instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
be warned . .
brit love story in the offing .
effeminate , mild - mannered karl is about to take a beatng from a bunch of ruffians at school as he bathes himself under a shower , his genitals tucked between his legs in the manner of a posing transvestite .
he is only just saved by prentice , who appears in all respects barring his protective attitude towards karl to be your average street - wise punk - in - the - making .
the ensuing scene ends up with both boys being ridiculed and then unfairly expelled from the school .
they do not see each other for another eighteen yeas .
in that time , prentice has matured into a somewhat loveable , if brash and bull - heaed goon who screws up his jobs and relationships while gamely clinging onto perennial adolescence via lether jackets , motorcycles and punk rock music .
karl
, on the other hand , has grown up to become kim , a drabby , insecure woman who works as a verse writer for a greeting card company .
chance brings the two together , and love , such as will inevitably blossom in your quirky british romantic comedy , is what this skewed little story is largely about .
if at this point you think you 're going to get any cheap laughs with that gender - bending theme ( see the birdcage , to wong foo .
. .
, priscilla queen of the desert ) ,
you can just go home and brood on your own maladjusted sexuality you low - life deadbeat .
kim is a post - operative transsexual , thank you very much . . .
a new - born woman for all purposes , with confusions and sensitivities that deserve treatment with a touch of delicacy .
personally , give me those cheap laughs any day .
i 'd rather enjoy obvious camp than endure the shallow exploration of a soft- hearted transsexual love story .
different for girls comes up with a promising enough proposition , but does nothing that surpasses the merely workmanlike with it .
by refusing to make the audience really uncomfortable with the notion of kim and prentice 's relation- ship , or at the very least feel uncomfortable for them ( prentice for example , does n't seem to give hiself all that much grief when he becomes attracted to kim despite being a fight - picking , beer - drinking , macho kind of guy , and kim , for all her insecurities and fears is always saved any truly disturbing victimisation in the film ) , and instead drawing them into a basically wimpy love story , the film manages to lobotomise itself .
lightweight comedy as it 's doomed to be , it could 've still have hacked it with the requisitive endearing couple .
but this does n't either , since even mrs doubtfire is sexier than steven mackintosh 's kim foyle , and as either sex , he 's just plainly a simpering wanker
nobody should like .
prentice does though , and that 's never explained .
but then rupert graves gives us so heroic performance as prentice , the guy who never grew up ( and
if there is a bafta prize for most convincing portrayal of a rabid fan at a buzzcocks ' concert , he should win that too ) that i guess there 's no reason to explain why he 's so screwed up .
if oddly enough you grow to like this show
, you 'll be wanting your happy ending , and the film wo n't fail you there either .
snide underling at kim 's office gets her come - uppance .
misogynistic police officer who beats up prentice gets his come - uppance .
the couple prevail against a disagreeable society and come together in kim 's apartment .
kim 's sister and her impotent sarge - type husband kiss and make up after a tiff ( tv movie sub - plot with incidental juxtaposition ) .
and best of all , kim sheds her insecurities and learns how to ride the motorcycle and wear leathers , making prentice ride pilion .
awwww .
terrific closure .
happy ending .
but just what is it that 's differnt for girls
anyway ?
if you figure that one out , let me know .
the flying inkpot rating system :
* wait for the tv2 broadcast .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .
answer:
N


question:
way of the gun is brimming with surprises , some good , most bad .
one of the good ones is ryan phillippe 's surprisingly halfway decent performance .
after the actor gained much attention by posing and preening through teen swill like i know what you did last summer , he hinted at a bit growth in last year 's cruel intentions with his amusingly contemptuous john malkovich meets james spader performance , though his acting in that film faltered around the third act mark , precisely when the screenplay made his character grow a heart ( presumably to appeal to his training bra wearing fans ) and start bellyaching about how he 'd fallen for his " target " .
it was a dramatic shift that neither phillippe nor the film 's director could negotiate .
but he seems to be trying and that should n't be overlooked ( or probably over praised ) seeing as how , at this point , he really is n't required to do much but look pretty .
here , phillippe has procured a five day growth of beard , his hair askew and his affect altered to sound something like james cagney in all his " look here , see " glory .
it 's tough to believe a pretty boy like phillippe as a hard ass , but his performance actually helps with the illusion .
unlike ben affleck 's puppy dog approach in reindeer games , phillippe is believable and not too bad at that .
