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

[Q]: stephen , please post if appropriate .
" mafia ! "
- crime is n't a funny business by homer yen ( c ) 1998 on a particular night when i found myself having some free time , i had a chance to either go to sleep early or to see " mafia ! " , a spoof of mafia and crime films such as " the godfather , " " goodfellas " and " casino " .
at 84 minutes in length , i thought that i could enjoy a few laughs before getting a good nights sleep .
but by my account , i think that my laff - o - meter only registered a few grins , one giggle , and maybe one chortle .
i suppose that you could justify your time as homage to the venerable hollywood star , lloyd bridges , who just recently passed away and whose last performance was in this film .
" mafia !
" chronicles vincenzo cortino 's ( lloyd bridges ) life . separated from his family when he was young , he escapes to america and tries to live an honest life .
but as fate would have it , vincenzo grows up to be a powerful and klutzy crime lord .
following in his footsteps are his two sons , joey ( billy burke ) and anthony ( jay mohr ) .
like all siblings in powerful crime families , they squabble over power , the future of the family , fortune , and women .
" mafia !
" is co - written by jim abrahams , who also contributed to some gut - busting funny spoofs such as " airplane " and " the naked gun .
"
but these previous movies were funny because the jokes seemed more universally understood and there was more of a manic silliness at work .
as i write this , i also wonder how many people have actually seen the movies on which this spoof is based .
crime movies in general contain a lot of profanity and violence .
it 's a tough genre to parody .
i was kind of hoping that they could somehow spoof the profanity used in all of those crime movies , maybe by having all of the tough crime lords say " please " as they decide which sector to take over , but this opportunity was never explored .
there were one or two moments that made me smile such as the scene where vincenzo is dancing with his newly we d daughter - in - law .
a gunman shoots him several times .
the impact of the bullets cause him to make these wild contortions that force the wedding band to change music styles to keep up with him , from the samba to disco to the macarena .
i think that i just gave away the best part of the film .
oh well , that just means that you can go to sleep a little earlier .
[A]: N


[Q]: ( dreamworks skg ) running time : 2 hours starring robert duvall , tea leoni and elijah wood directed by mimi leder the first of the two asteroid movies coming out this year ( the second is the macho armageddon ) is actually a dull affair .
elijah wood plays leo biederman , who during astronomy class discovers that a large asteroid is heading for earth .
tea leoni plays a ( rather crap ) news reporter , jenny lerner , who soon discovers about this asteroid through a very long winded and boring way , and robert duvall plays the leader of a space crew , spurgeon tanner , who are planning to blow the asteroid out of the path of earth .
also featuring is morgan freeman as the president , and maximilian schell and vanessa redgrave as jenny 's father and mother . while many people will walk into the film expecting a big special effects fest with the asteroid blowing everything up ( as the trailers seem to promise ) , the film is actually more of a character study , if a very poor one .
the main problem is that there are too many characters in the film , and not enough time to explore them all .
only the space crew are given any depth , jenny lerner , leo and the president are surprisingly 2d , and we never get to know these characters .
and because i could n't care for them , i did n't really give a crap if the asteroid killed them or not .
the script by bruce joel rubin and michael tolkin is horribly simple , and never really makes any interesting statements .
mimi leder , the former er director and director of the average the peacemaker ( 1996 ) , again directs in a ho - hum style , and never really gets any emotion out of a scene , which is a shame .
the cast are seemingly on autopilot , although tea leoni does gives a rather good performance , even if she acts a bit too dorky for her own good .
she seems uncommonly stupid for a journalist .
robert duvall is on autopilot with a underwritten role , he just seems to be in this film for the money .
elijah wood , one of the best child actors working today , is surprisingly average , although his choice of roles lately have n't exactly been brilliant ( i .
e .
flipper , 1996 ) .
his role is also vastly underwritten .
morgan freeman , again , is utterly wasted with a ridiculously underwritten role .
like duvall , he just seems to be in the film for the money .
the supporting cast are all o .
k , none making much of an impression .
ok , so deep impact may have messed up character wise , but surely the special effects are good ?
well , yes and no .
although the special effects should be impressive , with a massive tidal wave destroying new york , the special effects look like , well , special effects .
sadly , the waves looks like it 's been drawn on computer , and does n't look too good at all . surprising really , when the effects are done by industrial light & magic , who did the effects for the lost world and twister .
in the end , deep impact is a wasted opportunity .
what could of been a moving movie with good effects turns out to be a dud in both characters and effects .
the 2 hours the film had could have been used to much greater effect .
once again , dreamworks has churned out another average movie .
let 's hope armageddon is a bit better .
overall rating= review by david wilcock web space provided by geocities
[A]: N


[Q]: garry shandling makes his long overdue starring film debut as an alien from a planet populated only by genetically created men , who are looking to take over the earth by propagating their own species there .
shandling is chosen for the mission , is given the name harold anderson , and is set up as a banker in seattle .
after a few disastrous " mating " attempts , he figures his best bet will be susan ( annette bening ) , a former alcoholic who eventually tells harold that she wo n't have sex again until she gets married .
the leader of harold 's planet ( ben kingsley ) tells him to marry her , and harold is soon exposed to all the " joys " of married life .
despite its title and premise which seem to imply that this is some jerry lewis vehicle from the late 1960s , what planet are you from ? is a very funny movie .
the plot ( which the film wisely does n't linger on the specifics of for too long ) is of course nothing more than framework for the jokes , most of which work very well
.
the material may be considered crude and tasteless by many , and i might have thought so as well had shandling not been the lead .
but he brings a sort of pathetic charm to the role , and it 's his performance that makes the film truly funny
instead of just offensive .
plus if you think about it , what planet are you from ?
could have very easily gone the gross - out route ( considering that shandling 's character is given a detachable penis that vibrates and hums when he gets excited ) .
we never see anything though , it 's all implied , which gives the film a touch of class amidst its crudeness .
i 'm glad to see that someone in hollywood still understands the concept of " less is more " .
the talented supporting cast certainly adds to one 's enjoyment of this film .
annette bening ( oddly playing a merged version of her real estate salesman character from american beauty and her ditzy spiritualist character from mars attacks ! ) does a fine job keeping up with shandling and makes a good catalyst for his brand of humor .
she even manages to pull off a potentially disastrous scene where she has to perform a rather goofy rendition of " high hopes " for a lengthy period of time .
ben kingsley , john goodman and greg kinnear
all fare well in their performances as well , and linda fiorentino . . .
good lord , there should be some sort of law stating that no woman can be that sexy .
everything about her character in this film oozes raw sexuality .
what planet are you from ? is available on dvd from columbia tristar home video .
the disc gives you the choice of either watching the film full frame or in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1 . 85 : 1 ( and enhanced for 16x9 televisions .
also included on the disc as extras : a decent making - of featurette , an isolated score track , talent files for the cast and crew , and the film 's original theatrical trailer ( as well as trailers for wolf , men in black , bugsy and as good as it gets ) .
when i first saw that the disc featured an isolated score track , i actually laughed .
how great could the music for a silly little comedy be for it to get it 's own isolated track ?
well as it turns out , it 's a mighty fine score from carter burwell ( fargo , the hudsucker proxy ) that
i enjoyed listening to again while i typed up this review .
kudos to columbia tristar for adding that feature to the disc .
what planet are your from ? was unjustly ignored in theaters , and i hope it finds its deserved audience on home video .
this fine dvd is certainly a great way to see it .
[ r ]
[A]:
P