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

[Q]: if i were one of those arrogant critics who thinks his review has some great impact on the success or failure of certain films , i might say that i review movies that do n't look particularly good because i 'm doing a service to my readers by warning them against seeing it .
if that were true , i could put a banner at the top of my site that reads : " shay casey : seeing bad movies so you do n't have to .
"
but i know that 's bunk
- you're going to see whatever movies you want to no matter what i say .
so i have to tell the truth : every once in a while
i get a nasty , masochistic urge to see a bad movie .
you know the feeling , when you 're sick of seeing all these damn academy award contenders and you want to see something you can have a ball trashing mercilessly .
sometimes i think that 's why anyone goes to see pauly shore movies , ever .
admit it : sometimes you like seeing bad movies .
so do i .
so i saw " supernova .
"
truth be told , " supernova " was n't quite as bad as i thought it might be .
maybe i just felt sorry for the actors , or maybe i thought it could have been decent if the studio had n't started tinkering with the director 's ( walter hill ) final cut , causing him to want his name removed .
maybe i 'm becoming a softy .
in any case , i did n't find " supernova " as bad as the advance buzz would have me believe .
but it 's still bad .
the film takes place aboard the medical space vessel " nightingale .
"
the crew includes captain a .
j . marley ( robert forster ) , his new second officer nick vanzant ( james spader ) , head medical officer kaela evers ( angela bassett ) , medical technicians yerzy penalosa ( lou diamond phillips ) and danika lund ( robin tunney ) , and computer technician benj sotomejor ( wilson cruz ) .
there are some attempts at " characterization , " but all that means is that nick has a shady past involving a drug addiction , which puts kaela on edge , yerzy and danika have a relationship that requires them to make kissy - faces at each other every five minutes , and benj ( apparently gay ) is in love with the computer ( apparently female ) .
do n't expect any more explanation , because you wo n't get it .
anyway , the crew gets a distress call from a location deep in space to which a failed mining operation had been sent .
during the dimension jump ( i think that 's what it 's called , but do n't hold me to it )
, the captain is killed and the man who sent the distress signal ( peter facinelli ) is brought on board .
he calls himself troy larson , making him the supposed son of a man kaela once had a relationship with .
then a bunch of really predictable stuff starts happening .
have you seen " alien ?
" have you seen " event horizon " ( a lame movie in its own right ) ?
good .
then you 've seen " supernova .
" post - production cuts or not ,
there is nothing original about this screenplay , and nothing unpredictable either . after all , no one 's going to think for a second that troy wo n't turn out to be a villain .
but the bigger problem with " supernova " is that it can ' t just stick to the simple plot it 's afforded .
numerous re - writes ( the script may be credited to three people , but it 's a gross underestimate ) have crammed this lean 90-minute film with tons of extraneous plot threads that all remain underdeveloped
.
was there something about a limping robot shaped like a fighter pilot ?
did the ship 's computer learn something about humanity ?
what was that glowing lava lamp artifact troy brought on board with him ?
and just what does the film 's title signify , if anything ?
as far as i can tell , it refers to a very small plot detail that is n't developed , just like the rest of these unnecessary story elements .
character relationships in this film also make very little sense .
for some reason , every person in this film keeps having sex .
we get an unusually early sex scene between phillips and tunney within the first 10 minutes .
bassett and spader 's characters start off hating each other .
fifteen minutes and one bottle of pear brandy later , they 're engaging in some hanky - panky .
when troy the creepy stranger shows up on the ship , of course both female crew members will fall in love with him .
every single shift in character interaction happens extremely suddenly , which is only one of the many obvious clues to how much this film has been cut .
the most prominent example , however , may be the fact that when the film starts , there are no opening credits !
furthermore , the end of the film looks like they took what were originally intended to be the opening credits and spliced them in right before the real end credits .
maybe that 's why the film 's title is mentioned twice during the end credits , right between james spader and robert forster .
right after you get over the shock of not being told what movie you 're seeing ( lest you decide to walk out upon making that discovery ) , you might notice that the movie seems to have dropped you right in the middle of a scene , with little - to - no introduction to any of the characters or situations .
