TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: andrew lloyd webber 's musicals , preferably his early work with lyricist tim rice , present a musical which is totally unlike any musical before its time .
webber and rice do not subscribe to the gaity of such musicals as " oklahoma ! , " or the slapstickness of shows like " a funny thing happened on the way to the forum .
"
they instead tackle hot issues from our past , and view them differently , and pack them together with redundant , catchy music , as well as thoughtful lyrics .
like " jesus christ superstar , " which examined the rise and fall of jesus in his last days from a fame perspective ( in the cool tune " superstar , " a dead judas comes back from the dead to ask jesus why he did n't spread his message wider ) , " evita " takes an inventive stance on its topic , this time being the famed wife of argentinian dictator , juan per ?
n ,
eva , who slept her way to the top and became famous chiefly because she got attention , much like the woman playing her : madonna ( although i think madonna did rise to the top for her musical talent , among other things ) .
" evita " deals with the rise and fall of eva per ?
n , a woman who captured the heart of the nation after marrying juan ( jonathan pryce ) , then died at the young age of 33 , creating an international stir of mourning not unlike that of princess di ( the two do share a bit in common , although it was n't like di slept to " the top " ) .
webber and rice sure chose bizarre topics for their musicals , but they always have a point for doing it .
here , they wish to expose her for what she is , but still show that despite all of her many drawbacks , her lying , and covering up for her fascist husband , but show that she was still a good woman with fairly good intentions , and her death was very sad .
it 's also a musical , with almost no words not unsung .
the film plays like a rock opera , much like their " jesus christ superstar , " with many giant musical sequences just like the old musicals , even if they do possess very intelligent lyrics , which create not only an intellectually enlightening experience , but also a very entertaining one . after all , this is a musical , and webber 's musicals never undermine this .
they are a balance of energy and intellectual depth , walking on a fine line between the both , and never stumbling on either side .
this is why the beginning of " evita " is kind of a let - down .
okay , it is a let - down .
i 'm not saying the opening moments are bad , because they 're pretty good .
but what comes after is a lifeless , un - entertaining , and totally unrewarding sequence where she cons a singer ( jimmy nail ) into taking eva to buenos aires after a one - night stand .
in the musical , it 's a fun , energetic sequence , culiminating in the show stopper , " buenos aires , " which is also lifeless .
then a punch is pulled as we see eva being screwed over by the singer , instead of her leaving him , where she ends up singing the sad tune , " another suitcase in another hall , " which was meant for a later character , screwed over by eva .
the portrayal of eva in the beginning is too soft , seeming like parker and oliver stone , who adapted it for the screen , are afraid to present her for what she is , even while it 's being narrated by a hater of eva 's , the omnipotent ( antonio banderas ) , who presents her in a negative light .
for a while , it looks like alan parker ca n't pull it off . however , the film pulls itself together in a flash , and after that song is over , and the giddily nihilistic song " goodbye and thank you , " where we see eva go through a long line of lovers who help her ascend , is magnificent , darkly comical , and just gleeful .
from this point on , the film is hypnotic , satisfying , and satirical .
no more punches are thrown , and the basic outline of the original musical are in tact .
we see eva woo and marry juan , get him out of jail , rise to stardom , falter a bit , come back , and then gradually die of cancer ( i think it was because of cancer ) .
more importantly , many of the themes from the musical carry on with this , as well as some filling - in - the - gaps reconnassaince work .
juan , who is pretty underwritten in the musical , is given some extra scenes , and exposed as what he was for eva : an accessory .
a muted scene where he tries to visit her respective room but is shunned allows us to learn more about juan , and understand his sadness more than we did before .