as for the plot , well , that 's one of the bad surprises ; phillippe and the great benicio del torro play two moronic ( and not even remotely likeable ) criminals ( introduced to us in the parking lot of a rave where they stupidly pick a fight with about twenty people ) who hatch a scheme to kidnap a surrogate mother ( juliette lewis ) after overhearing that she 's carrying the baby of painter ( scott wilson ) , a very well connected wealthy man .
the kidnapping devolves into a laborious shoot out where much damage is done and many are killed .
but the anti - heroes escape with the woman while an aging hit man ( james caan ) and two scheming bodyguards ( taye diggs and nicky katt ) remain in pursuit .
directed by christopher mcquarrie , the screenwriter who won an oscar for his work on usual suspects , an overrated piece of crime noir in many circles ( this one included ) , way of the gun is a hodgepodge of crime thriller motifs that just oozes eye rolling familiarity .
unlike phillipe , mcquarrie does n't seem to be growing at all ; he fills his flick with a sprawling labyrinth of plot all snatched from movies
i know i 've seen before and worse , it feels like it .
the film lacks even a fresh approach ( like what soderbergh did out of sight or the limey ) to its clich ?
s , all of which are spewed before us in a picture that tries so desperately to be hip and gritty without bothering to notice how common it is
.
it features characters living by a code they seemed to have picked up in sam peckinpah 101 rather than any thing resembling life .
even attempts at emotional weight feel strained like in preposterous scene where enemies james caan and benicio del torro stop in their tracks to have a cup of coffee and pontificate on life , philosophy , etc .
i did n't like the bit much when it first appeared in heat ,
here , it 's even more self consciously " dramatic " .
usual suspects , which also featured a bunch of low lives that seemed to live by a code they learned from the movies , worked to some degree because of that astonishing twist ending .
nowadays an astonishing twist per ending is de rigeur , never mind if it deems all that transpired before it completely inconsequential .
thus , nearly every character in way comes with at least one dirty little secret ( most amateurishly projected before they appear ) and it too has an ironic little twist at the end ( nothing earth shattering , like in the usual suspects ) but i admit , i did n't see it coming , and i smiled .
however most of the movie feels exactly like the interrogation scenes between palminteri and spacey in usual suspects : a lot of faux huffing and puffing with no rhythm or reason .
or substance .
it 's just as overplotted as suspects , and often dull as any overplotted movie without interesting characters , a distinctive style , or a good script would be .
even the good stuff , most of which involves james caan ( doing a fine job ) , feels odd and out of place in a movie that thinks lines like " karma is only justice with out the satisfaction " are clever .
at one point caan laments " need is the ultimate monkey " a line so inexplicable he might as well have said " love is like hippo ass " .
i 've seen porno with better dialogue .
and some with better plot lines too .
but rarely has porn offered up such a talented cast ( i mean , can you even compare james caan to ron jeremy ) .
caan slips into this role with seeming ease , he could do this kind of soft - spoken tough guy in a coma , but he manages to give his character depth and weariness .
benicio del torro is always welcome , though here he plays it fairly straight ( rather than another oddball character creation like the ones the actor gave us in usual suspects and excess baggage ) , adopting a brad pitt - esque quizzical pout to go along with his heavy swaggering .
speaking of pitt , his ex , juliette lewis , is a weak link , either shouting her lines with ear shattering shrillness , or waddling about like a silly goose .
nicky katt was brilliant in a brief role in the limey , here his role is just as brief only
he seems wasted ; he 's only kept around for his cold presence .
taye diggs has a similar function , cool as ever , but never a character , though the guy has one helluva death scene .
for the most part way is incessantly talky with no reason to give a hippo 's ass about any thing that transpires since its characters are never more than simplistic pawns .
it 's vaguely tarantino - ish , but in a bad truth and consequences nm way , with phillippe , in one scene , leaping into a stupid rant about " faggots " migrating to los angeles .
you know the routine .
the final shoot out is pure bargain basement john woo ( who himself seems to be doing bargain basement john woo ) with interchangeable bad guys lining up to be shot at .
but those gun shots sure crack like thunder .
just the other day i was watching an old dirty harry movie on cable and was stunned to hear the weak elephant grunt - like sound that emanated from harry 's fetishized smith and wesson .
oh how far we 've come .
answer:
N


question:
steve martin took an extended vacation from all facets of moviemaking a few years back ; he spent this time writing essays and short stories for " the new yorker , " several of which wound up in his hilarious hardback compilation , pure drivel ( 1998 ) .
much of the book spares tinseltown from mockery , although he does riff on the racist comments made by marlon brando during a larry king interview , in a fine chapter called " in search of the wily filipino .
