TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: men in black is an explosive mix of science fiction , action , and comedy that hits the target in every possible way .
although another alien movie , men in black succeeds in every way
that independence day did n't , and towers above many other movies of its type .
the brilliant acting , especially by tommy lee jones as agent kay , is also as good as it gets .
director barry sonnenfeld , who was behind the camera for the addams family movies and get shorty , has crafted a masterpiece .
the story behind men in black is just as interesting as you would want it to be .
the men in black , or mib , are a top - secret governmental agency that is not known to exist .
the mib are responsible for " saving the world from the scum of the universe " .
a though job , indeed .
the film opens with a truckload of illegal aliens ( the human kind ) being transported across the mexico border and into the united states .
presumably , these " aliens " are all migrant workers .
that is , until the mib show up and begin interrogating them .
agent kay selects a particular suspicious worker and takes him away from the other local authorities to discover that he is not an illegal human alien , but a real extra - terrestrial alien .
when the alien makes a run for it , agent kay is forced to eliminate the alien with one of the mib 's very unique weapons , and after one of the local law enforcement officers witnesses this bizarre occurrence , agent kay is forced to use another very unique device on them .
the device , described as " out of state " , eliminates the memory of anyone it is used on .
>
from here , we are introduced to james edwards , played very well by will smith .
edwards , a police officer , is chasing a fleeing criminal .
the criminal gives a very good chase , and at one point when edwards confronts him , the criminal pulls out a very different looking weapon that disintegrated when it hit the ground .
edwards continues to chase the very athletic criminal to the top of a building , where the criminal informs edwards that he must let him go , because someone is after him .
edwards does n't take this seriously , but when the criminal shows very non - human characteristics and leaps off the building , he begins to wonder .
back at the police station , agent kay shows up to ask edwards a few questions .
he informs edwards that is was , in fact , a non - human that he was chasing , and that the gun he pulled out was definitely not man - made .
he has edwards identify the gun , and asks edwards to come to the mib headquarters the following day .
edwards arrives and finds that he is involved in a recruiting process , along with various other men who seem a bit more qualified than he .
after goofing up for half of the time , edwards puts on a show at the firing range , and agent kay notes the reason why he feels edwards should be the man to join the mib
: he chased down the " criminal " on foot , which is something that no one is supposed to be able to do .
in the meantime , an upstate new york farm has a very close encounter .
edgar ( vincent d'onofrio )
, owner of the farm , investigates a strange crash landing and is attacked by the inhabitant of the flying object , which presumes to jump inside edgar and use his body as a human transport .
the " bug " , as he is called , is an intergalactic terrorist who has come to earth to attempt to kill two ambassadors .
and it up to the mib , with newly recruited agent jay ( formerly james edwards ) to exterminate the bug and save the planet from intergalactic war .
men in black delightfully combines fast - paced action with often hilarious comedy , which is usually from will smith , although tommy lee jones opens up his comedic personality in this film .
the special effects are also very well done and are not the entire source of the plot , as in another big alien film from the past summer .
screenwriter ed solomon , writer of super mario bros .
and the upcoming x - men film , has surely struck gold with this story .
all ages will enjoy men in black .
it is an extremely fun film that you will want to see again .
although it runs a very quick and speedy 96 minutes , the entire film from beginning to end is a non - stop adventure .
the ending of the film , which ties up a few loose ends for one of the main characters , is also very well done
.
a sequel is already being planned , so there is more to look forward to !

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: it 's tough to be an aspiring superhero in champion city .
just ask mr .
furious ( ben stiller ) , the blue raja ( hank azaria ) , and the shoveler ( william h . macy ) .
they 're trying to break into the biz , but captain amazing ( greg kinnear ) , the city 's hero numero uno , hogs all the action .
the good captain has his own problems .
because he 's all but eliminated crime , amazing 's endorsement deals are falling through .
the public craves a major slugfest , so amazing engineers the parole of his one - time arch enemy casanova frankenstein ( geoffrey rush ) .
frankenstein succeeds beyond expectations ; he captures capt .
amazing before setting out on his scheme to destroy the city .
so , no one is left to save the day but our would - be superheroes , but their abilities are more " little league " than " justice league .
"
the raja hurls forks at foes , the shoveler hits them with a shovel , and mr .
furious just yells at people ( stiller is doing essentially the same character he played in a guest appearance on " friends " ) .
after a painful first strike , the guys hold auditions for teammates and add the bowler ( janeane garofalo ) , who carries her dead father 's skull in her bowling ball ; invisible boy ( kel mitchell ) , who can only use his powers when no one is looking at him ; the spleen ( paul reubens ) , who blows devastating winds from his rear ; and the sphinx ( wes studi ) , a mysterious figure who will teach them to fight .
