instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
the swooping shots across darkened rooftops suggest a very tim burton movie , but , alas , no caped crusader descends to save * this * film
.
instead , it 's a skeletal housemaid ( julia roberts ) who must bear witness to this unfortunate retelling of " dr .
jekyll and mr .
hyde .
" for a few , fleeting , maddening moments , director stephen frears ( dangerous liaisons ) gets everything
just right-- the tone , the colors , the characters ; all the ingredients to make a most - powerful potion out of valerie martin 's best - selling novel .
yet it fizzles too quickly ; the volatile mixture losing potency from the very first scene .
casting is a large part of the problem .
the story all but collap- ses around ms .
roberts--
she does n't have the range for this kind of drama .
her accent also comes and goes , though it 's nowhere near as glaring as the total lack of chemistry between her and co - star john malkovich .
( he looks the same in both of his roles-- an incredible fact that 's missed by everyone in the story ! )
the very british supporting cast-- including michael gambon and george cole-- gives credibility to the smaller parts .
glenn close also appears as a madam that the good doctor calls upon .
her performance is as close to intentional camp as the movie ever gets and-- as a bonus-- offers a likely peek at her upcoming cruella de ville in the live - action 101 dalmantions .
the biggest botch in mary reilly is suspense : there is none .
no terror , no tension ; nothing .
without any weight , wit , or wonder to propel the story , the viewer is left with little more to do than pay attention to the period detail , a few buckets of blood , and stuart craig 's fabulously dreary production design .
all of which gets old after about an hour , at which point i recommend leaving .
( the pacing in the second - half is especially abominable .
if you * do * stick it through , your sole reward is a half - hokey special effect depicting the infamous transformation . )
mr .
frears reportedly recut his film several times , missing several release dates in the process .
( obviously , no one advised him to throw up his hands and just turn the whole damned thing over to mel brooks .
blucher ! )
mary reilly is the second robert louis stevenson story of the month , after muppet treasure island .
perhaps mr .
frears should consult with brian henson on future projects .
i daresay that
even ms .
piggy is a better choice for a certain roles than julia roberts .
and she does have a great chop !
answer:
N


question:
the army comedy genre has never turned out a truly good movie ( if you do n't count neil simon 's biloxi blues ) .
year after year , more predictably cliched military movies come out -- most recently sgt .
bilko -- and none of them ever manage to be anything more than a rehash of the last .
i thought stripes would be different .
with ivan reitman as director , bill murray as star and harold ramis as co - star and co - screenwriter , it seemed like it would be ghostbusters in the army .
instead , it was a bunch of unfunny crap in the army .
murray , about as funny and sophisticated here as he was in meatballs , plays a loser cab driver who sees the army as his only chance for success , and convinces his friend ramis to enlist with him .
so he does , and we get the obligatory drill sergeant from hell , head - shaving and marching / singing sequences ,
more mind - numbingly stale here than ever .
the characters are even less original , ranging from underachieving slob john candy to incompetent captain john larroquette .
all the big name stars in stripes ( and even larroquette ) fall victim to the lame , rehashed material and are never really likeable , murray in particular .
he only gets a few decent lines in , although those barely - funny one liners pale in comparison to the hilarious peter venkman character he played three years later in ghostbusters .
he was even better in caddyshack , for crying out loud .
as with a lot of the late 70 's / early 80 's comedies , stripes is a completely juvenile movie only a child would like
but is so sex-
obsessed no child should be able to watch it .
i 'm sure it seems funny on paper to have candy pay over $ 400 to mud
wrestle five beautiful women , but while watching it all that was coming out of my mouth was the admonition " dear god !
"
every few seconds .
stripes is n't the playful kind of sex comedy , either .
most of the time
it seems downright misogynistic , as when larroquette uses his telescope to peer into the women 's showers or murray lifts a female m .
p .
onto the stove and , with an i
- know - what - you - like look on his face , says he 's going to give her the " aunt jemima treatment , " which means shoving a spatula under her butt repeatedly .
you do n't want to stick around as the scene progresses and he uses an ice cream scoop on her genital region .
"
i 'm not enjoying this , " the woman protests .
my sentiments exactly .
answer:
N


