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

this christmas , little ralphie parker ( peter billingsley ) wants nothing more than a red ryder bb gun under the tree .
although cautioned by many that he will ?
shoot his eye out ' , ralphie remains optimistic , conjuring up a detailed scheme to get on the good side of his parents and teachers .
it could be possible that no one has ever wanted anything with more passion than ralphie wants this bb gun , and the story of his eternal struggle is a charming one .
` a christmas story ' is a favorite among many during the holiday season , and boy ,
it is certainly easy to see why .
ralphie 's endless desire for the bb gun may transport you back to your childhood , when you were craving a certain gift for christmas and the anxiety was almost indescribable .
evoking pleasant childhood memories is only one of the many things ` a christmas story ' does so well .
here are a few features that make this film such a charming little package
for everybody during the holiday season : 1 ) period detail .
this film is based on the memoirs of late humorist jean shepard , who shares his experiences as a young boy living in the 1940 's with loving detail .
shepard narrates from a first person point - of - view , divulging his various adventures one snowy december , in which visions of taking aim with his new bb gun replaced that of sugarplums dancing in his head .
shepard 's first - hand commentary of several situations is not only downright hilarious , but also witty and warm , with various metaphorical meanings that ring perfectly with the essence of comic timing .
on top of that , young billingsley 's stupefied reactions to each predicament is absolutely perfect in contrast with the narration .
director bob clark captures the look and feel of the era with wonderful technicality .
i can hardly imagine a more accurate depiction of what christmas for young ralphie must have been like .
2 ) mom and dad .
both melinda dillon ( as mom ) and darren mcgavin ( as ?
the old man ' ) are perfect in their roles .
it 's hard to fathom a more agreeable pair for the requirements of a story like this one , with each possessing at least one memorable trait that instantly separates them from the wooden caricatures that could have been featured .
for instance , he is a bloodthirsty turkey hound , and she is forgiving and understanding when it comes to some serious issues .
in portraying the writer as a persistent but mild - mannered young lad , peter billingsley has struck quite the chord .
his performance is richly textured , making all of the humorous situations he stumbles into radiate with flavor and enjoyment . which brings us to . . . .
3 )
the comic situations .
there are plenty of memorable moments in ` a christmas story ' .
moments that undoubtedly will improve in comic potency upon each new viewing , with so much more to explore and to cherish .
i am particularly partial of the ? f - word scene ' , in which ralphie blurts out the shocking four - letter obscenity while helping the old man in the yard .
again , shepard 's method of handling this amusing scenario is nothing short of comic wizardry .
the numerous sequences that stick in one 's mind include , of course , the famous department store santa scene - in which billingsley has some problems in telling old saint nick what he wants under the tree .
i could go on , but i 'll finish on this note :
` a christmas story ' is a standout among holiday movies , because it captures so much in a meager 90 minutes .
not only is it funny ,
it 's often genuinely hilarious . . . .
not to mention warm , fluffy and touching in all the appropriate places .
i plan on making ` a christmas story ' a christmas tradition .
why do n't you ?
P

