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

[Q]: it 's probably inevitable that the popular virtual reality genre ( " the matrix , " " existenz " ) would collide with the even more popular serial - killer genre ( " kiss the girls , " " se7en " ) .
the result should have been more interesting than " the cell .
"
as the movie opens , therapist catharine deane ( jennifer lopez ) treats a catatonic boy ( colton james ) by entering his mind through some sort of virtual reality technique that 's never fully explained .
after months of therapy sessions in a surreal desert , catharine has no success to report .
meanwhile , killer carl stargher ( vincent d'onofrio ) has claimed another victim .
his particular hobby is to kidnap young women , keep them in a glass cell overnight , and drown them .
he takes the corpse and soaks it in bleach , then suspends himself over the body and jerks off while watching a video tape of the drowning .
although carl 's been doing this for awhile , he 's recently become sloppy , and fbi agent peter novak ( vince vaughn ) is closing in fast .
not fast enough , though , to keep carl from sticking another woman ( tara subkoff ) in the cell or to catch him before he suffers a schizophrenic attack that leaves him in a coma .
from the videos in carl 's house , peter can see that the drowning cell is automated and will fill with water forty hours after the abduction .
to save the kidnapped girl , peter has to find the cell before the end of the day , and comatose carl 's not talking .
so off they go to catharine in the hope that she can go inside carl 's mind and find out where the cell is in time .
the focus of " the cell " in on the ornate interior of carl 's mind , but the universe director tarsem singh creates seems more an exercise in computer - generated spectacle than an exploration of the psychotic personality .
for the most part , it 's style without substance .
in his own mind , carl is a decadent emperor in flowing robes , ming the merciless , as well as a frightened boy ( jake thomas ) abused by his father .
all in all , the mind of a psycho killer turns out to be a strangely dull place , and i kept wishing i could fast - forward to the next development .
singh is best known for directing music videos , particularly rem 's " losing my religion , " and " the cell " seems very much like a really long , really slow mtv video with the sound deleted .
singer lopez seems to think she 's in a video as well ; she devotes more time to posing in elaborate costumes than she does to acting .
the premise had great promise .
the computer - generated world within carl 's mind could have been a bizarre , surreal universe governed by insanity and symbolism rather than logic .
the first room catharine enters in carl 's head shows this promise .
she finds a horse standing in center of the room ; suddenly , sheets of sharp - edged glass fall into the horse , dividing it into segments .
the panes of glass separate , pulling apart the pieces of the still - living horse .
this scene is twisted , disturbing , and thought - provoking , because the psychological importance of the horse and its fate is left to the viewer to ponder .
another element that should have been developed is the effect on catharine of merging with the mind of a psychopath .
their minds begin to bleed together at one point in the movie , and this should have provided an opportunity to discover the dark corners of catharine 's own psyche .
like sidney lumet 's " the offence " or michael mann 's " manhunter , " " the cell " could have explored how the madness of the killer brings out a repressed darkness in the investigator .
however , catharine 's character is hardly developed at all , and lopez has no depth to offer the role .
bottom line : do n't get trapped in this one .
[A]: N


[Q]: while watching boiler room , i was constantly reminded of last year 's masterpiece fight club .
both films consist of a predominately male cast .
both films follow young men as they illicitly fight the traditional system for their own desires .
and both films are seen through the eyes of one narrator , who eventually realizes that these men have to be stopped .
while boiler room writer / director ben younger does not get his point across as well as david fincher does for fight club , he does contribute another impressive work to a series of films aiming to represent the new generation .
a generation which has seen the internet prosper and where everyone wants to be a millionaire .
paying homage to oliver stone 's 1987 classic wall street , younger is almost modernizing the tale by using younger , hipper actors to play the greedy villains as opposed to the older , more experienced types .
as is true in real life , younger minds are becoming richer and richer from their knowledge of more standard technology .
boiler room dismisses the notion of ingenuity and shows that greed and desire for power come in all ages .
another similarity with fight club is that both films are not action flicks .
some people are convinced that an all - male cast automatically means there must be gory violence , here is proof that this is not true . if you want to see an action movie starring ben affleck , go see reindeer games this weekend . if you want to see a smart , insightful film with excellent acting and a clever script , see boiler room .
giovanni ribisi gives an outstanding performance as the film 's narrator , seth .
after dropping out of college and running a lucrative gambling center for college students in his apartment , seth is offered a high paying job by a wealthy man ( nicky katt ) .
he agrees to take the job ( in which you are guaranteed to become a millionaire within three years ) of selling stock to well - off americans from the mid - west over the telephone and begins to fit in quite well with his co - workers .
learning tricky techniques to deceive innocent people into buying shares of a good in production , seth figures this is too good to be true .
after stumbling into a room at the wrong time , he knows there is something no good about this company .
at this point , seth is left with the ultimate choice ; continue with the american dream and make millions or tell the authorities that something fishy is going on .
ribisi is believable as seth especially when he shares scenes with ron rifkin , playing seth 's dad .
the two have perfect chemistry as a troubled father and son trying to impress each other and simultaneously impress themselves .
the transitions from anger to sympathy that these scenes contain
are the standout segments of the entire film .
the supporting cast of greedy co - workers is also flawless .
ben affleck shines in a short but sweet performance as a recruiter for the company , nicky katt is fabulous
as the ostensibly friendly boss who eventually becomes extremely jealous of seth , and vin diesel gives his best performance of his career as the foil character of nicky katt .
the energy of the cast as a whole makes boiler room
well paced and never boring .
the only major error in the film is that nothing major happens .
there is no big plot twist or climatic point to make the film more memorable .
due to the lack of a major event , boiler room never finds a suitable genre to fit into .
the movie is not intense enough to be a thriller , the romantic segments involving seth and abby ( nia long ) are not properly finalized , and the dialogue is n't funny enough to make it a comedy .
in having trouble to characterize the movie as a whole , boiler room is slightly confused at times .
it does n't seem to know which category to fit itself into .
one satisfying concluding scene could have changed the whole film for the better .
otherwise , the movie is fun to watch thanks to its lively cast of young actors .
[A]: P


[Q]: annie wilson ( cate blanchett ) , a widow who struggles to raise her children in a small town in georgia is asked for help by local authorities in solving the case of a missing woman .
annie is something of a psychic
, she has involuntary bouts with the supernatural where she can see the past and the future and physically feel the actions happenning to her she envisions .
her " gift " leads to the arrest of a nasty wife beater who may or may not have killed the pretty rich girl found in the swamp on his property .
in an ultra conservative backwoods town will her testimony based on her psychic visions hold up in court ?
do they even have the right man ?
what 's good about it : aside from keanu reeves giving one of the best performances of his career as the loathable redneck donnie barksdale , there is little else going for the film .
what 's not so good about it :
lame , unoriginal screenplay .
predictable ending .
suspense scenes that are just plain boring .
ridicously trite characterization makes the entire south out to be ingnorant , hateful goobers .
relentless in its emotional sensationaliztion .
overall critique :
" the gift " is one of those movies that makes you wonder where you 've seen this story before .
it 's a collection of every cliche and stereotype of the south ever made , and coming from a yankee like me who dislikes the south that 's really saying something .
for an established , talented director sam raimi is unable to provide any kind of originality to this film .
it 's predictable from the first scene , the screenplay is written like a rip - off of a photocopied bootlegged play .
you know that as nasty as the murder suspect is he did n't actually do it .
it 's no surprise either who the real villain turns out to be and what their motive was
.
sigh , how trite . for a supernatural thriller
this is neither scary nor intense because it 's so cliche .
"
the gift " is basically a glorified b - movie .
[A]:
N