question:
synopsis : easily - angered , chainsmoking architect david encounters his homicidal first wife diedre five years after their divorce .
diedre easily cons david 's not - so - bright new wife molly into believing she 's a child psychologist so that she can influence molly and
david 's quick - tempered son , michael .
diedre , at the same time , murders a bunch of people .
comments : the ex is a very bad movie .
i have n't seen a turkey of this magnitude in quite a while .
i kept vacillating , however , between giving the ex one star for its sheer awfulness and three stars for its campy humor ( ultimately , i decided to split the difference and give it two stars ) .
as summarized briefly in the synopsis , this is yet another spurned - psycho - lover - gets - her - revenge type movie .
i 'm not sure how many films have been produced since fatal attraction which use this tired storyline , but it seems like 10 , 000 , 000 , 000 .
the ex , however , though following many of the standard cliches of this thriller subgenre , differs slightly from the norm in that , at least , it does n't take itself too seriously like so many other duds do ( malicious and stalked are two examples which come to mind ) .
those involved in the movie realize they 're in a turkey , apparently , and turn in hammy performances which compliment the ludicrous dialogue contained within the script .
the ex 's storyline , as i said , incorporates many cliches predominant in films of its nature ; however ,
the plot is so overwrought and unbelievable
that , after a while , the viewer must accept that logic does not operate in the realm of the movie .
diedre , david 's first wife , kills and kills and kills , for example , without ever having to worry about police investigations and the like ( it 's not as though she 's bright enough not to leave fingerprints at the scene of the crime ) .
david and his new wife molly have an incredibly difficult time understanding why michael , their son , has emotional problems , specifically his inability to control his anger .
though david smokes like tomorrow will never come and blows up at people every other minute in the movie , the connection between him and his son is not made .
molly is easily swayed by diedre into believing she 's a child psychologist and allows the demented woman to spend time with her son . time and time again , things do not add up in this movie .
if a viewer ca n't accept this fact , then he will definately not like the ex .
if , on the other hand , he can appreciate the movie for its campiness , then he 'll probably like it much better .
i do n't mean to necessarily suggest , however , that the ex is a memorable exercise in camp .
even when viewed from an it's - so - bad - it's - good angle , this movie is n't all that successful .
the ex does have its moments , though , almost all of which involve yancy butler ( the psychotic diedre ) and nick mancuso ( david ) .
these two actors turn in decidedly hammy performances which , oftentimes , elicit chuckles from the audience .
the truly awful lines written for them help this humor along .
butler gets the larger portion of bad dialogue ; every time her character kills someone , she has a punchline that 's unbelievably inane .
when she murders a tenant of an apartment she wishes to use to spy on david , for example , diedre whacks the elderly lady with a crowbar and states
" i 'm so sorry , your lease is terminated .
"
or how about when diedre takes out her therapist in another ridiculous scene ?
( diedre 's therapist wishes to have her recommitted ,
so she decides to visit diedre , alone , in her new apartment -- never realizing , of course , that it 's not her 's .
therapists typically are catatonically brain - dead in these movies ) .
having successfully snuffed the woman out , diedre looks at the body and says : " what was it that you always said to me at the end of each session , dr .
jones ?
oh , that 's right . '
i 'm sorry , but your time is up ! '
"
this is what passes for humor in the film .
the audience does n't necessarily laugh but groan ( the type of groan that suggests the audience ca n't believe they 're watching this crap -- although watching it they are ) .
nick mancuso 's chainsmoking , nervous - wreck character does not have the cheesy lines that butler 's character delivers , but his ridiculously overdone performance provides for some better comic relief .
in between drags off his cigarette , for instance , in one of the movie 's best scenes , david tries to explain to his lawyer what a creep his ex - wife is .
in exaggerated exasperation , he nearly shouts " the woman is a cuckoo - bird ! "
( trust me , it is funny in context . )
and so , the movie continues until its painfully obvious conclusion .
i wo n't reveal the ending specifically ( though anyone remotely familiar with thrillers of this type could probably guess the ending just from this film review ) , but i will say that the ex has one of the biggest fire hazards appearing recently in film .
molly and david own a cabin that becomes engulfed by flames in approximately three seconds !
molly , at one point in the film , not - so - brilliantly observes , after discovering diedre has moved into an apartment across from her family 's to spy upon them , that " she 's crazy .
" you 'd be pretty crazy too if you 'd rented this turkey
.
i 'd avoid it unless it 's on tv
and you come across it .
if you do , you may want to watch it , groan at the bad punchlines and stupid plot , and feel good that you did n't spend money renting it .
answer:

N