an actor who 's unhappily married to a tv star , carol ( co - writer rita rudner ) .
maggie ( emma thompson )
is a successfuly publisher of self - help books , but looks like she needs them more than her customers , as she is lonely and unhappy .
roger and mary ( hugh laurie and imelda staunton , who were also married in " sense and sensibility " ) are married , and are the most successful creators of jingles in the uk , but have suffered a tragedy as one of their newly born twins has recently died .
and sarah ( alphonsia emmanuel ) is as promiscuous as ever , having a new boyfriend as of two weeks named brian ( tony slattery ) who 's married and wants a divorce because of her , giving her doubts .
as for peter , things seem okay . . .
the film features lots of inner - friend jokes , and even some old theatre anecdotes ( which i at least find a lot of fun in , as i 've done lots of theatre myself ) .
and there are big confessions , brawls between the friends , and by the end , almost everyone is unhappy , even though some have resolved their problems long before the end ( which i kinda dug ) .
the final twist would seem forced an anti - climactic , but for some reason , i felt the same way the rest of the friends did .
maybe it 's because the people in this film are so likable that i just wanted to join their clique .
that 's really what makes " peter 's friends
" so lovable
: the way you just want to hang with a group of friends who can be so dysfuntional sometimes , but when someone 's in crisis , can come together wonderfully for one another .
it 's when you have a giant crisis like this and people want to selflessly help you out instead of subtely pushing you away
that makes you realize you have true friends , and these people are true friends .
not to mention kenneth branagh is able to make the film seem nostalgic for the 80s
( a decade i grew up in , unfortunately ) without taking us outside of the 90s .
there are some 80s classics and anti - classics like tears for fears " everybody wants to rule the world , " but unfortunately no stupid / fun 80s songs ( i think if i ever did an 80s reunion film , i 'd put some crap go gos song on , or at least some good old " come on eileen " ) , but this is the british 80s we 're talking about .
oh well .
but anyway , the direction is pretty good , although nothing amazing .
branagh 's forte is really making shakespeare fresh and magical , but at least he 's very good with making a less ambiguous film like this .
the writing is good from rita rudner and martin bregman , with lots of good one - liners , and even some really bad but good puns ( to mock the fact that andrew lives in l .
a .
, peter , while cutting some logs , asks him is he has wood in l .
a . , and andrew says ,
" no ,
but we have hollywood
" - punishment like that ) .
the actors , as in most speaking movies , are better than their material , though , with some stand - out performances to the six friends , as well as the outsiders like slattery , rudner , and phyllida law as the old housekeeper of the peter 's mansion .
a little note should be made about hugh laurie 's performance , as he looks like he took some massive doses of prozac before doing this - i mean , i 've never seen him actually act this dramatically .
"
peter 's friends " is a really enjoyable film which makes people like me pine for some sort of future reunion , although i do n't know what kind i 'll have ( like most people , i do n't look forward to my high school reunion ) .
because of the way these friends are still able to maintain the same amount of care they have for one another and after such a long period of seperation , i just look forward to the day when i can have friends like that .
[EX A]: P

[EX Q]: synopsis : in phantom menace the galaxy is divided into power groups whose interests will inevitably collide in later sequels .
there is an overarching galactic united nations - type organization called the senate presided by a weak chancellor .
within the senate two camps are at odds : a bickering , isolationist alliance called the republic and their aggressive rival the trade federation .
preserving law and order are a council of jedi knights who are meanwhile searching for a prophesied chosen one of virgin birth .
manipulating events behind the scenes is a dangerous , reemerging clan called the dark lords of sith , so shadowy and secretive that they comprise a " phantom " menace .
jedi knight qui - gon jinn ( liam neeson ) and his apprentice obi - wan kenobi
( ewan mcgregor ) witness an invasion of teenage queen amidala 's home planet naboo and befriend a gungan named jar jar ( ahmed best ) .
on the desert planet of tatooine the two jedi , jar jar , and amidala ( natalie portman ) attend a lengthy drag race involving the young boy anakin skywalker ( jake lloyd ) .
the five protagonists try to solicit help for freeing naboo by visiting the city planet of coruscant where a lot of debate and political maneuvering takes place .
can they free amidala 's helpless planet ?
opinion :
on tv last night i watched young , wannabe celebs pay $ 400 a ticket and come running out of theaters to bask in front of news cameras , gushing with testimonials of the phantom menace 's greatness in exchange for a few seconds of being on national television .
given this kind of media mania i wondered if phantom menace , the most anticipated movie of 1999 , could possibly live up to the extraordinary hype that preceded it . does phantom menace match the exaggerated hype ?
director george lucas answers , " it 's only a movie .
" to me , any movie with russian - sounding accents for bad guys , jamaican accents for good guys , and middle eastern - sounding accents for seedy gamblers accents can be expected to be more tongue in cheek than profound .
visually , star wars : episode i
--the
phantom menace ( 1999 ) is a kid show where parents can take their young ones to marvel at child - friendly cgi characters and wondrous backdrops
even if the character dialogue ( mostly geopolitics ) is beyond the level of children .
it is left to parents to patiently explain the conversation : droid origins , family lineage , the definitions of terms like blockade , appeasement , federation , alliance , symbiosis , satellite - controlled robots et cetera .
at least this much is clear
: there 's plenty of eye candy , and in
the last few minutes
it 's good guys and joe camel lookalikes versus
a caped
, horned red devil character and his mechanical hordes .
weaknesses :
weaknesses lie in the writing and in the performance .
at first
it seems like the film is to be an invasion story , but then phantom takes an hour - long detour to cover one chariot race before returning to the invasion theme .
this dilutes the central story .
additionally
, smaller scenes seem written self consciously , as if they were added more to fill us in on extraneous background information for other movies rather than form an integral part of the present movie .
veteran actors liam neeson and ewan
mcgregor noticeably outperform the other acting leads .
better ensemble chemistry between the five leads and background information that is central to a tight story line could have made have given phantom stronger performances and storytelling punch .
strengths
: on the bright side phantom menace as a big - budget production is far ahead of the competition in terms of making whimsical creatures , worlds and vehicles appear real .
the film boasts sophisticated , top - of - the - line visuals and quality exotic costumes , a musical score entertaining enough to stand alone , and three worthwhile sequences in the second half .
bottom line ?
seeing the film is entertaining and informative , like a visual theme park with star wars filler information serving as dialogue between impressive money shots .
we are bound to be completely inundated by star wars publicity , music and tie - ins for the next few months .
[EX A]:
P