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

capsule : not as bad a sequel as crow 2 or batman & robin , but still horribly putrid , cheesy and ill - conceived .
this one belongs in saturday morning cartoons . . .
extended review : you know , about halfway through this movie , i realized that if you hacked out everything except the fight scenes , you 'd have a damn fine 35 minutes or so of flashy , hong kong style martial arts .
beautifully choreographed by robin shou , who also plays liu kang , the fight scenes are both mind - blowing and graceful , acrobatic enough to make olympic gymnasts weep .
this is what made the original so fun , but
unfortunately for the sequel , we are without the frenetic directorial style of paul anderson .
instead , they got john r .
leonetti , the cinematographer for the original mortal kombat . not a good choice .
while the fight scenes are brutal and eye - popping , the rest of the movie looks like standard made for tv fare .
the acting is sub - par , which i could endure if it were not for a . )
the director 's style , b . )
the special effects , & c . )
the treatment of the story and characters .
a . )
mr .
leonetti should go back to lighting , in my opinion .
i could say dozens of bad things about him :
he way overuses slow - motion
, he has no eye for action , he ca n't get even mediocre performances out of actors , and so on .
but by far his worst move was the way he treated jumping .
apparantly , everybody can now fly .
hell , i 'm all for the occaisional gravity defying flip kick and whatnot , but not when it happens every few minutes , and is done so poorly .
better jumping and acrobatics has been seen in xena : warrior princess .
in short , they should have gotten paul anderson back .
or at least let robin shou direct . . .
b . )
unlike the first one , whose sfx were vibrant and somewhat realistic , mk : a 's special effects are bland , fake looking , and overall just plain bad
.
i counted at least half a dozen times that blue - screening was painfully obvious .
had this movie been made in the 80 's , it would have been ground - breaking .
but in today 's industry , it does n't even look finished .
c . )
now for
the _ really _ bad parts .
i admit , i 'm an avid fan of the mortal kombat series .
the games are amusing diversions , an easy way to work off stress and anger .
the first movie was a mindlessly fun thrillride .
this could have been a really cool movie .
it is n't .
the writers apparantly deemed it necessary to lower the target audience from teens to preschoolers .
some of the plot elements are just plain stupid .
how stupid ?
take , for instance , how our heroes move around .
they use giants spheres the roll around underground , supposedly at thousands of miles per hour . . .
oh boy . . .
even worse is the treatment of secondary characters .
blink and you 'll miss 'em .
most characters had more depth in the video games .
if you thought batman & robin was bad about this , you ai n't seen nothin' yet .
a good 75 % of the characters are introduced , kick somebody around a bit , then either die or are forgotten about .
there 's no explanation at all for this .
and for the final blasphemy , the fight that all the fans were waiting rabidly for , the fight hyped to be the most intricate of the movie , lasted about 3 minutes and then just sort of . . . ended .
it almost made me weep . to sum it all up , rent it on video , and fast - forward through everything except the fight scenes .
N

capsule : earthy , experimental , difficult , shockingly frank ( even for 1997 ! ) , and ultimately refreshing story of a black man on the run from the cops .
the first few minutes of sweet sweetback 's baad asssss song ( yes , i checked --
that 's the correct number of ss )
are without dialogue , just eerie montages of sounds .
a young boy , obviously malnourished , is taken in and fed up by several loving mother - surrogate figures .
then one of them takes the boy to bed for a sexual initation ( underneath the title credits ) that 's far more confrontatory and shocking than any ten basic instincts -- probably because it has the directness and clumsiness of real life , something we 're not used to seeing on screen .
this is one tough movie to swallow , no matter who you are , but that probably reflects more on how pallid and unchallenging movies have gotten lately .
( i suspect the sex scenes in movies like el topo and salo would probably melt the synapses of most modern audiences . )
the plot is simple but not simpleminded .
sweetback , hassled by two white cops who are apparently just looking for an excuse to beat up on a black man , breaks his bonds and runs like hell .
along the way he moves through a good many of the kinds of environments that we are only just now being seen in a more serious light in the movies -- or at all , for that matter : the slums , the missions , the ghetto .
in other , lesser , movies , sweetback would be machine - gunning everything in sight and the end credits would roll over a pile of bodies ; in this one , we get taken on a kind of a tour of the depressing and anarchic world that sweetback takes for granted .
ssbas first appeared in 1971 and was promptly rated x ( " by an all - white jury " , as director melvin van peebles crowed in his legendary ad campaigns ) , and it 's hardly surprising why .
there 's a good deal of sex in the movie , but it 's handled in a way that 's unsettlingly frank -- a frankness that spills over into the rest of the movie .
in one scene , sweetback visits a friend 's house in the hope of getting sanctuary there , and the other man chats him up while on the toilet .
we 're not used to coming this close to people in real life , let alone in the movies -- especially not people who are not made out to be glamorous .
the movie is also full of experimental stylistics that are relatively unused today , but probably because of that seem curiously fresh and new in van peebles ' hands .
one scene , in which a man is interrogated by the cops , is loaded full of menacing energy as they fire off a gun inches from his ears , and suggest his deafness through a cleverly edited soundtrack .
another note : ssbas is not so much anti - white ( that would be too easy ) as anti - authority , and as the movie goes on to demonstrate , authority exists in many forms -- governments , churches , and even the paranoid inside of one 's own mind .
ssbas is ultimately about thirsting for freedom -- and it looks like we could use a little more of that in our movie diet , god knows .
P

