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

[Q]: synopsis : the president of a company wants to test his self - appointed successor , who 's psychotic , and thinks it 's a great idea to spend a week with him and their wives in an isolated cabin a hundred miles from civilization with no dependable transportation or means of communication after a heavy snowfall .
comments : tracks of a killer had a couple of strikes against it before i even began watching it .
strike one was the fact that someone had scrawled the word garbage on the videotape 's sticker in black marker
( not typically a good sign when you rent a film ) .
strike two came while the previews played .
did you ever get a sinking premonition about a movie 's quality ( or lack thereof ) while watching the trailers that come before it ?
well , the cheesy films being advertised before tracks of a killer were films that no one has ever heard of starring people no one knows , and they all looked bad ( definately not a good sign ) .
tracks of a killer itself completed the strikeout .
about the only positive thing this film had going for it was the fact that it sports some nice scenery .
to be fair , the first half - hour or so promises at least a watchable thriller .
wolf larson , who bears more than a passing resemblance to hugh grant , adequately plays the underling obviously set up as the killer of the film 's title .
james brolin and kelly lebrock seem equally adequate as the loving couple larson will later threaten .
brolin 's character , for some inexplicable reason , thinks its a great idea to spend some time in a cabin , practically isolated , with lebrock and larson , whom he 's decided to test for the week before giving him full control of his company .
by the time the characters arrive at the cabin , this film begins to become tedious .
apparently , brolin 's successor 's test involves chopping wood for the fireplace and skiing , which do n't seem like attributes necessary to run a business in the city .
but , then again , what do i know about business ?
i do think , though , that they should have invested in some better furniture for the cabin ; its beds and closets have a habit of just breaking at the slightest touch .
larson 's character accidently kills his own wife rather than the couple he wants to kill .
this leaves the movie with an hour to go and only three characters , which really is n't enough to sustain it .
the film 's writer must have taken a cue from stephen king , as scenes from tracks of a killer seem lifted out of misery and gerald 's game .
larson and lebrock fight and torture each other ( the tables get turned a couple of times ) while brolin tramps around in the snow looking for help .
some old guy 's around too
, just so the killer can add to his body count without killing the couple , who everyone knows will be alive at the end of the film .
the old guy , however , miraculously survives his first death and appears later to be killed again by the killer in a scene
so ludicrous it 's worthy of a chuckle or two
.
outside of that chuckle , unfortunately , tracks of a killer will just bore you as the obvious plot is drawn out ad infinitum and the actors , for some reason , become increasing obnoxious . if you 're in a video store and thinking about renting this turkey , do n't . make tracks to a far superior suspense film , like misery .
[A]: N


[Q]: there was probably a good reason that the warner bros .
studio chose not to allow critics to view this steven seagal film when it first opened .
and , after seeing this piece of toxic waste , i now know why .
this movie is by far the worst offering that has hit the screen since possibly those ernest movies years ago .
fire down below centers its story on a little mining town in god 's country , somewhere in eastern kentucky .
it 's beauty and natural goodness is being slowly destroyed by an uncaring mining magnate ( kris kristopherson , who constantly looks like he wants to kill his agent for getting him this role ) .
it turns out that he 's filling the mines throughout kentucky with toxic waste for a tidy profit .
seagal plays jack taggert , an aikido - versed , fighting machine , who is an agent with the epa .
no . . . not the cia nor the fbi nor the nsa .
it 's the environmental protection agency .
i had no idea that epa agents were trained to be killers !
taggert is sent to find the perpetrators and to bring them to justice .
written by someone named jeb , i could already envision the stereotypes of incestuous relationships , banjo - picking preachers , and dumb - as - nails rednecks .
but the script puts seagal right smack dab in the middle of all of these scenarios as he tries to discreetly fit in .
seagal 's idea of a disguise is a long - length $ 1000 leather jacket .
but to get closer to the kinfolk , he will fix people 's porches for free .
that 's another great epa asset - teaching agents how to fix porches .
slow and plodding , this project is a total mess .
the sometimes allure of watching seagal is watching him outmaneuver enemies that outnumber and outgun him like in under seige .
here , his bravado basically turns into bullyness .
townsfolk who are foolish enough to challenge seagal are quickly subdued .
fight scenes are quick and senseless and offers no enjoyment value whatsoever
.
and his soap box message wears thin within the first 15 minutes .
the most annoying moment comes when he barges into the middle of a sunday church ceremony , gets behind the pulpit , and beseeches the townsfolk to take control of their lives and to help clean up the environment .
but the epitome of how moralistically mushy this film gets happens when the person responsible for the toxic dumping , kristopherson , meets up with seagal .
kristopherson asks seagal how much it will take for him to go away .
seagal gallantly replies : " i 'll leave when you take the poison from the streams and the earth .
"
i was expecting patriotic music to start blasting and a show of fireworks in the background .
this is truly nothing more than a pompous showcase for seagal 's righteousness and narcissistic arrogance .
seagal has been vanguard in trying to bring a new genre into the filmplace , that of the enviro - thriller ( on deadly ground ) .
however , the message will never come across through poorly developed vehicles like this .
still , i believe in preserving mother earth , so save your $ 5 and please donate it instead to some worthy environmentally conscious charity .
[A]: N