"
now , as writer and star of bowfinger , he offers the masses plenty of good reasons not to pursue a career in the cinema , perhaps finally venting the frustrations ( ' everything being made now is crap ' ) that led to his brief retirement from hollywood .
martin stars as bobby bowfinger , a roger corman - wannabe on the cusp of fifty and desperate for some success as a producer , quality of the projects be damned .
his accountant ( adam alexi - malle ) proposes a movie called " chubby rain , " about aliens who travel to earth in raindrops slightly fatter than regular raindrops .
bowfinger latches onto the idea immediately , and convinces his troupe of actor friends to appear in the film , based on the lie that america 's top box office draw , kit ramsey ( murphy ) , has agreed to star .
ramsey , of course , wants nothing to do with such low - grade material , so bowfinger , on the thinking that action stars need to run , not speak , decides to photograph the superstar surreptitiously .
he sends his cast members ( who are n't in on it , either ; they are told ramsey hates the sight of cameras and fraternizing with his co - stars ) to ramsey 's table at restaurants , asks them to follow him in parking lots , etc . , spouting script dialogue , all the while shooting the outcome from a great distance .
the paranoid ramsey flees the scene nearly every time .
ramsey is a member of mind head , a cultish self - help organization apparently dedicated to recruiting celebrities .
( as if that 's not familiar enough , mind head guru terry stricter ( terence stamp ) has been dressed and combed to resemble l. ron hubbard , founder of scientology . ) when he goes to mind head with tales of caucasian strangers appearing from nowhere to babble " white code " in his face , they fear the nervous breakdown of an important client and rush him off to a retreat , requiring bowfinger to find a stand - in .
murphy will probably win more fans as jiff ,
ramsey 's adorable , ignoramus double , than as kit , but it is his portrayal of the latter that took courage .
always surrounded by an entourage , suffering from a racial inferiority complex , murphy plays right into the tabloid image of himself .
furthermore , consider the enemies he 'll make of popular scientologists .
pacing stricter 's neutral - coloured office as if on an amphetamine binge and stripped of his bigshot veneer , ramsey is asked to shout inane personal affirmations repeatedly .
murphy 's scenes with stamp are exactly what i imagine of a john travolta " clearing .
"
not that murphy is entirely responsible for this schtick ; bowfinger is steve martin 's invention .
his script is surprisingly clever as satire , given that the pseudo - religion is a sitting duck , as is the entire los angeles film industry .
( the griffin mill - types take quite a beating , in the form of robert downey jr . as bigwig jerry renfro . )
martin 's decision to tell the story from a bottom feeder 's point of view is what keeps it fresh and innovative - never have we seen on screen a group of people struggle this hard to complete a motion picture .
as expected , there are laughs only to be had insiders or buffs , such as martin 's crew of mexican border - jumpers , who gain unexpected appreciation for the classics from reading " cahiers du cinema , " or martin 's nonsensical explanation to dave , his loyal cinematographer ( jamie kennedy ) , that every movie , in the end , has a budget of two - thousand dollars ( ! ) .
most of bowfinger is universally funny , however ; i defy any viewer to keep a straight face when christine baranski , one of our brightest comediennes , is on screen .
bowfinger 's main flaw is a plot twist that has an insubstantial aftermath .
we 're also asked to believe that a few simple close - ups of kit ramsey would redeem " chubby rain , " z - grade entertainment that would make ed wood blush .
( this aspect of bowfinger has much in common with the ludicrous oscar sequence in oz 's last directorial effort , the poorly conceived in & out . )
these are significant enough weaknesses that they distracted from my enjoyment of the piece .
as i mentioned at the start of this review , bowfinger offers solid reasons not to do what heather graham 's character daisy does : hop a bus to hollywood in search of stardom .
that said , it offers one fantastic reason to get on that bus
: the sense of community between filmmakers who gel is awesome .
martin gets sentimental by story 's end as he did in l. a. story , and how could he not ?
for those who can hack it , the movies might be the greatest business in the world .
answer:

P