" mystery men " boasts one of the most talented and eclectic casts ever assembled .
in addition to those already mentioned , the credits include lena olin as frankenstein 's evil shrink , comedian eddie izzard and the fugees ' prakazrel michel as disco - themed thugs , singer tom waits as an inventor of superhero weapons , artie lange ( from " mad tv " ) as another thug , claire forlani ( from " meet joe black " ) as a waitress mr .
furious is pursuing , louise lasser ( from " mary hartman , mary hartman " ) as the blue raja 's mother , and actor / magician ricky jay as capt .
amazing 's manager .
the cast includes four oscar - nominated actors !
when i saw the list of players early last year , i figured the result would be a can't - miss comedy .
yet , i must report disappointment .
the script is probably the worst of 1999 .
nearly every joke misfires .
the stabs at comic books are too obvious to be funny .
( for example , no one can recognize capt .
amazing in his secret identity because he 's wearing glasses . )
the fart jokes surrounding the spleen are surprisingly the only gags that work .
the cast tries hard , especially hank azaria , whose character adopts an effete british accent while in costume , but the script is just too lame to run .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: it would be hard to choose the best american political thriller .
some people would probably pick the manchurian candidate and others ( myself included ) would pick seven days in may .
both those films were tense exercises in chills .
the two films came out within two years of each other and both were directed by the same man , john frankenheimer .
but that was 1962 and 1964 respectively .
for most of the rest of his career frankenheimer has turned out some decent films , but has shown little of the promise that those two thrillers showed .
each of those films had memorable characters and a tense plot .
they had almost nothing in the way of chases or gunplay .
the thrills all came from the plot .
ronin is like a film made by another man .
somewhere behind all the shooting and explosions and car chases there are the rudiments ofa plot , but we see only tiny pieces of it .
we get a clue here and one there as to what is going on
but j .
d .
zeik 's screenplay is a bit obscure .
the film begins explaining that a ronin is a masterless samurai .
when a samurai has failed in the job of protecting his master from death , he becomes a ronin , much like a gunfighter in the american west .
if you miss the opening , do not worry .
this film will explain again what a ronin is .
sam ( played by robert de niro ) is the modern equivalent of a ronin .
he is a free agent who seems to have really good instincts about how to stay alive the world of a professional killer .
he clearly was in a dangerous business at one time and now he seems to be drifting around on his own somewhere in france .
sam is recruited from a montmartre bar by dierdre ( natascha mcelhone of the truman show ) , an irish woman , to be part of an action to steal a mysterious metal case .
dierdre is very tight - lipped about what is in the case .
sam joins a team of four others : vincent ( jean reno of the professional / leon and mission impossible ) , spence ( sean bean , tv 's richard sharpe , and also patriot games and goldeneye ) , and gregor ( stellan skarsgard of breaking the waves and good will hunting ) .
also along is larry ( skipp suddeth ) .
the group seems to know their business , particularly sam , but each is in his own way cold and professional with his own field of expertise .
their only human side seems to be in tensions among the members of the team .
the story is not very easy to follow .
it is never clear who is double - crossing whom and who is working for whom .
somehow russians ( who may or may not be the russian mafia ) and irish radicals are involved trying to get their hands on a certain metal case .
some very good actors are involved in this film .
one wonders what they saw in the script .
the characters are mostly one - dimensional professional killers .
they know their work , and seeing their thought patterns adds some interest to the film , but for this group deep feeling between two people is teaming up with another killer so that neither is killed .
by the end of the film we never really got to know anybody .
maybe that is the secret of why such good actors took parts , since these are not very demanding characters to create .
in addition to the above characters the film also features jonathan pryce and michael lonsdale ( the latter of moonraker and of the superior thriller the day of the jackal ) . as a revival of a sort of action film that was popular in the 1960s , i was hoping that there would be something here to grab onto and enjoy .
unfortunately there are no deep characters , and little to make us care who eventually ends up with the metal case or why they want it .
i rate ronin a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale .
non - spoiler : incidentally , the tale of the 47 ronin has been filmed multiple times , usually under the title chushingura or as the 47 ronin .
also one frequently sees in japanese art the image of a man breaking down a door with a huge mallet .
this is the first blow of the 47 ronin .

SOLUTION:
N