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

[Q]: meet joe black ( reviewed on nov .
27/98 )
starring brad pitt , anthony hopkins , claire forlani in " meet joe black " , brad pitt plays death .
that 's all that really needs to be said , but nevertheless , i will provide the three of you that have seemingly been living in a cave with a plot description .
death decides to take a holiday , what with all the rigors of soul - collecting and all , and forces anthony hopkins into showing him what it 's like to be human .
death assumes the body of brad pitt , and from there , much trouble ensues .
for one thing , death - as - pitt falls in love with hopkins daughter , played by claire forlani .
obviously this enrages hopkins , because really , what can death offer ?
besides eternal damnation , of course .
there is also a sub - plot about forlani 's ex - boyfriend ( she dumps him for pitt ) trying to take over hopkins company .
" meet joe black " runs just under three hours .
i 've always thought that such obscene running times should be limited to historical epics .
" meet joe black " is neither historical nor is it an epic , though i get the feeling martin brest ( the director )
desperately wants it to be .
every single scene in the movie goes on about 3 - 4 minutes too long .
and the ending takes about 20 minutes longer than it really should .
a severe editing job could have made this movie excellent , instead of just good , which is what it is .
pitt , an actor i normally loathe , is actually quite engaging as death .
i believed his performance , and i could see why forlani 's character would fall in love with him .
i have to agree with roger ebert , though , who found it hard to believe that an entity that 's been around for all time would n't know what peanut butter was .
that has nothing to do with pitt 's performance , of course , but it is a little distracting .
hopkins gives his usual excellent performance .
he 's able to portray the angst of a man who knows he has very little time left , without making him an obnoxious whiner .
and in her first major studio role , claire forlani is surprisingly good .
she has a sweet tenderness that allows the audience to instantly root for her .
so , " meet joe black " is
a good movie hampered by it 's ridiculous running time .
had the film been cut by an hour or so , i have no doubt that i would be calling it one of the best movies of the year in this review .
[A]: P


[Q]: i do n't appreciate it when a thriller manipulates the viewer into thinking the plot is interesting , when in fact it 's ludicrous .
in the case of the general 's daughter , the plot is more than capable of intriguing you to a certain point .
but at this juncture in the story , the movie begins to fall apart like a crumbling cookie .
this predictable summer thriller is only sporadically involving , and that is unfortunately not enough to compensate for all of it 's detailed flaws .
get past one moment early on where john travolta exercises his southern accent , and you 're likely to survive this entire movie .
travolta plays criminal investigations divisions officer paul brenner , who 's working undercover at a military base when another situation arises : the apparent rape and murder of a young female officer ( leslie stefanson ) .
it turns out that the victim is the daughter of general joe campbell ( james cromwell ) .
let the investigation begin .
with the assistance of fellow cid investigator sarah sunhill ( played rather on - the - sidelines by madeleine stowe ) , brenner uncovers what appears to be an intricate and bizarre homicide case .
things begin to get marginally engrossing when we meet colonel moore ( james woods ) , a former commanding officer of the deceased who has a few secrets up his sleeve .
woods submits another scene - stealing performance here as he oozes authority , surrounded by clouds of smoke emitted from his cigar .
with echoes of his supporting role in true crime , in which he duked it out with clint eastwood in enjoyably profane verbal exchanges , he makes every moment believable .
here though , the intense dialogue comes care of confrontations with travolta , as the two send mindful , knowing glares across the room .
there are many scenes such as this in the general 's daughter , in which the veteran cast performs splendidly under pressure , but the circumstances that tie these meetings together are difficult to absorb .
director simon west ( con air ) , shows a watchful eye of delivering a stylish looking thriller , but he fails miserably when it comes to the intellectual part of it .
the general 's daughter is , more often than not ,
a predictable and unexciting mess .
it does not help matters that the plot is virtually actionless , dragging it 's heels all the way at a mind - numbing snails pace .
a few brief action scenes , marvelously handled in the editing department , show that the movie could have delivered such a more proficient package .
from a director who does such a great job of staging explosions and miraculous stunts , i suggest west should stick with mindless , rip - roaring action features and attempt to avoid future projects like this .
still , the movie is certainly not without it 's merits .
the acting is very good from the majority of the experienced cast .
the performances range from commanding ( travolta ) to electric ( woods ) to stiff - as - a - board
( cromwell , who does n't show off his real talents here ) .
madeleine stowe manages to hold her own for a while , but as the female lead in an action - thriller , she does n't pull through sufficiently .
one of the problems with the execution is that it 's very predictable .
>
from minute one , i had few doubts about the identity of the killer in question .
the script even unwillingly points him out for us , using familiar techniques to hide his guilt until the unmasking toward the end .
in all fairness , we 've seen many of the devices used in the general 's daughter put to greater effect in other films .
the secrets behind the girl 's mysterious death are explained gradually , but by the resolution we have tunneled through so much malarkey that it feels unnecessary and surprisingly silly .
the general 's daughter is not a terrible movie , and it is involving enough to sustain a viewer 's attention span for a certain period of time .
but it just could have been so much better .
[A]: N


