TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: even if i did not know that director and co - writers
james wong and jeffrey reddick of the creepy final destination
helped create the hit television show the x - files , i would have inevitably made a connection .
the similarities are very apparent from the inexplicable phenomenon- like plot , to the mysterious characters , to the overall dark , ominous settings .
it would have been perfectly fitting to see fbi agents mulder and scully investigate this case , they witness stuff like this on a weekly basis ( in fact mulder and scully would have been a much more welcome change to the bland one dimensional fbi agents seen in this movie ) .
another more important similarity , is that both succeed in entertaining and thrilling at the same time .
this is a great accomplishment for a teen horror movie , especially when compared to some of the trash , of the same genre , released in the last couple of years ( urban legend and i still know what you did last summer are classic examples from the bunch ) .
what helps final destination is its unique premise .
unlike your average horror flick in which some invincible psycho with a knife chases blonde cheerleaders , the villain presented is unusual , it 's the grim reaper .
this being already has predestined when and how you will die .
according to the brief history lesson given in this film , everyone was meant to die at a certain time , some people at 100 , others at 17 , whatever death chooses .
what is unique about death is that it 's already dead , so you ca n't really kill it .
the only way to defeat death is to cheat it ; the question is how do you do that ?
this dilemma is what faces alex and a group of teenagers .
alex has been having some dreams that the airplane which will take his class on a trip to paris will crash , leaving no survivors .
alex begins to realize that his dreams are a little too real and eventually gets himself and six others kicked off the plane right before it takes off .
shortly after , the plane does indeed crash leaving some of the seven survivors confused and others feeling immortal .
however , death is n't through with them yet .
it gradually kills off the seven one by one , leaving those currently still alive frantically trying to trick death again .
the plot allows for some of the most creative , original death scenes i have seen in a while .
some scenes build up the perfect amount of tension until an elaborate climax
, others are so unexpected they will leave your jaw wide open in shock . creativity and originality are two adjectives lacking in most horror films nowadays but final destination is not like most horror films .
sure , it has your traditional share of jerks and outsiders ( ali larter 's character is particularly annoying ) , but the shocks , from the beginning to the end , are extremely entertaining
.
also director wong has the sense not to take the movie too seriously .
he knows its just another entertaining guilty pleasure that wo n't win any academy awards ( not even a golden globe ) .
the myriad of inside jokes and gags ( the characters are named after famous horror directors , one character who plays a jerk is named carter , like x - files creator chris carter , and a song by john denver , who died in a plane crash , plays whenever death is near ) show this movie is a bunch of guys having a good time making a movie .
and from this , i had a great time watching the movie .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: james l . brooks , one of the developers of the simpsons and director of broadcast news , returns to the big screen with this entertaining , if slightly flawed comedy .
nicholson plays melvin udall , probably the most horrible person ever on the screen .
he 's racist , homophobic , and never has a good word to say to anyone .
so , nobody talks to him , except waitress carol conelly ( t .
v sitcom star hunt , who was last seen in twister , 1996 ) .
naturally , udall , conelly and gay neighbor simon bishop ( kinnear ) who nicholson hates , all hit it off in the end .
like good will hunting ( 1997 ) and titanic ( 1997 ) , even though the outcome is completely obvious , as good as it gets is an enjoyable , funny and warm comedy .
nicholson is hilarious as melvin , churning out insults with superb relish .
only nicholson could get away with the lines that melvin delivers .
hunt is also good as waitress carol , and easily rises to the challenge of nicholson .
there 's also ( thankfully ) a bit of chemistry between them .
kinnear , as the gay neighbor , seems to have a slightly underwritten role , he 's more of a plot convience than a character .
although his performance is good , his character just seems to exist to help melvin and carol come together .
in fact , the scene stealer is simon 's dog , who is funnier than nicholson .
but then again , pets are always cute on screen .
providing solid support is cuba gooding , jnr ( jerry maguire , 1996 ) and yeardly smith ( who is the voice of lisa simpsons in the simpsons ) although gooding is n't as good as is character in maguire , he is still fun .
he overacts a little , but not so much as to be annoying .
smith is also good , although she has a fairly small role .
even director lawrence kasdan ( body heat , 1981 ) makes an appearance as a doctor .
but this is primarily nicholsons film , and
every scene he 's in , he 's steals it .
he 's character is so hateful , though
, it 's amazing that anyone talks to him at all , especially carol .