are you tired of all the hot new releases being gone by the time you get to the video store ?
wafflemovies .
com is dedicated to finding those hidden gems that lie on the shelves .
everyweek , wafflemovies .
com reviews independent film and big studio pictures that deserve a second chance on video .
here is a sample review : welcome to sarajevo in light of america 's recent intervention in kosovo , welcome to sarajevo is a reminder of the horror america and the world ignored for years .
set in sarajevo 1992 and based on actual events , this picture examines the human and societal casualties of war .
the picture opens with a family escorting their young bride to her wedding .
as they make their way down the street , a sniper shoots the mother of the bride .
yet another reminder that daily life in war torn sarajevo can never escape the horror of war .
in this scene , we meet joe flynn ( woody harrelson ) , an american reporter who stops reporting to help a priest carry the mortally wounded mother into a church .
joe is cocky , but also good at heart as he continues to carry out kind deeds for people he does n't even know .
his fellow reporter is the british michael henderson ( stephen dillane ) .
michael is quickly growing tired of the horror that surrounds him and the world 's lack of interest .
henderson is haunted by the memory of an altar boy who witnesses the mother 's death as well as a young girl who he finds orphaned in a hospital after a mortar attack on citizens waiting in line for bread .
he decides to take action when a united nations ' delegation descends upon the area to declare yugoslavia the fourteenth most dangerous place on earth .
henderson begins a series profiling an orphanage located on the front lines .
he finds children of all ages living in fear and taking care of each other with the help of one adult .
during his visits , he befriends a pre - teen girl , emira ( emira nuseric ) who serves as surrogate mother to baby roadrunner .
he promises to get emira out of harm 's way if he gets the chance .
after the un delegation leaves the country without rescuing any of the children , henderson loses hope .
however , his reporting has grabbed the attention of nina ( marisa tomei ) and her children 's aid group that helps to find homes for the yugoslavian orphans .
unfortunately , only babies are wanted for adoption , so henderson pledges to take emira to england .
the group of children , nina and henderson depart the front lines on a dangerous escape for italy .
can they complete this dangerous trek through the war torn countryside and avoid hostile troops gathering up muslims for concentration camps ?
the movie was beautifully and sensitively made .
director michael winterbottom and screenwriter
frank cottrell boyce vividly express the societal destruction that has occurred .
they show the destroyed lives , families that have been split up , and the desolation that everyone attempts to cope with .
this is best exemplified by the group of yugoslavians henderson , his producer and flynn have befriended .
the group of twenty - somethings reside in a bombed out bar without life 's simplest pleasures and amenities .
one of them is an accomplished musician who spends his days playing the piano and promising to play a concert when sarajevo is declared the most dangerous place on earth .
like the rest of those deeply effected by the war , this small group tries to survive instead of trying to live .
winterbottom
brilliantly intersplices scenes with actual news footage to give the film the feel of a documentary and keeps the viewer aware that many of these horrors are being carried out thousands of miles away as you sit safely in your living room .
the picture is also bolstered by beautiful cinematography
that captures the devastation of this city that hosted the 1984 olympics .
winterbottom and boyce also produce a realistic portrayal of the reporters covering the atrocities .
this portrayal is much more flattering to reporters than earlier wafflemovies .
com selection mad city .
we watch them struggle to cover the horror , while trying to remain professionally detached .
however , they are human and question the reason behind it all , why no one cares , and how they can get out .
stephen dillane is wonderful as henderson .
he portrays the character as an everyman caught in the middle of extraordinary events .
dillane avoids making the character overly heroic and preachy .
henderson realizes that he can not save the world , but he can help a few .
it is a wonderful opportunity for dillane after he had to suffer through the denis leary - sandra bullock disaster two if by sea .
woody harrelson continues to prove that he is one of the finest , most versatile actors of his generation .
harrelson plays the cocky celebrity reporter with a heart of gold by allowing the character 's caring nature and vulnerability shine through .
harrelson is equally adept at taking on roles as zany leading men ( cheers , white men ca n't jump ) as well as
excellent supporting roles such as this one .
this ability will serve him well and give him a long , successful career .
america 's involvement in this struggle comes seven years after the events of the movie take place .
for those who do not have a full understanding of the history of the conflict , the entire movie , most importantly the opening scenes , provide a history lesson .
war is a foreign concept to most of us in america .
battles are fought thousands of miles away among people we have no attachment to .
televised images of the gulf war are all the experience most of us have with war .
this picture brings it right into your living room and makes you think outside of our own small world , something we do n't do enough of in 90 's america .

P