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

[Q]: what hath kevin williamson wrought ?
while the horror movie revival spurred on by his _ scream _ has yielded a few decent entries in the genre--_i_know_what_you_did_last_summer _ ,
_ halloween :
_ h20 _ , and
_
scream_2
_ --it must be noted that williamson himself had a hand in the writing of those films .
those williamson - less post-_scream _ efforts , among them _ wishmaster _ and the recent _ disturbing_behavior _ , have been frightening all right --
frighteningly , insultingly _ bad _
. add to that list
_ urban_legend _ , which takes a promising premise and runs it through a predictable meat grinder of idiocy .
the influence of williamson on screenwriter silvio horta is clear in two key areas .
first , the opening sequence , like that of _ scream _ , is an extended set piece detailing the singular murder that gets the proverbial ball rolling .
this sequence , in which pendleton college coed michelle mancini ( natasha gregson wagner ) is decapitated while driving , also reveals the other obviously williamson - esque touch : the killer 's look .
dressed in a large hooded parka , wielding an axe , the killer bears more than a passing resemblance to the _ i_know . . .
_ fisherman , sans the hook .
one thing horta does not borrow from williamson , however , is the intriguing premise .
students at pendleton are being killed by way of urban legends -- those contemporary bits of " mythology " passed from person to person , group to group , year to year that become so embedded in the social consciousness .
it hardly matters if they are true or not , such as the tall tale that mikey from the life cereal commercials died from a fatal combination of pop rocks and pepsi ( he did n't ) .
michelle , slain by the " killer lurking in the backseat " of lore , is but
the first to fall prey to an urban legend come true ; as the body count rises , fellow pendleton student natalie ( alicia witt ) suspects not only a link between the murders , but a personal link to her past as well .
the setup shows promise , but the story never takes off , due in large part to horta and the director , the aptly named jamie blanks , who fires round afer round of his namesake in terms of suspense and scares .
too many of the would - be shocks are fakeouts reliant on bombastic music cues , and the film 's chase scenes are riddled with the cliches that _ scream
_ tried to subvert , like screaming damsels knowingly running themselves into dead ends when they should -- and could -- run out the front door .
but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cliches ; there 's also the climactic villain confession , in which a contrived and way - too - convenient motive is revealed , not to mention the credit card opening up the locked door trick , which is a cliche in any film genre .
banks and horta 's ( intentional ) attempts at humor are also lame ;
the fact that the best gags are lazy , in - jokey references to the other credits of co - stars joshua jackson and rebecca gayheart says a lot about the imagination of their humor .
some laughs are also had when the rather predictable identity of the killer is revealed , but i 'm not so sure if some of the more hilarious things about it were meant to be so .
the filmmakers do n't get much help from their onscreen talent .
i was far from a fan of bland _ i_know . . .
_ starlet jennifer love hewitt , but i 'd talke her
any day ove the dreadfully stiff and uncharismatic witt , whose inept attempts at emoting were often met with laughter
; witt has a pefect foil in her equally pesence - challenged leading man , jared leto .
_ dawson's_creek _ star jackson mugs his way thorugh a glorified cameo ; gayheart displays all the depth and range of , well , a noxzema spokeswoman ; and robert englund lends the film little more than his freddy krueger pedigree as a folklore professor .
granted , the cast is hampered by their material .
loretta devine , who has done some fine work in films such as _
waiting_to_exhale _ , is saddled with the ridiculous role of a pam grier - worshiping campus security guard .
the recently resuscitated horror genre can not rely on the efforts one man -- namely , kevin williamson -- to stay alive . if other filmmakers continue to make such shoddy product as _ urban_legend _ , the genre looks to once again go the way of screen slashers ' many victims .
[A]: N