and this is the films main problem .
it 's totally unbelievable that carol would ever consider liking melvin .
she does n't fall in love with him naturally , the film forces her to fall in love with him .
also , melvins character seems to go too nice , too quickly .
i would doubt anyone with a character like melvins would be able to turn back to a nice , loving person .
it would take a helluva long time , much longer than this film would like to make out .
brooks direction is good , though , if a bit average , but he usually manages to get an emotion out of the audience .
he handles the comedy scenes better than the sentimental ones ( he tends to pile on to much schmaltz ) but
generally he 's good .
there 's also a nice soundtrack by veteran composer hans zimmer .
but , generally , as good as it gets achieves what it sets out to do , which is to make the audience feel good by the end of the movie .
the movie is a bit overlong , but nicholson is such good fun that the running time passes by pretty quickly .
overall , as good as it gets is a fun movie , even though it may be unbelivable , and certainly worth seeing
( if just for jack nicholsons performance . ) not quite as good as it gets ( pardon the bad joke ) , but still good fun .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: capsule : an insult .
a stupid and incompetent movie that does n't even have the benefit of being trashily enjoyable .
weslely and woody would do well to leave this off their resumes .
money train is one of the worst movies i have ever seen .
it 's not simply idiotic , it 's contemptuous of its audience .
it tries to make us swallow things that a better movie would be stopped cold by or just plain omit entirely .
it 's a waste of wesley snipes and woody harrelson , who are enjoyable actors in their own rights but are nauseating here .
it 's not even fun as trash .
woody and wesley star ( maybe that 's not the right word ) as new york city transit authority police .
they have a job which could actually be the core of a really interesting movie : one of them plays drunk possum to attract chain - snatchers and the other does lookout .
i had a whole headful of legal and ethical questions surrounding this , raised by a documentary i 'd seen on the subject once , but the movie does not waste any time with being intelligent or thought - provoking .
see if you can follow this .
they chase a kid down the tunnel and into the station where the " money train " , the heavily armored car that picks up all the cash from the token books , is parked .
the guards on the train see this kid running at them , lift their machine guns , shout " halt ! " and then open fire when the kid does n't stop running at them .
blam , the kid 's dead .
then woody and wesley show up , and of course the other ta cops hate them ( why ? ) , and a pushing match starts , and someone gets decked , and . . .
i covered my face .
i 'd seen enough .
i 've never seen a movie work so hard and in so little time to destroy , systematically , any chance of being credible or interesting . fed up with the bs at their job ( most of it their own goddamned fault ) , woody and wesley hatch this plot about how to rob the money train .
hence the title , in case some of you ( all two of you ) did n't figure it out yet .
then there 's this subplot about a maniac who torches token book clerks , * and * a love story , * and * a holdup -- no , two holdups , sorry , easy to lose track in a movie
this braindead
--
* and * a mob boss who wants his money .
there was n't a minute when i gave a horse 's ass about any of it .
neither woody nor wesley play characters that are interesting for a single minute .
we do not care about them .
they are not interesting .
they are noisy , loud , stupid , foolish jerks who whould have flunked out of the police academy .
they deserve to get shot -- or run over , as the case may be .
they only exist to rehash the kind of dynamics that was * written * into a movie like white men ca n't jump , and which simply does not exist here .
they are idiots , and we 're expected to root for them . bullcrap .
the movie is completely schizophrenic in its tone and texture .
what exactly is this mess ?
a cop movie ?
police procedure is not given a moment 's genuine thought anywhere .
a thriller ?
the subplot with the token booth killer is inept , a throwaway that should have been ditched in the rewrite .
a comedy ?
the few jokes that do work are wasted . a drama ?
all dramatic tension between both principals is freeze - dried and off - the - rack .
there 's not a moment in the movie where i felt like i was listening to genuine human beings talk ; it 's all screenwriterese , that bizarre analect where every sentence ends in a punchline and the primary mode of expression is the unique conjunctions of four - letter words .
( actual dialogue excerpt : " fuck you . "
" what ? "
" you heard me :
fuck * you * . "
" no : fuck * you * ! " )
look .
i 'll be honest here .
i 've tried writing screenplays , and even * i * suspect that if i tried to pitch this mess , i 'd get laughed out of the office .
anyone interested in hearing my ideas for a few good movies can write me and hear my pitch , because god knows i know i can do better .
i 've weasted enough time on this piece of tripe .

SOLUTION:
N