[Q]: note : some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers . be forewarned .
"
all the world 's a stage and all the men and women merely players they have their exits and their entrances and one man
in his time plays many parts "
- excerpt from as you like it , act ii , scene 7 when william shakespeare penned this passage , he could not have possibly envisioned a world in which the domestic activites in an abode would be broadcast across the continent , or where women would install webcams in their apartments in order to convert voyeurism into cash .
this is the world of today , and it is the perfect climate to unveil a prototypical high - concept project like the truman show .
truman burbank ( jim carrey ) seems to have the perfect life .
he has a pretty , doting wife meryl ( laura linney ) , a comfortable insurance sales position , an immaculate suburban home in the idyllic island community of seahaven , a reliable childhood buddy marlon ( noah emmerich ) -- except for the dog that paws a greeting to him every morning and his hydrophobia , this is paradise .
or so it would seem .
bizarre , inexplicable incidents begin to crop up in truman 's life .
a lighting fixture unexpectedly plummets from the sky .
a rainstorm which gives new meaning to the term ' isolated ' follows him around .
a radio broadcast appears to be describing his every move .
for the first time in his life , it is beginning to dawn on truman that things are not what they appear to be .
the truman show , directed by peter weir and written by andrew niccol , is a remarkably well - constructed film , paced perfectly with every scene fluidly leading into the next .
balancing drama with humour , thoughtfulness with abandon , this is a film which addresses an intriguing and intricate concept with just the right mixture of sermonizing and whimsical fancy .
in many ways , mr .
niccol 's screenplay mirrors the spirit of his previous gattaca
-- both films focus on the theme of triumph of the human spirit over oppressive adversity , with pivotal , character - defining moments occurring at sea .
although the film 's rather conventional climax does n't sustain the inspired dynamic achieved in the first two - thirds , and ultimately just falls short on delivering the intended emotional punch , there are moments through the truman show which are genuinely stirring and moving as truman attempts to make sense of his unraveling world and grasp the implications behind his discoveries of deception .
despite the multitude of pertinent issues being broached by the film , it remains foremost a finely - crafted piece of entertainment , constantly light and accessible .
the tone achieved is far too sunny for any sense of fearful paranoia to legitimately intrude , and as the carefully - stacked seahaven house of cards tumbles down , the film eschews any psychological ramifications for a man discovering that the fundamentals of his entire existence have been false .
the end act of the truman show essentially boils down to a rehash of the reliable , crowdpleasing underdog vs .
the system formula .
while the film is an impressive realisation of an inspired concept , some elements are lacking .
the device of mysterious lauren / sylvia ( natascha mcelhone ) as a contributing impetus to truman 's growing awareness is n't exactly convincing .
there 's not much of a discernable spark between either the two characters or the actors themselves , and the scenes in which she indignantly confronts the megalomaniac christoff ( ed harris ) with regards to the moral ambiguity of his actions unnecessarily spells things out for the audience , thankfully avoided elsewhere in the film .
in fact , although the film smartly restricts the number of scenes depicting the real world outside truman 's artificial utopia to a mere handful of select reaction shots from enraptured gazers , it might have perhaps been even more indicting and damning to immerse itself even * more * deeply in the insulatory seahaven world , with the resultant effect that the repercussions felt as the film finally shifts outside the imposed bubble are all the more startling .
still , the scathing commentary issued by this film is on target , and its insidiously oblique manner of delivery is far more effective in conveying the message than the more forthright anti - voyeuristic tirades such as that of the recent costa gavras film mad city .
i 've always believed that the versatile ms .
linney possesses a tremendous comic gift -- she has always seems to have a impish gleam in her eyes -- and in the truman show she runs rampant with her duplicitous character , mischievously flashing a glazed , insanely jovial grin as she perkily recites impromptu product placement slogans .
cheerfully going over the top , it 's hilarious to watch her -- who would have ever guessed that she 'd have the opportunity to outshine the reigning king of comedy in the laughs department of a film ?
ms .
linney is a delight in the film .
but it is mr .
carrey who rules the show here
.
he may not have been intuitively the most obvious choice to portray underdog hero truman burbank -- the role is seriously lacking in any of the frenetic comic interludes which typify his traditional parts -- but he brings to the character tremendous energy and eminent appeal :
it 's difficult not to root for truman .
in a commanding performance , mr .
carrey lends our protagonist an inherent sense of decency and integrity which makes him a genuinely engaging presence , and acquits himself impressively in this dramatic turn , demonstrating admirable restraint -- there 's an early scene where he 's down on his knees gardening , and given his past track record , one almost instinctively anticipates mr .
carrey to pull one of more infamous , and in this case , wholly inappropriate sight gags .
it 's almost poetic how this notorious look - at - me actor successfully tones it down to play a character who 's constantly the centre of attention .
in addition to the fine performances by the bulk of the cast -- mr .
emmerich is particularly noteworthy for issuing his character a sense of sturdy trustworthiness -- the film is immeasurably aided by wonderful production design by dennis gassner in creating truman 's antiseptic , white picket - fenced smalltown utopia , and by burkhard dallwitz 's original score .
technical credits are first - rate all around .
while the truman show is clearly a definitive high - concept film , it 's not exactly a dazzlingly innovative one -- obvious predecessors utilising common elements abound , ranging from 1965 's secret agent through to the groundbreaking british 1967 tv series the prisoner .
all the same , this is a visionary , award - calibre film : entertaining , provocative , and intelligent .
the curious ( and possibly disturbing ) thing may be that although upon first glance the plausibility of the film 's concept seems unfathomably outrageous , it 's abundantly clear that our society is rapidly approaching , if not actualisation ,
at least permissiveness of such a scenario .
perhaps the highest compliment which can be paid to mr .
weir is that his depiction of this bizarro state is so convincing that we accept it without question .
perhaps we recognize a bit of ourselves in this world .
[A]:
P