the rest of the movie feels like they skipped over the middle stuff in the character changes ( you know , where they explain things ) and just went from point
a to point b . point
a : danika is thoroughly enamored of yerzy and is ready to have his baby .
point b : tunney is now shagging troy and yerzy is unusually obsessed with the lava lamp thing .
does n't make sense .
since i did n't understand anything about these characters ' motivations , did i care when troy abruptly starts murdering them one - by - one ( and he does , knocking off three of them in about 10 minutes ) ? not a whit .
it 's a shame , because this cast contains a lot of talented actors looking for something to do .
they do n't find it .
bassett and spader
say every line in the same monotone voice with the same blank expressions on their faces . sexual tension ? more like constipation .
maybe they 're just embarrassed at having to utter such howlers as " this thing was made by someone more powerful than god and a whole lot less nice .
" not that we ever find out who that is , mind you .
the climax of their relationship ( taking place in a transport pod ) is probably the film 's biggest forehead - slapper .
as troy , peter facinelli inhabits the most obvious villain in history that no one ever suspected .
he 's awfully one - note , but it 's not as if he 's given any more notes to work with .
the rest of the cast does even less .
tunney stands around looking cute , then scared .
phillips broods .
cruz flirts with the computer .
then they all die and a star blows up or something , but i really was n't paying much attention by then .
" supernova " is pretty awful , but i 'm cutting it a little slack merely because i expected less than what i got .
that 's it .
if you expect it to be good ( for whatever reasons you may have ) , you 'll probably hate it more than i will .
even the special effects are fairly unimpressive , nothing you have n't seen before , and suffice to say the script is n't going to save the film
.
honestly , though , what do you expect from a film with about a dozen writers and a director who had his name removed and replaced with a pseudonym ?
it usually results in a bad movie , and that 's what " supernova " is .
[A]: N


[Q]: some of my friends who went to live in usa complain about one thing - that country is very different from the one depicted in hollywood movies .
that is especially true for those who end up somewhere in that unexplored land between los angeles and new york where they find , to their big surprise , that the majority of people vote republican , go to church every sunday and usually do n't tolerate liberal attitudes that are taken for granted in an average american film .
such rude awakening , however , can happen in another direction - conservative people are sometimes forced to discover unpleasant truths about world they live in .
something like that happens to jake van dorn ( george c . scott ) , successful grand rapids businessman who shares strong calvinist convictions with the rest of his community .
one day his daughter kristen ( ilah davis )
disappears from calvinist youth convention in california .
van dorn is worried because he does n't believe that his daughter would run from home .
however , the truth delivered by private investigator andy mast ( peter boyle ) is
even harder - kristen is spotted in cheap pornographic film .
infuriated van dorn is unsatisfied with the way mast 's investigation is going , so he goes to los angeles to search for kristen himself .
unfortunately , he lacks experience and the quest , that brought him to the utter depths of sex underworld , is fruitless .
things change when he devises cunning plan and , while doing it , stumbles on sympathetic prostitute and part time porno actress nicky ( season hubley ) .
almost two decades after its release , hardcore is mostly forgotten by critics and film scholars .
it is a real shame , because very few movies in today 's hollywood would dare tackle controversial issues that writer and director paul schrader explored in his second directorial attempt .
in late 1970s , it was totally different situation - films were expected to have mature , serious themes for the mature audience .
for schrader this film was nice opportunity to expand the subplot of his previous work , taxi driver - one that deals with the great generational divide that tormented the american society in 1970s .
on one side we have an old america that sticks to the puritan ideals of hard work and strict morals that made that country great .
but that america is obviously unable to cope with the new challenges brought by the social turmoil in 1960s and , instead of facing them , prefers to live in rural , conservative cocoons .
the new america , on the other hand , fares no better - ideals of the so - called " sexual revolution " , same as all other " revolutions " of the swinging sixties , degraded into exploitation and depravity .
instead of being " liberated " , baby boomers are stuck with their own inability to cope with the newly discovered freedoms .
schrader very cleverly brings the idea that those two americas , actually , are n't so far away - nice example is a brilliant scene in which van dorn , already described as an authoritarian and paternalistic capitalist , meets sleazy porno producer ; the latter one also turns out to be authoritarian , paternalistic and very dedicated to this job .
