instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
kevin smith is like a big kid .
his humor is that of a sophisticated juvenile 's .
he grew up idolizing star wars and loves comic books , having also written a few .
he also has a cult following , mostly composed of teenagers , college students , and smith 's own fellow adolescent - minded grownups .
smith is hilarious in person and in writing , but when he tries to be earnest and moralize , that is when he goes wrong .
kevin smith is a better writer than director , and he 'll be the first to tell you that .
that might also be part of the reason why his moralizing comes across as so heavy - handed .
great directors show us their theses instead of having the characters sermonize them .
this was true in the overrated chasing amy , and it is true for dogma as well .
that is not to say smith 's message is a bad one .
in dogma , smith tells us that problems arise when people believe beyond any doubt that their insight into god and god 's desires is superior to anyone else 's .
basically , dogmatism is bad .
changing the minds of the dogmatic is virtually impossible , and since the dogmatic believe that they have special insight , they also know what is best for you , whether you like it or not .
this is not exactly a new message in movies ( see inherit the wind ) , but i have no problems with recycling old ones , particularly since dogma 's protesters are proving smith 's point .
smith 's own problem with delivering this message is that he beats us over the head with it like we are reading a dogma for dummies book .
but this is smith 's personality , and his simplistic views neglect such adult issues as how does one interpret the bible ( or koran , etc . ) correctly ( or if there even is a correctly ) and how one settles disputes of heretofore dogmatic concerns .
the story concerns abortion clinic worker bethany ( linda fiorentino ) being chosen by voice of god , metatron ( alan rickman ) , to prevent the destruction of the universe by two fallen angels , bartleby ( ben affleck ) and angel of death , loki ( matt damon ) .
along the way , forgotten thirteenth apostle , rufus ( chris rock ) , stripper muse serendipity ( salma hayek ) , and slacker duo jay and silent bob ( jason mewes and kevin
smith himself ) come to bethany 's aid .
fallen muse , azrael ( jason lee ) , proves to be the behind - the - scenes manipulator for all the chicanery .
the logical but convoluted plot only exists as an excuse for the jokes and to make smith 's points , and in itself , has little dramatic momentum .
among the supposedly outrageous claims made by the film is that god is a woman , jesus was black , and the bible was written by a bunch of racist , misogynistic white men .
of course , kevin smith does not necessarily subscribe to these ideas himself .
they are a metaphor for the fears and insecurities of the dogmatic .
smith says as much in his amusing disclaimer that precedes the movie .
when harvey weinstein asked smith to put it into the film before cannes , smith thought it might give validation to protesters ' claims that the film was sacrilegious , but then he rethought it and turned the disclaimer into a joke .
the film 's humor is uneven .
some parts are very funny
as when bethany goes for a fire extinguisher when metatron makes a burning - bush kind of entrance .
but many of the film 's jokes just bomb , as in virtually anything involving salma hayek 's serendipity .
also , some of the jokes can be seen coming from a mile away .
still , smith keeps the zingers coming at a sufficiently rapid pace . among the actors , fiorentino and rickman stand out by far .
fiorentino virtually by herself gives the film emotional weight .
damon and affleck are fairly lackluster .
rock and hayek exist in the film pretty much only as comic relief as are mews and smith .
but the latter duo fare much better because jay and silent bob , who recur in all of smith 's movies , are much more in line with smith 's brand of humor .
bud cort , george carlin , janeane garofalo , guinevere turner , and alanis morissette all make cameo appearances .
answer:
P