> from the " goodbye and thank you " number on
, the film shows eva trying to cover up for the horrible government by doing cheap and petty things which wooed a nation , and saved a government , even while it left the nation 's people downtrodden .
but despite this , the nation still loved eva , and when she slipped into death , the world mourned her because she was a star .
that 's when our narrator , ch ? , comes out to show that she was n't the great woman she really was , and expose her fame .
describing this character is difficult , mainly because he has no real realistic background ( he 's said to be based on the revolutionary ch ?
guevera , but the two probably could have never met , like they do in the film ) , but he serves as a perspective on eva , but even his perspective ca n't help us from feeling bad when eva dies a pathetic death .
alan parker , no stranger to bizarre musicals ( he 's done " fame , " " the committments , " " bugsy malone , " and " pink floyd the wall " - the latter which is absolutely brilliant ) , nails the film , exposing everything for what it is .
we cry for evita at the end because we feel we should , by the way it is presented .
his direction is manipulative for a reason : to show the mourning for what it is .
and there is energy throughout ,
with lots of bright colors , and scenes which are cinematically entertaning , as well as enriching and deep , such as the balcony scene where she sings " do n't cry for me , argentina , " and her death sequence , which is poignant becuase of how sad it is .
madonna 's golden globe winning performance is much like the movie : starts kinda downhill then goes up quickly , remaning there for the rest of the film .
at the beginning , she looks like she 's too busy concentrating on her singing to act , but she eventually gets it right , though never really getting the presence of , say , patti lupone ( who did the role in its american premiere back in the late 70s ) .
her death , though , is brilliant .
her singing could be better though .
i know she took lessons to improve her range and all , but it still sounds like she 's trying to hard .
she sounds way too soft in several places where she should be comanding ( like . . .
patti lupone - i heard her sing on an old " evita " cd , and you could just feel her stage presence without even seeing her ) .
but it 's generally very good , although not up to the brilliance the role really requires .
antonio banderas , who is almost like a guilty pleasure these days ( i 'm one of the few people who thinks he rocks ) , is
extremely comanding in his performance , presenting a lovable narrator .
his singing is very good , though nothing compared to the original , mandy patinkin .
he does have a pretty good singing voice , and a great range . and jonathan pryce is pretty awesome , although very brief at times , in his role as juan , seeming to put on a poker face for his melancholy facade .
although it gets off to a rocky start ( " rocky " 's polite for what it really is ) , it soon picks up and becomes a wonderully poignant musical .
like the other musical released in ' 96 ( woody allen 's
" everyone says i love you " ) , it 's a reminder that the hollywood musical may be dead , but it can come back every now
and then for a brief performance .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: brian de palma 's snake eyes stars nicolas cage 's evil twin , who confusingly uses the same stage name as his talented brother .
like a foreign tourist who screams his lines in english to ensure that he will be understood , cage yells with the ferocity of a man with a bad case of caffeine overload . de palma , whose last great film , the untouchables , was crafted over a decade ago seems to have lost his magic .
in snake eyes , he manages to elicit some of the worst performances possible out of a skilled cast .
only gary sinise rises slightly above the hackneyed material .
the rest of the actors become caricatures in this by - the - numbers thriller .
ryuichi sakamoto 's atmospheric and melodramatic music dominates almost every scene .
heavy on the long violin notes , its rhythm is punctuated by thunder .
( the script by de palma and lost world 's david koepp sets the action during a hurricane in an attempt to pump up the adrenaline level and the noise .
only the latter is achieved . )
cage plays rick santoro ,
a corrupt atlantic city cop who shakes down criminals to get betting money .
the movie takes place over a single evening when a world championship fight is being held .
with a flashy , bad wardrobe and a gold cell phone , rick is an obnoxious cop who does n't know when to shut up . spouting cliched and ridiculous dialog
, he screams such lines as , " i was made for the sewer , baby ! "
actually the line is more apropos for the movie as a whole .
sinise plays kevin dunne , a naval officer who is in charge of the security for the secretary of the navy , who has come to watch the fight .
but most people in the film are not who they seem to be , and the thin script makes all of them easy to guess .
the plot , which is told in endless flashbacks , concerns the assassination of the secretary through a scheme set up by some malevolent businessmen ?
that adjective is , of course , redundant in hollywood thrillers .
the flashbacks become repetitious with the same scene shown again and again , sometimes from a different perspective and sometimes not .
