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

[EX Q]: absolute power , the new film produced and directed by clint eastwood , attempts to be a thriller set in the world of hypocritical presidents and their murderous political staff .
it is about as thrilling as a lecture on the mating habits of the south american grasshopper .
one can only wonder how an utterly absurd script like the one written by william goldman could have ever interested eastwood .
not only is the plot unbelievable and contrived , but even the writing itself lacks any consistency or intelligence .
continually underestimating the audience , the film gives us information we already know or do nt even need .
details essential to the story are so improbably convenient they are annoying
( like why would two unprepared secret service men carry two night - vision goggles in their car ? ) .
oddly enough , the initial setup for absolute power offers interesting possibilities .
a masterful jewel - thief ( played by clint eastwood ) witnesses the murder of the wife of a powerful millionaire ( played by e. g. marshall ) .
while robbing one of marshalls mansions , he is forced to hide in the bedrooms vault .
there , through a two - way mirror , he sees the wife and another man engage in passionate foreplay .
their game of love quickly turns into a violent struggle as the man starts beating the woman . in self defense , the woman grabs a letter - opener and stabs the man in the elbow .
she raises her arm to stab again when she is fatally shot by two secret service men .
the man ?
he is the president of the united states of america .
where does the film go wrong ?
it can not be the acting .
clint eastwood , ed harris and gene hackman as the president give type - cast , but decent performances .
the cinematography is sufficient ; wild and erratic during action sequences , dark and mysterious during psychologically suspenseful scenes , and calm and warm during dramatic dialogue .
even the music is not as bombastic as it usually tends to be in the thriller / suspense genre .
the fault clearly lies in the screenplay , and the screenplay alone .
while setting up a story about misuse of power , about the true possessors of that power , and about intrigue and double - crossing , it does not resolve it .
not one buildup of suspense is resolved by an exciting climax . rather , the tense situations are left dangling at the end , giving the viewer an uneasy sense of incompleteness .
an example of this is a very promising and tense buildup of a scene : in an attempt to arrest clint eastwood , the police have set up a trap at a small restaurant .
police officers are everywhere , incognito of course .
at the same time , not one but two hit men are preparing to kill clint eastwood when he arrives .
all three parties are unaware of each others presence .
this scene is tremendously exciting and the audience is wondering how clint eastwood , who might suspect this is a trap , will get himself out of this difficult position .
he will probably have a brilliant plan , involving ingenious preparations .
however , when he arrives at the trap , both hit men miss ( how convenient )
and in the confusion eastwood simply walks away .
the buildup of this scene took about ten minutes .
ten minutes of close ups of the hit men loading their weapons intercut with the police preparing for the trap .
the scene was resolved in less than 20 seconds .
.. parallel to the story line of catching the real killer is a cliche emotional tale about the estranged relationship between father eastwood and his daughter .
the daughter blames her father for never being there for her , because he was either in jail or robbing a house somewhere .
of course their relationship takes a turn for the better during the adventure and they end up a happy family .
again , it is commendable that absolute power tries to deviate from the mainstream suspense film by giving room for a dramatic subplot . however , trying is simply not enough !
the second story line should be subtle , original and preferably unpredictable .
.. everything this film is not .
how could a screenplay like absolute power ever get the funding to be produced ?
how could eastwood , who has successfully produced and directed many outstanding films such as the brilliant unforgiven , ever believe in a project like this one ?
i am sad to say that my respect for the actor / director / producer has diminished substantially due to this film .
director quentin tarantino once said : " i can make a good movie out of any bad script .
" director clint eastwood obviously can not .
[EX A]: N

[EX Q]: five girls spend a day in a closed building doing inventory when a strange box gets delivered there ( is this starting to sound familiar ? ) by mistake .
the girls accidentlly open the box ( big surprise , huh ! ) and release an evil spirit of a killer that kills the girls off one by one ( betcha did n't see that one coming ! ) .
hard to die , i found out while watching the film , is a sequel to sorority house massacre 2 : nightie nightmare ( r .
a .
m .
r .
# 1521 ) .
two of the actresses from sorority house massacre 2 are in this film , robyn harris and melissa moore , but they play different characters here .
orville ketchum is also back as ( get ready for this ) orville ketchum ( yes , the same character from number two ) .
yes , he is also built like a tank in this film too .
i 'm telling you , a nuclear bomb detonated next to this man would n't harm him at all !
the before mentioned three were the only actors from part two that i thought could act , well
they seemed to have lost that ability .
thankfully , for my sanity , i also saw the film warlock , which undid all the ill effects that i got from this film .
the story for this film is completely ridiculous and has many elements from many cheapo low budget horror flicks .
any good moments that this film fails to make are even more destroyed by the story line .
the film is so pathetically predictable that every moment has already been figured out , analyzed , and discarded before it happens .
there is no point in this film that any suspense is ever afoot .
while we are on the subject of the story , the story also provides every chance it can to disrobe an actress .
the film goes to the extent of putting a shower in the manager 's office .
i 'm sorry folks but this is completely unnecessary , ridiculous , and hurts the story
more ( if that is still possible ) .
the script for this film is completely pathetic .
the lines the actresses come out with are completely horrible .
the only thing that i think could have happened is that the actors made up the script as they went along .
here is an example of the wonderful dialog .
the scene is two girls have just entered a gun store and have picked out a * really * big gun .
the line is " my dad used to be a marine , i bet i can work it .
"
this line has got to be a contender for the bad line hall of infamy .
now , we fast forward for a few minutes until just after a big plan ( ? ! ! ? ) has been presented .
one comment from an actress is " not a lot of strategy involved , but i like it .
"
i 'm afraid folks that this is about as good as they get .
now lets talk about the great special effects for this film .
this obviously was n't a big concern of the film makers .
the killing scenes are so obviously faked that they go to the point of threatening the viewer 's intelligence .
a girl gets hacked with a knife and enough blood comes out to do one friday the 13th movie .
are we trying to see how unrealistic we can get ?
the continuity department was obviously asleep ( along with the viewers ) when watching this film .
in one shot , actress has cloths on , camera angle changes , actress seems to have lost clothing .
very impressive trick !
the one ( half ? ) plus that this film has going for it , is that in many places it is unintentionally hilarious .
the incompetence behind the film makes it incredibly funny , and so the viewer can get some enjoyment ( ? ! ! ? ) from the film .
however , this does n't make it worth the rental fee of over a penny
.
in the acting department , the only thing i can say is two thumbs squared and one head down .
i would normally do a detailed paragraph on this topic , but there is no point here because there is nobody that i was impressed with in the least .
oh well , win some , lose some .
[EX A]: N