studio 54 attracted so many weird and bizarre people to its gates that it 's a wonder why the film about the life and death of the studio centers itself on one very boring , cliched individual , not to mention an ensemble of people who would n't be at all fascinating unless they worked at the studio , which they did according to this film .
are we supposed to believe that out of all the strange folk who populated the studio nightly , that a character who is a bland ripoff of tony manero would really make a good protagonist for the film about it ?
" 54 " belongs in the elite group of films known as " the big disappointments " : the films that attain so much hype and/or so much potential in its creation that they come off worse than they are when they are finally finished .
i was heavily awaiting " 54 , " not the least because i 've become fascinated with the infamous club , which has been the subject of an engrossing documentary that 's been running all summer on vh1 , which is , weirdly enough , much more intriguing and engrossing than this " edgy " film .
perhaps more importantly , " 54 " is part of the blossoming subgenre , " the 70s nostalgia film , " which has been picking up mighty steam , what with " boogie nights " and " the last days of disco " coming out within the year , and both being such damn good movies that not only captured the feel of a certain time period ( the late 70s party and the early 80s wakeup period ) , but brought us interesting and real characters , like scotty , the tragically gay boom mike operator from " boogie nights , " and charlotte , the ironically clueless and bitchy co - protagonist from " the last days of disco , " not to mention several others .
"
54 " deals not so much with the timeline of the studio ( how it began , how it was run , how it ended ) - that 's all dealt with in the narrated opening and finale - but more interested in the characters who populated it .
this is a definite plus .
here 's a film that could have been a fascinating 2 hour plus film about the tragic people who went there to party , and had to wakeup in the 80s when things like diseases , economy problems , and perhaps worst of all , reagan , all hit and forced everyone into a rude awakening .
the story of the studio is tragedy in itself : let 's look at how it all affected the people .
but this film does n't let that happen .
it gives us a half - assed protagonist named shane o'shea ( ryan phillippe , from " i know what you did last summer " ) , who 's
chief character trait is the fact that he 's from new jersey , which also happens to be his chief character flaw ( i guess ) .
he 's dim - witted , into being part of " the scene , " and soon finds he 's become a bit of a rave amongst the studio regulars .
. .
a bit like " saturday night fever , " ' cept no travolta and no real interest put into him .
poor , poor phillippe struggles to make him interesting , but
all he is a half - assed character and not at all our ticket to the glimpse of the decadence going on inside the club that he could have been .
shane begins to hang out with some other denizens of the club , like anita ( salma hayek ) , a wannabe donna sommers , and her young hubby , greg randanzo ( breckin meyer , from " clueless " ) , who helps shane become a bartender and rise to a bit of fame .
although he begins to get somewhere when he sleeps with the foxy billie auster ( sela ward ) , an exec of sorts , he falls in lust with a soap star named julie black ( neve campbell ) , and thus the boring romance subplot that 's all too not necessarily important to anything else in the film and never really becomes interesting at any point in the film
.
the film 's sole point of interest and one major strongpoint is the all - too necesary personage of steve rubell , played by mike myers ( you heard me ) .
rubell , the famous head of the studio acted as if he never stopped partying ever , and is an easy metaphor for the life and times of his creation , but the film , thanks to a surprisingly strong performance by myers , makes him out to be more than that .
notice the scenes sole shocking scene , where he tries to get felatio from one of his male employees in turn for a promotion : myers brings the humanity to rubell in this scene , and a couple others , that some of us who 've only seen him on tv never saw , and proves to be perhaps the one aspect of studio 54 that this film actually nails .
first time feature director mark christopher proves that he 's a better director than a writer , though not too terribly much .
his story is trite and shallow , as are his characters , and his direction is shockingly flat , especially for a film about this subject .
it 's as if he had a great story to tell , but instead opted for the easier route .
the studio 's recreation is amazingly accurate , though , and very impressive , but his direction is never captivating enough .
some people say that a film does its job if it makes you want to visit the locale it takes place in ( despite the film 's tone , i still want to go to rome and its many nightclubs after i saw fellini 's " la dolce vita " ) , and when i watched " 54 , " i did n't particularly want to stay .
N

the most popular trend of the last couple of years has been the twist ending .
watching one of these movies , everything seems to make sense until suddenly you are blown away by an unexpected surprise .
when the film ends , there is a moment of confusion , then recollection , then some more confusion , then possibly a second viewing for clarification .
this is a description of an ideal twist that perfects everything it sets out to do and more .
good surprises make movies fun to watch .
then there are the bad twists .
you either know what is going to happen ten minutes into the movie ( i 'm talking about you reindeer games ) or you did not guess the ending because it is so outrageously stupid
.
screwed perfectly suits the latter description .
what starts out as a dumb guilty pleasure which should be fun to mock with a group of friends ends with a complex finale with way too much going on .
by the writers of man on the moon and the people vs .
larry flynt , scott alexander and larry karaszewski leave milos forman behind and take a stab at film directing .
whoops .
screwed is an inane christmas carol gone berserk with few genuine laughs and many acting embarrassments
.
norm macdonald stars as willard filmore , a hard working chauffeur who just wants a little respect from his rich , old , insidious boss , miss crock ( elaine stritch ) .
when he overhears her plans to fire him on christmas day , willard is convinced by his best friend rusty ( dave chapelle ) to kidnap crock 's beloved dog and hold it for a ransom of one million dollars .
too excited to pay any attention , the hapless losers ' plan goes awry when the dog escapes and returns home .
now crock thinks willard has been kidnapped and the two friends , realizing they can make even more money , decide to stage the fake kidnapping .
of course , everything that could go wrong does .
the first forty - five minutes of screwed is harmless entertainment - a guilty pleasure that should be enjoyably bad .
but the convoluted script eventually builds into a disaster that is impossible to bear .
the more idiotic these characters get , the more reckless the script becomes
.
at one point , i wanted to get out of my seat and yell at these characters : " no , you idiot !
"
i 'm not just talking about willard and rusty , who were extremely annoying
, i 'm also talking about the cops in this film .
a monkey could have solved this case within an hour but these guys ( headed by murder one 's daniel benzali ) were just too clueless to forgive .
they give real cops bad names .
also poor danny devito apparently does not know how to turn down a role these days . looking almost identical to his penguin in batman : returns ,
every time he appeared on the screen i had to shake my head in disbelief .
he just did n't belong in this movie .
macdonald and chapelle are veterans at these kinds of movies but devito made the film much worse than it already was , gross out humor is certainly not his forte .
if you 're a fan of norm macdonald 's other chaotic comedy , dirty work , you might actually love this near - sequel .
otherwise , do n't get screwed out of your hard - earned money .

N