instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
with his last two films - shine and snow falling on cedars - australian director scott hicks has proven his cinematic flashbacks to be some of the best out there , and his latest , hearts in atlantis , is no different .
its structure - beginning and ending in present day with one long flashback in the middle - is similar to the green mile , which is a bit ironic considering both were based on stephen king books .
the parallels do n't end there , either .
atlantis was adapted by william goldman , who had previously penned the big - screen version of misery and is in the process of working on the script for king 's dreamcatcher .
even the film 's content is a bit reminiscent of mile .
in fact , it 's the perfect blend of the feel - good ' 60s nostalgia of stand by me ( also by king ) and mystical power hokum of mile .
king 's atlantis is a book comprised of five related short stories , but the main focus here is on the first ( and longest ) tale , called low men in yellow coats ( the film 's title comes from the second chapter ) .
it 's set in 1960 harwich , connecticut , where 11-year - old bobby garfield ( anton yelchin )
lives in a boarding house run by his cold , self - centered mother elizabeth ( hope davis , joe gould 's secret ) , who seems to care more about her wardrobe than her son .
bobby spends his time with his two closest friends , john sullivan ( will rothhaar ) and tomboy carol gerber ( mika boorem ) , who become something like the kevin , paul and winnie of harwich .
when a new tenant moves into the vacant room , the fatherless bobby finds a male role model in ted brautigan ( anthony hopkins , hannibal ) , a mysterious stranger who is vague enough about his past to make bobby 's mom suspicious enough to at least momentarily turn her head away from the mirror .
ted teaches his young neighbor about the wonders of literature ( after his cheapskate mother gives him a library card for his birthday ) , dispenses prophetic words of wisdom and even pays bobby one dollar a week to read him the local newspaper and keep his eyes peeled for the low men , a group of people chasing ted to exploit his special powers .
i wo n't go into what these powers are , but they 're considerably toned down from the book ( and do n't involve black stuff flying out of ted 's mouth , a la mile ) .
atlantis ' present - day setting which bookends the film is based on the novel 's final chapter , titled heavenly shades of night are falling , and features david morse ( in yet another connection to the green mile ) as a married , middle - aged bobby who learns of the death of both of his childhood friends and returns to the dilapidated boarding house in which he spent his formative years .
atlantis is nowhere near as flashy as hicks ' cedars , which is disappointing but understandable considering the switch from the completely amazing robert richardson to the occasionally amazing piotr sobocinski , the oscar - nominated cinematographer behind krzysztof kieslowski 's red .
the acting is solid from everyone , including hopkins , who never once makes you think of dr .
lecter .
most impressive are youngsters yelchin and boorem , who both had tiny parts in along came a spider .
while i did n't really have much of a problem with goldman 's screenplay , i do need to point out at least one inconsistency .
goldman , for those of you who do n't read premiere , writes what seems like an annual criticism of everybody else 's films , carefully explaining why they all suck , make no sense and insult their audiences , while somehow failing to mention the crap that he 's penned ( like the general 's daughter ) .
it 's mean - spirited but fun to read , mostly on account of nobody else in hollywood having the balls to say anything remotely negative about anybody else in the business ( including michael jackson , o .
j . and robert blake ) .
in atlantis , which is supposed to be told through the eyes of young bobby , one would assume he would have to be in each scene in order to have the memory to which to flash back .
well , he 's not , and it does n't make sense .
1
: 41 - pg-13 for violence and thematic elements
answer:
P