question:
meet joe black ( reviewed on nov .
27/98 )
starring brad pitt , anthony hopkins , claire forlani in " meet joe black " , brad pitt plays death .
that 's all that really needs to be said , but nevertheless , i will provide the three of you that have seemingly been living in a cave with a plot description .
death decides to take a holiday , what with all the rigors of soul - collecting and all , and forces anthony hopkins into showing him what it 's like to be human .
death assumes the body of brad pitt , and from there , much trouble ensues .
for one thing , death - as - pitt falls in love with hopkins daughter , played by claire forlani .
obviously this enrages hopkins , because really , what can death offer ?
besides eternal damnation , of course .
there is also a sub - plot about forlani 's ex - boyfriend ( she dumps him for pitt ) trying to take over hopkins company .
" meet joe black " runs just under three hours .
i 've always thought that such obscene running times should be limited to historical epics .
" meet joe black " is neither historical nor is it an epic , though i get the feeling martin brest ( the director )
desperately wants it to be .
every single scene in the movie goes on about 3 - 4 minutes too long .
and the ending takes about 20 minutes longer than it really should .
a severe editing job could have made this movie excellent , instead of just good , which is what it is .
pitt , an actor i normally loathe , is actually quite engaging as death .
i believed his performance , and i could see why forlani 's character would fall in love with him .
i have to agree with roger ebert , though , who found it hard to believe that an entity that 's been around for all time would n't know what peanut butter was .
that has nothing to do with pitt 's performance , of course , but it is a little distracting .
hopkins gives his usual excellent performance .
he 's able to portray the angst of a man who knows he has very little time left , without making him an obnoxious whiner .
and in her first major studio role , claire forlani is surprisingly good .
she has a sweet tenderness that allows the audience to instantly root for her .
so , " meet joe black " is
a good movie hampered by it 's ridiculous running time .
had the film been cut by an hour or so , i have no doubt that i would be calling it one of the best movies of the year in this review .
answer:
P


question:
the andromeda strain is the greatest science fiction film ever made
.
i know that is very sweeping statement , so i 'll qualify it by adding that the andromeda strain is one of the few films made that genuinely deserve the label of " science fiction , " stories in which speculative science is at the core of the plot .
2001 : a space odyssey is probably a better film , but it really only qualifies as science fiction if you consider metaphysics to be a science .
most all other films we normally classify as science fiction , or sf , are really just fantasy , action or horror stories set in a futuristic setting .
the andromeda strain starts out with two soldiers in a high - tech ( for 1970 ) van looking for a crashed satellite in a tiny new mexico town .
something bad happens to them .
pictures from a reconnaissance plane show a shocking sight .
apparently everyone in the town is dead .
the authorities call a " wildfire alert , " summoning four scientists , all but one of them somewhat reluctant , to a super - secret underground germ warfare laboratory in nevada .
two of scientists , stone and hall , fly directly to the town in space suits and find a town where almost every single resident literally dropped in their tracks , their blood turned to powder in their veins .
some went insane before they died and two of them , a baby and an old wino , are miraculously still alive .
they take the survivors and the satellite back to the lab , where stone pressures the white house to call up a " directive 712 , " an executive order to cauterize the area around the town with a nuclear bomb .
what they find on the satellite when they get back to the lab is andromeda , an organism that defies all the normal rules of earth - like life and mutates as it grows .
their only hope to cure it is to find out what a perfectly healthy baby boy has in common with an old derelict .
what they find out is that organism feeds directly on energy and that detonating the a - bomb over the town would only spread it across the entire planet .
they barely call off the bombing in time .
but then the organism mutates into something that threatens to eat through the labs defenses and break out .
this triggers the lab 's last - ditch defense mechanism , an atomic bomb .
to those raised on the brainless action fare that pollutes movie theaters these days , the andromeda strain will probably seem interminably slow .
much of the film is a lot of people standing around looking at video screens and computer readouts .
but what the characters see on those screens ratchets up the tension with every turn of the screw .
the performances are universally fine , with the actors keeping things low - key and restrained , just like scientists .
to me , the real appeal of this film is the fact that it shows scientists acting like scientists and
makes it seem exciting .
we follow the logic of their deduction step by methodical step , puzzling like they do every time andromeda behaves in a way we do n't expect .
this film is only available on wide screen on dvd and that is the way to see it .
it was originally rated g when first released but it now carries the pg rating , mostly for very mild nudity and one scene in which a body 's wrist is slashed , spilling its powdered blood .
answer:

P