instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
in 1990 , the surprise success an unheralded little movie called ghost instantly rescued the moribund careers of its trio of above - the - title stars , patrick swayze , demi moore , and whoopi goldberg .
eight years later , moore and goldberg 's careers are n't exactly thriving , but they have had their share of screen successes since ; the same ca n't be said of swayze , who has just added yet another turkey to his resume with the aptly named black dog .
forget the mortal kombat movies -- this trucksploitation flick is the closest the movies has come to video games .
good truck driver jack crews ( swayze ) must drive a cargo of illegal firearms from atlanta to new jersey .
along the way , jack and his crew of three run into a number of obstacles -- such as a highway weigh station , evil truckers , and deadly uzi - firing motorcyclists .
every so often , like at the end of a video game " level " or " stage , " the main baddie pops up : red ( meat loaf , fresh from the triumph of spice world ) , who wants to steal the cache of guns .
just in
case you forget his name or have trouble keeping track of who 's driving what , all of red 's vehicles , be it a pickup or a big rig , are painted -- you guessed it --
red .
i could go into more of the plot specifics ( such as jack 's dream of having a nice home with his family , the past trauma that sent him to prison and cost him his trucking license , the fbi / atf crew tracking the cargo ) , but they are of little importance .
all that matters to director kevin hooks and writers william mickelberry and dan vining are the obstacles jack confronts in his drive from point a to point b .
but they fail at even this modest goal , for none of the highway chaos , as credibly staged as it is , is terribly interesting , let alone exciting .
once you 've seen a couple of trucks bang against each other or a big rig explode the first time
, you 've seen it every time .
as dreary as black dog is as an entertainment ,
the saddest part about the film has nothing to do with what shows up onscreen ; it 's that swayze has to reduce himself to such work .
while far from the best of actors , he is certainly not horrible , and he is a charismatic presence .
i do n't know if it 's his judgment or the dearth of quality job offers that leads him to involve himself with bombs such as black dog .
regardless , if he continues on this career track , could a tv series be far behind ?
answer:
N


question:
here i sit at my computer about to write my review of the recent action comedy " bait " starring jamie foxx and david morse .
this is a review i do n't even want to write because i 'd just be laying the same criticisms on it that i would with any other so - generic - and - predictable - it's - beyond - ridiculous piece of hollywood fluff
.
if they 're not going to give us , the audience , just a little credit and put something together with half a brain , why should i waste my time and mental energy criticising it ?
last summer i took this same approach with my review of " the mummy , " in that review i just quoted phrases my reviews of other sub - par movies .
i think i shall do the same thing here but with a few less quotes ( not all are applicable ) .
i hope this goes to show you what i think of " bait " and why you can find out all you need to know about it without having to take a wild guess .
it 's genuinely unfunny
( i , and the other audience members only laughed once during the entire two hours ) , unoriginal and unthrilling .
it 's not so bad to the point where it 's fun to watch because of its badness
and it 's no so bad you absolute
loathe it and are pained by watching it
, it 's just such a cliche in and of itself , that , uhh . . .
lost my train of thought .
anyways , here 's those quotes , enjoy !
" getting an audience 's attention right from the beginning plays a major role in how today 's films work .
we want to have something exciting to watch , not a slow build - up of a story ( god forbid ! ) , and this film plays right into the mainstream 's hands . . .
" - review of " armageddon .
"
" it 's clear the film does n't want to waste time on reality and thus the attempt to establish plausability ( the most minimal amount necessary ) comes across as a half - assed effort
.
supporting characters and shady sup - plots are introduced , but as is the case with films made up of a large cast of characters , only a handful have any real significance . . .
there 's a fine line separating homage from plagiarism . . . , " - review of " godzilla " ( 1998 )
" unfortunately , as is the case with most modern thrillers , once the film showed potential for authenticity and intelligence , the cliches and action sequences take over , " - review of " the jackal .
" chad'z movie page is back after heavy renovation .
reviews of nearly all mainstream movies playing today !
get my reviews of everything playing at your local cineplex so you can better make an informed decision on what to see .
do n't forget to vote on my poll and sign the guestbook !
answer:
N