the difference between the two is simply in the line of work .
many contemporary critics actually accused schrader of promoting conservative agenda .
on the surface , it may look that way - audience is forced to sympathise with van dorn and his quest .
in the first scenes , he is portrayed as nice family man who actually does n't deserve to experience parent 's worst nightmare .
the scene in the porno cinema that reveals kristen 's fate is extremely cruel ; pain and humiliation , brought by oscar - winning actor george c . scott , is of such intensity , that the audience feels sorry for him and simply must support his agenda .
van dorn is perhaps flawed , and the subtle hints lead to the unflattering truth at the end ; but the viewers simply know that his cause is just , and that prodigal daughter must be better off with her loving father than with the sleazy pornographers that only want to exploit her body .
on the other hand , schrader , who grew up in an environment very much like van dorn 's ( his own parents would n't allow him to watch movies until he was 18 ) , knows better and tries to bring another side of coin .
even the people connected with sex underworld can show redeeming qualities - like nicky , who actually tries to improve her life , and sleazy detective who develops something like a conscience at the end .
unfortunately , schrader fails to erase the impact of the shocking scene at the beginning , and his attempt to reconcile the opposing sides of america seems lost in somewhat clich ?
d finale .
the script is slightly flawed , and schrader as director does n't show too much originality - his style seems too influenced by techniques that scorsese used in taxi driver .
apart from the scenes in grand rapids , those two films even look alike .
but the content might be more than interesting for today 's viewer , especially those inspired by the current 70s revival . until boogie nights , no hollywood mainstream movie ever dared to explore the phenomenon of pornography in 1970s .
hardcore , on the other hand , might serve as precious document , because it depicts sex film industry in the period often regarded as the golden age by connoisseurs - before the advent of video , when many of the porno filmmakers could afford to think of themselves as artists .
the view of such age and the industry is very unflattering , though , but for the film whose main character takes time to explain calvinist doctrines to the audience , that should n't be too surprising .
anyway , despite some flaws , hardcore remains very interesting and powerful piece of cinema .
[A]: P


[Q]: warner brothers has scored another marketing coup .
the one - two punch was started in the summer , with the release of batman forever .
trailers for ace ventura 2 were bundled with the bat , ensuring that every jim carrey fan in the free world would know about the impending sequel .
carrey went on to win raves as the riddler and the ever - wise warner chose halloween as the release date for the video ( $ 11 .
99 at wal - mart ) ; a mere two weeks before carrey 's return in this marketwise , but misfired comedy .
ace ventura : when nature calls is a painful reminder of just how grating the rubber - faced comic can be when allowed to perform within an uncontrolled environment .
he may have been brilliant under the direction of joel schumacher , in batman forever , but , here , left to his own devices , carrey quickly wears out his welcome .
the opening sequence is by far the best -- an amusing spoof of cliffhanger , with ace performing a mountain rescue of a stranded raccoon .
( you can guess what happens to mr .
paws .
hint : it sounds like splat . )
the plot quickly shifts to a temple in the himalayas , and then to not - so - darkest africa , where ace is on the case of a missing white bat .
with his hair and limbs both wildly askew , carrey flies through his routine in about thirty minutes .
the rest of the film is just more of the same .
sure , the plot 's linear , and the production values solid , but where is the scripted humor to support carrey 's sloppy slathering ?
writer and director steve oderkerk provides precious few set - ups .
instead , carrey
just mugs away , playing for the camera even when most of it is n't funny .
the better gags have been shown in the ads , though a bit with ace
emerging buck - naked from the backside of a mechanical rhino is something to see .
though an arguable improvement over the original , ace ventura : when nature calls is still a snooze for anyone over the age of ten .
the script is virtually devoid of wit .
tribal mask jokes ?
jerry lewis cameos ?
forget it .
if anything , the inexplicable presence of simon callow ( four weddings and a funeral ) and bob gunton ( the shawshank redemption ) suggests that working with carrey is the classical actor 's ultimate challenge .
just how long * can * they keep a straight face ?
[A]:
N