[EX Q]: whenever writer / director robert altman works in a specific genre , he has the tendency to rewrite it on his own terms .
he made the west dirty in " mccabe and mrs .
miller " ( 1971 ) , he parodied hard - boiled detective stories in " the long goodbye " ( 1973 ) , and he transformed a cartoon into flesh and blood with " popeye " ( 1980 ) .
the same holds true for his most recent film , " the gingerbread man , " which reinvents a genre that has developed at an exponential rate over the last five years : the john grisham movie .
by the time " the gingerbread man " was completed , there was very little evidence that it was ever based on a story by grisham .
there 's no idealist young lawyer ala tom cruise , matthew mcconaughey , chris o'donnell or matt damon , and it does n't feature a great showdown in a courtroom .
instead of being a grand ode to the powers of the legal profession , " the gingerbread man " is a rain - soaked , southern gothic noir thriller with wildly eccentric characters , a twisting plot line , black humor , a somewhat bleak ending , and even altman 's trademark full - frontal female nudity .
the central character of the film is rick magruder , who is unlike any of grisham 's other lawyer heroes .
he is older , experienced , and rich ; he drives a cherry - red $ 80 , 000 mercedes that never gets dirty , even in the incessantly pouring rain of savannah , georgia , where the story unfolds .
rick is in the midst of an ugly divorce with his wife , leeanne ( famke janssen ) , and he rarely gets to see his two children , jeff ( jesse james ) and libby ( mae whitman ) .
a reason is never given for the divorce , but it is n't hard to surmise that rick 's womanizing had a large part in it .
whenever he 's late to pick up the kids on his visitation days , leeanne always assumes it 's because he 's been " screwing around .
"
after an office party celebrating another of his court victories ( he has n't lost in eight years ) , rick becomes involved with mallory doss ( embeth davidtz ) , one of the catering waitresses .
he drives her home because her car has been stolen , and they end up in bed together .
rick finds out that mallory is being terrorized and stalked by her slightly psychotic father , dixon doss ( robert duvall ) , a grungy , stringy , bare - footed old man who leads a commune of other greasy old codgers .
it was actually dixon who stole her car that night , and when rick asks why , mallory replies that he always does " weird " stuff like that .
as another character puts it , dixon is " a few beers short of six - pack .
" rick ends up convincing mallory to have dixon brought to court and tried for competency .
he succeeds with information dug up by clyde pell , a private investigator friend ( robert downey jr . ) , and testimony from mallory 's begrudging ex - husband , pete randle ( tom berenger ) .
dixon is put in a mental hospital , but his commune buddies succeed in breaking him out .
from there , the story delves into kidnapping , murder , double - crossing , and even a hurricane that adds an ominous cloud of constant violence to the action .
altman 's cinematographer , changwei gu , gives the film a dark , soaked look .
if it is n't night - time , at least it 's raining .
gu shoots the interiors , which are almost all dark wood paneling , with a minimum of light .
a great deal of the action takes place in the leafy georgia backwoods , which altman uses to create an acute sense of dread and vulnerability .
in the city there is danger enough , but when rick has to venture into the woods , you can almost feel him leaving all hope of civilization behind as he literally enters another world .
altman has worked in just about every conceivable genre , from westerns to epic dramas to comedies .
but , no matter what the genre , he is always sure to give it the altman stamp , which usually consists of all kinds of idiosyncratic quirks and little details that are often missed without repeat viewings .
"
the gingerbread man " is no different , although his style is much more restrained here .
however , without those little touches , the film could have easily slumped into a routine action / thriller .
a great deal of the credit for the film 's success can be given to the actors , especially branagh , who rarely works outside of period pieces and his own direction .
here , the british actor consistently maintains a serviceable southern drawl , while making an essentially contemptible character interesting and sympathetic .
rick is an extremely flawed man , but branaugh brings real humanity to his character . without it , the entire film would fall flat because so much of it is reliant on the audience feeling rick 's pain and frustration .
the supporting actors also put in fine performances , including embeth davidtz , who is probably best known for her heart - breaking role as the jewish maid in " schindler 's list " ( 1993 ) .
tom berenger provides some gruff comic relief , and robert duvall spends most of his on - screen time just looking weird .
it does n't seem like he does much because he has very little spoken dialogue , but watch him closely during the film 's one courtroom scene : his entire performance is in his eyes and his body language , and few actors could have pulled it off without being either silly or overbearing .
while " the gingerbread man " is n't in league with altman 's greatest works like " nashville " ( 1975 ) or " the player " ( 1992 ) , it is nonetheless a solid piece of genre filmmaking , which may prove a successful vehicle to restart his somewhat lagging career .
some critics love to stamp films like this as " commercial , " as if altman can only maintain artistic integrity if his films are aimed at a tiny audience and do n't make money .
altman has done something much better : he took what could have been a generic movie , and by investing artistry and effort , he made it into something more .
[EX A]:
P