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

based on the novel set in 1914 by joseph conrad , victory spins a tale of a pair of lovers , heyst ( william dafoe ) and alma ( irene jacob ) , who seek refuge on heyst 's isolated island .
however , their idyllic world begins to crumble upon the arrival of mr jones ( sam neil ) , martin ricardo ( rufus sewell ) and their servant , pedro ( graziano marcelli ) , who have come to steal heyst 's rumoured plunder .
while the novel is largely complex in characterization , the film sadly transposes conrad 's characters into lacklustre leads , the most disappointing being heyst himself .
conrad 's heyst adheres religiously to his late father 's ways of detachment and isolation .
his ascetic lifestyle is thrown into question when he meets alma , a helpless orchestra girl who charms him with her voice .
the struggle to embrace the arrival of alma into his solitude , however , is lost in mark peploe 's ( director and writer ) diluted version of heyst . without properly establishing the crucial details of heyst 's character , all that is left of conrad 's main character is a very shallow treatment of his internal conflict between detachment and human involvement .
on the one hand , actualizing the subtext is a mammoth task ( though not impossible ) , but on the other hand , dafoe 's flat acting can not be excused as an attempt at stoicism .
in the end , we are supposed to witness heyst renounce his philosophy and finally come to an understanding of what it is to love another .
the final transformation , while perceptible , lacks the cathartic revelation which is undeniable in conrad 's novel .
its absence in the film is unforgivable .
the film seems more concerned about moving the plot along when so much has yet to be said about the relationship between the two complete strangers .
alma is supposed to have overcome great emotional barriers in the relationship , namely heyst 's underlying philosophy of detachment , which heyst himself grapples with .
the struggle against heyst 's ignorance of true human involvement accounts for much of the greatness of alma 's love for him .
jacob , fair - skinned , gentle and yet passionate , handles the role with precision , detailing nuances where possible .
unfortunately , she is let down by a superficial script .
the couple 's relationship develops too hastily , leaving all subtlety effaced and replaced with a blatant show - and - tell approach .
all we know of the characters are mostly explained by their lines alone .
this is unsatisfactory when so much of the turmoil experienced by the two stem from their buried thoughts and emotions .
the sketchy handling of their relationship stands out as sorely as dafoe 's american accent ( an inappropriate one since heyst spent most of his life in london ) .
the other characters such as schomberg ( jean yanne ) , the owner of a hotel , and mr jones ( sam neill ) , also fall short of conrad 's meticulous characterization .
while schomberg should have been more menacing and vindictive , mr jones should have been portrayed as something more of an enigma .
sam neil 's caricature of a slightly stout , effeminate and soft - spoken gentleman - at - large nullifies the effect intended by conrad who describes mr jones as " an insolent spectre on leave from hades , endowed with skin and bones and a subtle power of terror " .
poor characterization aside
, kudos goes to rufus sewell for his excellent portrayal of ricardo , secretary to mr jones , a reckless ruffian capable of murder .
sewell , with his cockney accent and large expressive green eyes , becomes the true terror of the unholy trinity , masterminding deceitful plans behind jones ' back .
at the same time , we are entertained by the foolhardiness of his plans .
despite the authentic setting and marvellous cinematography by bruno de keyzer ,
very few images are left behind for us to savour after the film has ended
. sourabaya and its surrounding islands and volcanoes may have their charm , but mean nothing once the film fails to capture the essence of an epic , which is what victory deserves to be .
the delicately inter - woven complexities in the love story are lost to an inadequate production .
at the end of the film , we are told that perhaps alma 's victory was in teaching heyst how to love .
a hollow victory indeed .
the flying inkpot 's rating system :
* wait for the video .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .
N

jean - claude van damme movies tend to be , if nothing else , a lot of mindless fun .
his latest film , " knock off , " skips on the fun part leaving a wildly incoherent exercise that is , well , simply mindless .
you ca n't really blame van damme .
no one , i suspect , has ever expected " the muscles from brussels " to contribute a heartfelt performance brimming with introspection and delicate shades of gray .
and even his sidekick co - star , " saturday night live " alumnus rob " makin ' copies " schneider , does what 's expected of him , although neither appear to want the role of straight man .
no ,
the problem with the film is its direction .
the first five minutes of the film are incomprehensible . . .
and it goes downhill from there !
five hundred characters , it seems , are introduced within the first fifteen minutes .
van damme does n't land his first kick until after thirty -- too late for most action fans -- and by the time the hour mark has rolled around ,
your jaw will be on your cup holder and you 'll be wondering why you elected to spend seven dollars on this mess
.
director hark tsui , whose previous film was the van damme / dennis rodman teamed " double team , " films at such a frenetic pace that it 's hard to know what 's going on
, who 's on whose side , and what the point of all this is .
faster than you can yell " fruit stand !
"
we 're watching a crazed rickshaw race with schneider being bounced along by an energetic van damme .
when schneider starts whacking van damme in the behind with a four - foot eel while enthusing " move your beautiful big ass , " the movie takes an unprecedented turn to the bizarre .
every now and again " knock off " will deliver some truly ingenious directorial flourishes -- inventive camera shots and angles , wild rides down gun silencers and from the tops of buildings to the sprawling street below , revealing cut - ins within the frame -- but they all happen too quickly , and within such a furious frame of reference , that they 're wasted . if only hark could have slowed things down just for a minute . if you 're interested in the plot , you 're better off reading a capsule review than trying to extract any meaning from the on - screen shenanigans : " jean - claude van damme plays a shady bluejeans manufacturer who uncovers a russian mafia plot to terrorize the world with " nanobombs " hidden in cabbage patch knock - offs .
maybe .
with paul sorvino .
"
a more accurate summary would be " jean - claude van damme bums around hong kong failing to avoid large , blatant coca - cola product placements .
"
the fact that the film is staged during hong kong 's last days under british rule gets some lip service but does n't figure in at all .
perhaps " knock off " 's most intriguing credit is that ron and russell mael composed the frenzied music score .
some of you might remember the mael brothers as the ' 80s synth pop duo sparks ; their contributions here are as confused as the accompanying action-- " kimono my house " indeed !
like the cheap jeans and " pumma " sneakers manufactured in hong kong , van damme 's latest is a real phony .
N