although a brian de palma film requires a certain amount of gratuitous violence , this one is remarkably tame for the man who became famous when he made carrie .
the movie 's outline has some promise , but the movie itself is leaden .
the film takes itself all too seriously .
at best , it is a 1940s - style b movie .
a little humor would have helped the script some , but a complete rewrite would have been better .
and , although i hate to say it , a different director would have been the biggest improvement .
snake eyes runs 1 : 39 .
it is rated r for violence and would be acceptable for teenagers .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: " spawn " features good guys , bad guys , lots of fighting , bloody violence , a leather - clad machine gun chick , gooey , self - healing bullet holes , scatological humor and a man - eating monster .
it not only appears to have been tailor made for a swarm of 12- and 13-year - old boys , it appears to have been made by them .
in a classic example of telling and not showing , " spawn " opens with a truckload of mumbo jumbo about forces of darkness , forces of light and how " men are the ones who create evil on earth .
" so much for a message .
the movie then lurches forward into the plight of al simmons ( michael jai white ) , a government assassin / operative who is murdered by diabolical boss jason wynn ( martin sheen , who plays all of his scenes like an oscar clip ) while on a top secret mission in a north korean biological weapons plant .
simmons goes to hell and back , after making a deal with satan himself -- if he agrees to command the devil 's army to overtake the world , he 'll be allowed to return to earth to see his wife wanda ( underused theresa randle ) and little girl cyan ( sydni beaudoin ) .
of course , seeing as how five years has passed , wanda has fallen for -- and married -- simmons ' partner ( d . b . sweeney ) .
his , uh , shoulder to cry on comes in the form of clown ( john leguizamo ) , a disgustingly disproportioned minion of satan 's .
clown manipulates simmons , now in superhuman spawn form , into a stand off with wynn .
wynn , who thinks he is in league with the double - dealing clown , recognizes spawn as a threat and undergoes an operation where a bomb is placed on his heart -- when it stops beating , major cities around the world will detonate , causing the leak of a disease that " makes the ebola virus look like a skin rash .
" phew .
got all that ?
it would be easy to dismiss " spawn " as just another one of those heavy - on - fx , short - on - substance action pics , but it does n't even work on that level .
the computer - generated sequences are often and plenty , and the problem is that they look too computer - generated .
the several scenes set in hell present a devil that looks and acts like a video game graphic -- with the movie 's healthy budget
you 'd think they could have afforded to make his mouth move when he talks .
other elements of the movie are so - so ; spawn 's enormous red , flowing cape is a wonderful sight , but it 's too obvious when he 's being played by a costumed actor or an image .
in movies like " contact , " the special effects serve the story .
in " spawn , " they are the story . and spawn himself is n't even an interesting character .
the film 's reliance on razzle - dazzle would be acceptable if we were given somebody to root for , but both simmons and his funky alter - ego are completely underdeveloped .
what we need is a batman , a luke skywalker .
even watching the adventures of kleenex man would be more interesting than spawn .
poor leguizamo .
he starred in february 's " the pest , " a movie that i still think is the year 's worst so far , although this one does give it a run for its money .
as clown , he overacts to the extreme , never missing an opportunity for a poor - taste punchline .
leguizamo farts green mist , munches a pizza slice covered with maggots and even dons a mini - skirt and performs a cheerleader routine , all before turning into a giant grey demon .
the guy was brilliant in " to wong foo , thanks for everything !
julie newmar .
"
what is he doing wasting his talent in this and " the pest " ?
i 'm one of the few people that liked " batman & robin , " this summer 's other big - budget comic book film .
yet after catching this movie and making the inevitable comparison , i can only hope people will change their minds and think of " batman " as the superior adaptation .
there 's a compelling story somewhere in " spawn " -- including strong religious overtones and the debut of the first african - american superhero ever -- but it 's just not found anywhere near here .
as it is
, " spawn " is just awful
-- it stinks worse than a dead trout .

SOLUTION:
N