question:
ok , let 's get one thing
straight right away : maximum risk is no battleship potemkin ( although it does have some russians in it ! ) , but it 's not too bad , really .
it 's the new film from ringo lam , the latest hong kong filmmaker to defect to hollywood , and stars that minor league schwartzeneggar from belgium , jean - claude van damme ( who , you will recall , also starred in john woo 's maiden hollywood effort , hard target ) .
in lam 's film , van damme plays alain moreau , a french cop ( at least his accent makes more sense here than it did in hard target ) who discovers that he was separated shortly after birth from a twin brother who was adopted by russians .
these russians defected to the united states and moved into a black neighbourhood in new york ( where , i suppose , they thought they would n't be noticed ) .
this brother , mikhail suverov ( played in his few scenes by . . .
well , you know ) , becomes deeply involved in the russian mafia and the fbi ( almost the same thing , i guess ) , and is killed in france ( in the movie , things happen so fast that you do n't have too much time to think about how weird this all is ) .
moreau does what any good surviving twin brother would do and goes to new york to find out why mikhail was killed , and why everyone in france who knows anything about him is also being killed ( we wonder the same thing ; i still do ) .
in little odessa , he meets mikhail 's girlfriend , alex ( natasha henstridge , last seen in species ) , who helps him solve the mystery and adds immeasurably to the mise - en - scene ( she has very nice breasts , and we get to seen them briefly in this movie ; it was rated r in the us but is pg here , so they must have seen more of her breasts than we do ) .
this film lacks the gloss and high production values of such other action movies as broken arrow , the fugitive , hard target , or anything starring arnold , but that works to its benefit , i think .
after all , one thing that 's been missing from woo 's hollywood films is that certain hong kong funkiness that we all know and love ( well , some of us do ) .
movies like this should n't be too pretentious , and that is part of the problem with some of these other films : they try to be too " big " in terms of special effects and sheer spectacle .
maximum risk has its share of car chases and explosions , but they do n't overwhelm the movie or detract our attention from the narrative ( not too much , anyway ) .
the emphasis throughout is on the characters and their interactions ( even if , at times , they do n't make a hell of a lot of sense ) .
in fact , one of the more interesting aspects of the film is a minor character , a rather overeager new york cabbie ( frank van keeken from tv 's " kids in the hall " ) , who begins as something of a joke but becomes an important part of the story .
unfortunately , by the time we have come to really get interested in him , he . . .
well , you 'll see .
the movie also features some set pieces of the type that we have come to expect from lam and his hong kong compatriots .
one is a fight in a russian sauna , with lots of sweaty , muscular male flesh ( this one will appeal to certain parts of the audience more than others ) , bullets in heads , and vodka .
another ,
my personal favorite , is a fight in a meat packing house , featuring pig carcasses and a chainsaw .
and even the predictable car chases are more hong kong than hollywood , as they trash those quaint french cafes , vegetable carts , and , well , french people that , we all know in our hearts , deserve trashing just for being so damn quaint .
of course , the movie does have its share of silliness .
for example , while beating the crap out of an obnoxious russian thug who obviously deserves what he 's getting , alain stops long enough to look at his own reflection in the cracked mirror with which he has been whacking the guy on the head .
in an unnecessarily dramatic moment , he apparently is shocked at what he sees , at what he has become .
but what has he become ?
a tough cop who beats the hell out of a guy who tried to kill him ?
does n't sound too unreasonable to me , considering the genre .
but let 's face it , any time van damme tries to be dramatic , he looks silly .
so maximum risk is a little different from most other action films .
while watching it , i was surprised , and a little disappointed , in the relative lack of pyrotechnics .
but watching some of these other action films is sort of like experiencing a sugar rush ; after the initial excitement , there 's not much left .
although it 's short on spectacle , lam 's film leaves a better and more lasting impression , i think .
i 'm more impressed by it now than i was while watching it , and to me , that 's a good sign .
go see maximum risk , but do n't expect a typical hollywood action movie ; expect a sort of funky hong kong - hollywood action movie .
the flying inkpot rating system :
* wait for the tv2 broadcast .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .
dr t .
white teaches film at the english language and literature department of the national university of singapore , but we do n't hold this against him .
answer:

P