TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: one of the 90s ' most unwelcome thriller trends returns from the grave : it 's the " _ _ _ from hell " movie !
starting in the early nineties , we were subjected to nearly every conceivable combination of relationships - from - hell !
there were boyfriends from hell , friendly neighborhood cops from hell , nannies from hell , and even secretaries from hell .
but hush has found an old standby that somehow was forgotten in the rush : the mother - in - law from hell ! ! ! ! !
the mother - in - law in question is martha , played by jessica lange .
she has been single - handedly running the family horse farm , kilronan .
her son , jackson ( johnathon schaech ) and his girlfriend , helen ( gwyneth paltrow ) , live in new york , and have no intention to move back down south to the rural kilronan .
but those intentions are about to change .
you see , martha lives by manipulation .
she has used it in years past to breed many championship horses .
now , she believes she can use it to breed herself a grandson .
though at first , helen finds martha charming , soon she is caught in the domineering martha 's web of deception .
it 's hard to understand why nobody ever wises up to martha ' schemes .
as written , most of the characters in the film must be very slow witted .
but then , the film even treats the audience like idiots .
it tries to get away with things ( like leaving a critical piece of evidence in a rather unlikely place ) without even batting an eye .
then again an audience which accepts characters as shallow as these is n't one that 's likely to question details .
jessica lange 's martha is the only semi - developed character in the film , and she applies her talents to redeem it as much as she can .
a character that could have been simply awful is merely groan - worthy .
gwyneth paltrow does n't have much to build upon , as helen 's only character trait seems to be " daughter - in - law " .
still , she fares better than johnathon schaech , whose character is so nonexistent , he 's inexplicably missing for much of the film .
still , there have been much worse
" _ _ _
_ from hell " films .
even with its paper - thin characters and ludicrous setups , hush manages to create a few thrills in a color - by - numbers fashion .
you know what 's coming , but occasionally the film will deliver a shock or two .
the old formulas are around for a reason , but that does n't mean they taste fresh .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: is jimmy stewart the greatest actor of all - time ?
it 's quite possible .
his career spanned over 40 years , and he acted in more movies than most actors ever could .
yet , when he is talked about in the media , he is generally thought of as an actor who played one type of role : the nice guy .
and that 's really a shame .
"
the naked spur " features jimmy stewart in a role completely different than what people would expect from him .
it 's a western , which stewart specialized in around this period , and it casts him as a desperate man out to collect a bounty on a man who used to be his friend .
before he finds that man , though , he runs into two men who agree to help him , thinking he is a sheriff .
when the criminal is eventually caught , the two men discover stewart 's secret , and decide they want a piece of the action too .
the rest of the film is a suspenseful journey in which each man suspects the other constantly .
also featured is the woman travelling with the criminal , well played by janet leigh .
we 're never too sure who 's side
she 's really on until the end .
leigh is an actress probably best known for her role as the " shower lady " from " psycho " , and that 's unfair .
she gives a strong performance as a woman who is pulled between these two men .
stewart gives a performance unlike anything i 've ever seen from him .
he usually keeps cool no matter what occurs , but here , he gets downright hysterical at times .
i think perhaps he took this role to prove to the public that he was more than just a " nice guy " .
his performance borders on psychotic at times , but
i loved watching every second of it .
it 's roles like this one that make me admire him as much as i do .
he was an actor unafraid to take chances , and even ruin his public image .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: there 's a good , and timely , story trapped deep within the excess of murder in the first , a new movie about the abuses of our prison system .
with a country wrapped up in feverish debate over the crime issue and the rights of the accused and the incarcerated in jeopardy , this expose would offer something rare to recent american movies -- a point of view .
but director marc rocco makes it clear from the beginning
that pretentious , often nauseating , camera movements and slick , mtv- style lighting and editing are far more important .
there 's not a moment in the picture where he surrenders technique for pure storytelling .
and everything suffers .
christian slater and kevin bacon star as defense attorney and alcatraz inmate , respectively .
after spending an unprecedented amount of time in an isolated cell for attempting to escape , bacon murders another prisoner and faces trial .
his young lawyer ( slater ) is fresh out of law school but determined to " put alcatraz on trial " for the abuses of it warden ( gary oldman ) .
the result is the usual courtroom theatrics- imagine a stanley kramer production shot by hyperactive film school students .
there 's very little to praise here outside of kevin bacon 's earnest overacting and the appropriate story .
there 's a lot of overacting from everyone -- you know
you 're in trouble right away
when r .
lee ermey ( the drill sergeant in full metal jacket ) is cast as a judge , the center of reason and moderation .
slater has never been convincing and certainly is n't here
and oldman is on a bad streak of hammy performances .
but the worst feeling you get while watching murder in the first is that the man behind the camera could care less about telling a good story .
there are long exchanges of dialogue where the camera is not even moving near the characters , let alone with them .
how frustrating it must be for actors to work under these conditions .
if there 's anything that has alway distinguished american films over the rest of the world , it is our ability to tell a good story .
have we forgotten ?

SOLUTION:
N