[Q]: roger ebert asks in his review of sexy beast , " who would have guessed that the most savage mad - dog frothing gangster in recent movies would be played by . . .
ben kingsley ?
"
my response would be that anyone who has seen alan arkin in wait until dark , henry fonda in once upon a time in the west , or anthony hopkins in the silence of the lambs should have guessed it .
they should know that the way for a film to create a really creepy sociopath is cast someone who generally plays mild , sympathetic , or even ineffectual character roles .
the same characteristics that make an actor seem gentle in most of his roles can work in his favor when a role calls for him to be fierce and vicious .
that is the principle that works for kingsley in sexy beast .
gary " gal " dove ( played by ray winstone ) has retired from a london career of crime and is living on a luxurious villa in spain .
life has become a routine of sunning himself and relaxing .
but his paradise is about to be shattered by a one - two - punch .
the first punch is a boulder that comes rolling down the hill next to the villa .
the second punch comes from gal 's past .
back in london
gang boss teddy bass
( ian mcshane , tv 's lovejoy ) is planning to break into a safety deposit room in a bank and he wants gal .
he sends his most rabid henchman don logan ( ben kingsley ) to fetch gal .
don will accept any decision gal makes from " yes " to " certainly .
" however , if gal says " no " don will do whatever it takes to turn it into a yes including threatening guy 's ex - porn- star wife deedee ( amanda redman ) . in the meantime don knows just how to get under everybody 's skin .
kingsley makes don a compact package of fury and nastiness .
there are some serious problems in louis mellis 's and david scinto 's script that should have been caught before filming .
when we see the actual crime we have no idea why gal was so important to its success .
beyond an ability to use skin - diving gear , no special talents are required of him .
any local hood could have done what gal is needed for .
additionally the crime involves digging from a swimming pool to the bank vault , flooding the vault .
no only
could they have let the water out of the pool and avoided the complication altogether , but there is by far too much water to be accounted for by what was in the pool .
in spite of the provocative title , the story is cliched and overly familiar .
i know i have seen all the plot elements of sexy beast in old westerns like the law and jake wade .
the story is usually of the reformed outlaw , a robert taylor type , who has hung up his guns and is trying for a life of peaceful respectability .
the old gang , however , wants to do one more job with their old buddy and sends a rabid richard widmark type to go and git ?
i m .
it is not a great plot .
in sexy beast even the plot twists have gray beards .
perhaps the film has a little more respectability because it was made not as a western but as a stylish british gangster film .
it is an old plot dressed up to look new .
if the plot is old , at least the style is creative .
this is director jonathan glazer 's first film , but he has reputedly done some notable tv ads for guinness stout .
his style does have some unexpected touches including some very odd dream sequences .
cinematographer ivan bird uses a lot of half lit scenes .
we see one side of a person 's faces .
but the other side fades into the darkness , a sort of metaphor for the half - world these characters in - habit .
half of everything that is happening is also kept hidden .
us yanks will have a hard time with some of the dialog .
at least in my theater it was difficult to make out the words with the quiet speaking , the heavy accents , and the cockney language .
sexy beast is a very and familiar minor plot lent respectability in the us by being done in what is here a still somewhat novel genre , the london crime film .
the plot may be new to british crime films , but it would be overly familiar as a western .
further respectability comes from ben kingsley 's high - powered performance .
i give it a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale .
[A]: N


[Q]: it must be tough to be a mob boss .
just ask paul vitti ( robert deniro ) , a man who finds his job as mafia head to be rather stress inducing .
i can believe it , too - one ca n't even begin to fathom the turmoil he must go through when he 's forced to choose between an ice pick , baseball bat or sledgehammer to torture victims with . suffering from reoccurring panic attacks , paul decides he needs to consult some professional help . and who better than billy crystal .
after appearing in bottom - of - the - barrel flops , father 's day and my giant , crystal finally finds a reliable costar and some very promising material here .
playing vitti 's private shrink , the two very different stars strike an unorthodox , but interesting relationship that carries this enjoyable comedy on a steady wave of laughs from start to finish .
casting robert deniro as paul vitti is something of an in - joke , i think .
placed in this mobster 's shoes , deniro gets to spoof characters he himself played in films like the godfather , part ii and casino .
it 's obvious he 's having a lot of fun doing so .
the man behind the camera is harold ramis , whose credits include ghostbusters ( as writer and star ) , and his best directing effort , the bill murray vehicle , groundhog day .
ramis has a knack for drawing laughs because he simply knows what 's funny , and here he manages to accentuate the strengths of nearly all the actors .
the only character who weakens the payoff is crystal 's bride - to - be ( lisa kudrow ) .
playing the same dumbed - down role as she does in friends , kudrow is amusing , but does n't fit into this comedy mold as well as the director may have hoped .
the supporting cast sparkles .
joe viterelli is hilarious as jelly , vitti 's pea brained right - hand man , and chazz palminteri is a show stopper playing a fellow mobster who 's in desperate need of the definition of ` closure ' .
the movie manages to maintain consistent chuckles throughout , putting the emphasis on 3 or 4 really big laughs that will have audiences grasping their sides .
the situation is just too cute to resist .
it 's unfortunate that the language gets somewhat out of hand .
but hey , if you 're in the mafia , using obscenities probably comes naturally .
and near the end , seeing billy crystal attempt to walk and talk like a mob boss is truly a special treat .
[A]:
P