question:
i was anxious to see this for a long time .
a friend of mine recommended this to me because he has a crush on neve campbell , and he wanted to prove that she 's as hot as he thinks he is .
he proved it for me all right , but
the reasons i enjoy this film go way beyond that .
scream treads on familar ground , horror movie with , as star neve campbell puts it , " some stupid killer stalking some big breasted girl who ca n't act who 's always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door .
"
it 's very familar , your typical horror film .
so why , you may ask after watching it , does it seem so new and original ? because it treats itself as if it has n't been done before , and thus the viewer is disilusioned into believing that it is not old , familar tired stuff .
this raises another question : how does it do this ?
simple : the characters .
they 're not your typical stupid horror film victims who do n't know what the hell to do when being chased by a guy in a ski mask and a machette .
they are horror fans , they know how stuff happens in a horror movie , they know what to do and what not to do , and that makes it scary , and even funny at certain times .
you can tell this just by watching the opening scene where casey becker ( drew barrymore ) is making popcorn , getting ready to watch a video , and some guy who sounds like a killer calls her up to play a game with her that involves horror movie triva that , if she gets it wrong , will get her and her boyfriend killed .
she knows what to answer when he asks her horror film questions , she just ca n't answer his final question , " what door am i at ? " and that gets her killed .
that scene works because in a normal horror film , half the things that happen in that scene would never happen .
the plot is typical horror stuff : sidney prescott ( an impressive neve campbell ) , an attractive young high school student who 's mother was killed a year ago tommorrow , is being stalked by a killer who 's previously murdered one of her classmates ( casey , naturally ) , and everybody in this small , california town is a suspect , including sidney 's boyfriend , billy loomis .
but as i said before , these people know how horror movies work , and that 's what makes it so appealing .
that and the references to horror movies , like when casey says , " the first ( nightmare on elm street ) was scary , but the rest sucked .
" which is obviously director wes craven ( who does a good job of poking fun of the genre that made him a legend ) patting himself on the back as he directed the first nightmare movie and none of the others , and when tatum , sidney 's friend , mentions the director , wes carpenter , which is obviously an homage by writer kevin williamson to not only craven , but also director john carpenter .
the cast is well chosen , neve campbell pulls off a good heroine
( and unlike most horror film heroines , she * can * act ) , drew barrymore does a good janet leigh impression for what little time she has in the film , and david arquette is impressive .
also good
( and funny ) in his role is henry winkler ( " the fonz " )
as the school principal .
i took half a point off for the unnecessary ( albeit limited ) appearance by friends ' courteney cox as reporter , gail edwards , sidney 's rival because she covered her mother 's disappearance .
i hate that show
, i hate those actors .
they 're untalented , overexposed , and overpaid , imho , and i would think wes craven is smart enough to know those actors are overexposed enough , but i suppose he is n't .
answer:
P


question:
david lynch 's " blue velvet " begins and ends with colorful , bright shots of flowers and happy americans mowing their lawns in a seemingly perfect american town .
however , what lies inside this nominally safe atmosphere is a " strange world " of drug dealers , sadists , and murderers .
the opening and closing shots are a wonderful contrast to the rest of the gloomy , disturbing film .
they show not to make assumptions from first glance and that oddness is common in all places under all circumstances .
odd would be a perfect adjective to describe this film , its characters , its direction , and its story .
thankfully , the obscurity that " blue velvet " relies on is enough to make this film enjoyable . since its elements are so originally weird , you never know what will happen next .
this is the main goal of a movie ; to be spontaneous and surprising .
" blue velvet " miracuously succeeds at this even though it contains mediocre acting .
lynch creates such a hypnotic world that it is hard to resist his style of story telling .
the film starts off with the discovery of a severed ear by a college boy ( kyle maclachlan ) .
from this point maclachlan finds himself involved with a lounge singer ( isabella rossellinia ) who has lost her son and husband to a kidnapping .
the plot is much more detailed than the aforementioned and this is what makes david lynch 's story telling so amazing .
maclachlan becomes involved in a forbidden relationship , in another relationship that could have been taken straight out of a high school flick , and he is put into the shoes of a drug dealer who has some wild adventures with some wild friends .
through these multiple stories , maclachlan lives multiple lives and as we follow maclachlan , we are introduced to a variety of interesting subplots .
lynch masterfully builds these subplots but he does not piece them all together in the very end and make a convenient crowd pleasing conclusion .
instead he leaves some ambiguity and forces those curious enough to get the real meaning to watch the film several several times .
lynch has been known to do this with a number of his films meaning he may be too esoteric for some hoping to get a hollywood ending where the good guy gets the girl and everything turns out fine .
however , for fans of odd difficult indies , " blue velvet " could be just what they are looking for .
it is very hard to discuss " blue velvet " without discussing the performance of dennis hopper 's sadistic frank .
most of the other actors in the film were not very memorable .
kyle maclachlan lacked one important aspect for his role , a personality .
laura dern was consistently annoying .
but dennis hopper stole every scene he was in .
his evil character was just plain old frightening in his mannerisms from his obsession to velvet to his incessant breathing from a gas mask .
frank is a character that comes along once in a blue moon .
many producers know this and have inevitably begun to typecast hopper as the bad guy .
just like his villain in " speed " , hopper is over the edge with cursing and screaming every chance he has to speak .
this harshness is exactly what frank is , so weird and twisted that it is hard not to look at him , even if he theatens you to look away .
"
blue velvet " has characters and stories you will never see in a movie again .
for this sole reason it is recommended .
but also see it to admire lynch 's obsession to avoid the norm .
even if this film is a little too weird for you ,
it 's hard not to congratulate a guy for trying something new and sticking to it .
answer:

P