TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: porter stoddard ( warren beatty ) is a successful architect married to successful fabric designer ellie ( diane keaton ) for twenty - five years .
they and best friends mona ( goldie hawn ) and griffin ( garry shandling ) are about to face marital crises in a film most well known for its torturous path to the screen , " town and country .
" " town and country " has a pedigree befitting it 's title with an all star cast photographed by oscar nominated cinematographer william fraker and mouthing the words of screenwriter buck henry ( " the graduate " ) under the direction of peter chelsom ( " funny bones " ) .
after years of reports of budget overruns and reshoots and the racking up twelve different release dates , the media has been prepped for beatty 's next " ishtar .
"
so , is it that bad ?
the answer is no .
but it 's not very good either .
the major problem with " town and country " is that it 's unstructured and random .
stoddard is immediately established as a philanderer , having just bedded a flaky cellist ( nastassja kinski ) .
next scene finds him and ellie celebrating their anniversary in paris with mona and griffin .
then mona spies griffin hustling a redhead into a motel and begins divorce proceedings ( buck henry cameos as both couples ' divorce lawyer ) .
ellie thinks she 's overeacting , but sends porter to support mona on a trip to check out her family 's mississippi manse .
the two childhood friends end up in bed together , making us wonder why they 'd never become a couple to begin with . back home , their second coupling is interrupted by ellie bursting in to tell mona
she thinks porter 's cheating on her .
porter goes off on a trip with griffin to sun valley , idaho to have more comic misadventures with wacky women as griffin attempts to tell him that he 's gay .
the four friends , along with every woman porter 's dallied with , all end up back in new york city somewhat happily ever after .
although the film begins promisingly , resembling a woody allen take on new york city wasps , too many strands drift off into nowhere .
the stoddard household is huge , containing two adult children ( josh hartnett , " the virgin suicides " and tricia vessey , " kiss the girls " ) , their colorful bedmates and a maid who 's just imported her shirtless boyfriend from the rainforest back home .
after an amusing early scene that has porter overhearing three bouts of lovemaking while in search of a nocturnal snack , the six supporting players are dropped except for an out - of - nowhere appearance by the formerly forgotten son .
porter 's romantic misadventures with women ( other than mona ) are equally mishandled .
once the marital discord begins , the film seems as if it was editted with a machete , stopping and starting , never regaining its rhythm .
while beatty gets off a few tart observations , his character is mostly passive and bemused .
maybe we 're supposed to feel sympathy for an adulterer who does n't initiate his own sex romps ?
keaton 's ellie has a trusting nature that 's a result of her own self involvement resulting in an unlikeable character .
hawn smartly recycles her mature sex kitten wives of " the out of towners " and " the first wives ' club " while shandling 's relegated to true second banana status .
kinski is bland and unmotivated .
andie macdowell takes a weirdly unappealing role and does what she can with the screenplay 's most bizarre subplot , which finds charlton heston as her rifle toting , billionaire daddy and marian seldes as her alcoholic , wheelchair - bound , foul - mouthed mother .
heston and seldes are fun , as is jenna elfman as a sun valley bait and tackle salesgirl who brings porter and griffin to a halloween party .
oscar nominatored cinematographer william fraker gives the film a nice look , but director chelsom shows none of the quirkily and blackly humorous depth
he brought to films like " hear my song " and " funny bones .
"
the script is this film 's weakest link - it 's telling that most of the ( few ) laughs come from old - fashioned physical slapstick and the sight of beatty in a bear suit .
while " town and country " is n't exactly painful to sit through , it mostly just lays there .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: in the line of duty is the critically praised series of television movies dealing with the real - life incidents that claimed lives of law enforcement officers in usa .
the twilight murders , another one from the series , is dealing with the case of gordon kahl ( played by rod steiger ) , old farmer from north dakota who would rather spend a year in prison than pay taxes to the despised u .
s .
government .
after being released , he still refuses to pay taxes and the warrant is issued for his arrest .
when the u . s .
marshals come to arrest him , it turns out that kahl is n't alone .
many poor farmers in rural northwest share his extremist anti - government beliefs , and the routine operation turns into shootout that would leave federal officers that .
that brings fbi on the scene , and agent mayberly ( michael gross ) is supervising the manhunt .
however , his efforts seem fruitless , since kahl still has many supporters , some of them even in the local law enforcement .
after betrayed , 1988 thriller by costa gavras , hollywood mostly ignored the disturbing trends of rising right - wing extremism in the american northwest , and that remained so until oklahoma city bombing , when media hype brought right - wingers back into spotlight .
until that time , only the television movies like this one bothered to pay attention to that phenomenon .
unfortunately , the twilight murders is still routine and formulaic television film , that uses sensationalist real life content in order to cover lack of originality in the script .
sometimes , like many american tv movies , it creates drama where drama should n't be
.
on the other hand , film is steadily directed by dick lowry , and rod steiger does good job potraying gordon kahl .
on the other hand , michael gross as his pursuer is quite wooden and his interaction with some of the actors is terrible .
however , film does deal with potentially thought - provoking social and political issues , so hour and half spent in front of the screen should n't be the total waste of time .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: these days , we are witnessing the deluge of films based on old , cult tv shows .
most of the times , the fans of these shows shudder thinking what could hollywood hacks of the present do with the memories of their past .
but , some five or six years ago , there were n't that many movies and the trend did n't look that depressing .
so , the people who , like the author of this review , grew up watching flintstones , popular 1960s animated series about " modern stone age " family , were n't particularly worried when the word came about live action remake .
after all , the producer behind the project was steven spielberg and , if anything else , at least the special effects would be good .
the plot revolves about flintstones , family set in fictious stone age " town " of bedrock , whose members enjoy the lifestyle of 1950s middle class america .
fred flinstone ( john goodman ) works in the quarry , and one day he helps his best friend and neighbour barney rubble ( rick moranis ) and his wife betty ( rosie o'donnell ) to adopt a baby .
to return the favour , barney switches his results of aptitude test with fred , and , based on that , fred gets well - paid job in management .
but , of course , this is just a sham - corrupt official cliff vandercave ( kyle maclachlan ) and his sultry secretary sharon stone ( halle berry ) need a scapegoat for their embezzlement scheme .
in the meantime , fred 's wife wilma ( elizabeth perkins ) must face her mother ( elizabeth taylor ) who ca n't stand fred .
on the superficial level , the flintstones did the excellent job in bringing the animated series to life .
computer effects are flawless , and the costumes , settings and other details are authentic for all the fans of the show .
unfortunately , problems with this film start with inadequate casting - rick moranis is too thin for the role of barney , while the cartoon betty used to be much skinnier than rosie o'donnell .
but the greatest problem of all is plot , or to be precise , the lack of plot .
some thirty six screenwriters made sure that the plot of the film is lame , original characters one - dimensional , and many elements of the story , like embezzlement and inter - office politics , totally incomprehensible for the little children , the main targeted audience of this film .
result is almost unwatchable mess , occasionally saved mostly by excellent acting ( elizabeth perkins was right on mark as wilma ) and one of the classic example of mortal hollywood disease known as " high concept " .
after great hype , movie quickly sank into oblivion and the fans of the show returned to the animated version .
all in all , film is n't that bad , but only the hard core fans and nostalgics can find more than guilty pleasure in it .

SOLUTION:
N