[Q]: my first exposure to the nightmare on elm street series of films was not this one , but in fact the third installment ( it was the first to gain a national theatrical release ) .
i did n't see the first film until much later .
so looking back , the original did n't hold a lot of great memories for me , since i did n't think too much of it when i initially saw it .
watching it now for a second time confirmed that it 's an overrated horror film that ultimately makes no sense whatsoever
.
you all know the story by now :
child murderer freddy krueger ( robert englund ) returns from the grave by haunting the dreams of the children of those who burned him alive years before .
this first installment does an adequate job with
it 's low budget , but
there 's some absurd dialogue and conceptual problems with the story .
plus the movie 's ending
( understandably the result of the studio wanting the end of the film to have a " hook " for a sequel ) renders the rest of the film pointless .
and does anyone understand what happens to nancy 's mother at the end of this film ?
do n't get me wrong though .
. .
it 's not as if a new generation of horror films have spurned me away from the classics .
most horror movies released today are just as inane as this film is .
horror is a difficult genre to pull off credibly , and a nightmare on elm street just does n't cut it .
a nightmare on elm street is available on dvd from new line home video .
it is available both as a single disc and as part of the nightmare on elm street collection box set .
the film is presented in both pan and scan and it 's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1 . 78 : 1 ( although on the disc that comes in the box set , only a widescreen transfer is provided ) .
the film has been digitally remastered and includes two options for audio : a mono mix and a new dolby digital 5 .
1 mix . also included on the dvd is a full - length audio commentary track with writer / director wes craven , stars john saxon and heather langenkamp , and the film 's director of photography .
other extras include the " jump to a nightmare " feature ( i 'm sure you can figure that one out ) , the usual cast and crew bios ( which are from the film 's original press release kit , and notably leave out robert englund and johnny depp ! ) , and the film 's original theatrical trailer .
some dvd - rom features are also included , but since i do n't have dvd - rom capabilities i ca n't really get into that .
the commentary track is entertaining and informative , but nothing spectacular .
the first thing of note is that it 's the same commentary track that was on the special edition laserdisc from a few years ago .
i 'm not saying that 's a negative thing , just pointing it out .
everyone seems enthusiastic about being there , with the possible exception of john saxon , who just does n't say much at all .
most of the time you 'll forget he 's even there .
everyone else talks really quietly though for some reason , as if because they 're commenting on a scary movie that they need to stay as quiet as possible .
the bonus disc with the boxed set called the nightmare series encyclopedia features about 45 minutes worth of interviews relating to the first film of the series .
also included is the original theatrical trailer and two alternate endings to the film . . .
however you can only access one easily .
the other is hidden in what 's called " the labyrinth " , which might possibly be the most annoying feature of a dvd ever created .
basically , it 's an interactive game of sorts where you wander through different nightmare locations looking at objects which give you access to extra little snippets of footage , interviews , etc .
somewhere in the labyrinth is the second alternate ending to the film .
finding it though is both a chore and a bore .
[ r ]
[A]:
N