the soldiers of three kings have taken their cue from movies about vietnam .
( fitting , since the media - saturated gulf war became a pop entertainment . )
while driving through a long , flat iraqi desert ( in a humvee with a bart simpson hood ornament ) , one of the men under special forces sgt .
maj .
archie gates ' ( who 's steering )
command requests a beach boys tune .
these men want their apocalypse now moment , only instead of surfing , they bop to the music and skeet
shoot out the back of the vehicle , armed with automatic rifles .
our three kings ( okay , four ) are good fighters , but they do n't necessarily take operation desert storm seriously - it 's a reprieve from their hellish day jobs .
they are gates , new father sgt .
troy barlow ( wahlberg ) , sgt .
chief elgin ( cube ) , and pvt .
conrad vig ( music video director jonze ) .
at story 's start , president bush has declared a ceasefire , and american troops are tying up loose ends .
barlow , elgin , and vig discover during a round up of iraqi captives an " ass - map " that points to a bunker filled with gold bullion .
gates leaves his jurisdiction to commandeer the situation ; he proposes - demands - that barlow , elgin , and vig join him on a treasure hunt .
ditching his escort , a relentless reporter named adriana cruz ( nora dunn ) , is easy .
so is finding the treasure , until the four men realize the magnitude of discord still breathing in iraq : saddam 's men are threatening the dictator 's detractors ( citizens of his own country ) with violence .
when gates and company arrive at the bunker with a stolen truck , ready to loot , the unarmed rebels want help .
( bush encouraged them to rise up against the government , but provided no military support for such cause . )
gates convinces the vault 's guards that this is a post - war mission , and even accepts their assistance in loading the truck .
the situation could go off without a hitch : the former enemies bear no grudges .
but the money hungry gates has a conscience , and when one female bystander is shot by a sadistic grunt before these americans have left the scene , he orders barlow , elgin and vig to open fire on the surrounding arab forces .
the result : barlow is kidnapped , and the filmmakers imply that these would - be kings are seeing more action than they ever did during wartime .
barlow is eventually locked in a dank room and wired up to a shocking device .
his interrogator lost his family to the bombs , and he wants barlow to imagine the demise of his own wife and child .
( he does , in chilling , lasting images . )
i liked these scenes best , because the political became personal .
it 's one thing to champion the plight of thousands ; it 's another to see a ceiling cave in atop a baby in a crib .
russell has shocked us before : his first film , spanking the monkey , is about a young man 's affair with his bedridden mother .
( it 's great . )
his second , flirting with disaster , features a character who has an armpit fetish .
one could argue that it 's easier to make an audience react to such sexual deviance than explosions , though ; russell disturbs us in three kings by being no - nonsense about the violence .
when barlow conjures the detonation of his suburban home , russell mutes
the sound - we're paying attention to the debris instead of thx bombast .
three kings is russell 's first visually arresting picture .
stylistically , it stands apart from other war dramas .
newton thomas sigel 's cinematography of the exteriors is overexposed and extremely grainy , which is , of course , entirely appropriate .
one practically breaks out in sweat staring at the screen .
( a friend enthusiastically added , " it 's like having sand in your eyes . " ) this also helps to blur the fact that the actual locations are far removed from the persian gulf facade .
( three kings was shot in arizona , california , and mexico . )
russell throws plenty at sigel 's camera for it to observe -
as was the case with russell 's previous efforts , the most absurd moments are also the film 's most realistic , even the most poignant .
( we watch a bullet puncture an organ from the inside . ) if anything , three kings settles down and stops surprising us .
its climax is pure hollywood , no doubt the answer to why a major studio felt comfortable getting into bed with the indie - minded russell .
subsequently , the characters become more cartoonish - barlow 's post - torture revelry felt phony , and chief , a strong presence in the first third , fails to escape the god - fearing - ultra - serious - anti - racist - black - man - of - power clich ?
-so much for cube avoiding token status .
( the arab players , on the other hand , duck stereotype . )
clooney , too , transforms into a blandly heroic protestor - marching with the rebels , i waited for him to shout , " let my people go !
"
hayseed vig notwithstanding , the protagonists are very intelligent , and self - serving , too ; i had a glimmer of hope , based on russell 's filmography , that our antiheroes would revert to their greedy selves at some juncture .
( it 's not spoiling much to write that . )
then again , what historical importance would such nastiness serve ?
( there 's already enough cynicism in the film 's mentioning of kuwait 's oil - infested waters . )
russell offers the masses a primer on the oft - dismissed gulf conflict , and pulled off a neat trick : a war tale full of battles that takes place after a truce has been declared .
if he set out to make something socially / culturally / politically / globally significant , he succeeded . with flair .

P