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

[EX Q]: if i were one of those arrogant critics who thinks his review has some great impact on the success or failure of certain films , i might say that i review movies that do n't look particularly good because i 'm doing a service to my readers by warning them against seeing it .
if that were true , i could put a banner at the top of my site that reads : " shay casey : seeing bad movies so you do n't have to .
"
but i know that 's bunk
- you're going to see whatever movies you want to no matter what i say .
so i have to tell the truth : every once in a while
i get a nasty , masochistic urge to see a bad movie .
you know the feeling , when you 're sick of seeing all these damn academy award contenders and you want to see something you can have a ball trashing mercilessly .
sometimes i think that 's why anyone goes to see pauly shore movies , ever .
admit it : sometimes you like seeing bad movies .
so do i .
so i saw " supernova .
"
truth be told , " supernova " was n't quite as bad as i thought it might be .
maybe i just felt sorry for the actors , or maybe i thought it could have been decent if the studio had n't started tinkering with the director 's ( walter hill ) final cut , causing him to want his name removed .
maybe i 'm becoming a softy .
in any case , i did n't find " supernova " as bad as the advance buzz would have me believe .
but it 's still bad .
the film takes place aboard the medical space vessel " nightingale .
"
the crew includes captain a .
j . marley ( robert forster ) , his new second officer nick vanzant ( james spader ) , head medical officer kaela evers ( angela bassett ) , medical technicians yerzy penalosa ( lou diamond phillips ) and danika lund ( robin tunney ) , and computer technician benj sotomejor ( wilson cruz ) .
there are some attempts at " characterization , " but all that means is that nick has a shady past involving a drug addiction , which puts kaela on edge , yerzy and danika have a relationship that requires them to make kissy - faces at each other every five minutes , and benj ( apparently gay ) is in love with the computer ( apparently female ) .
do n't expect any more explanation , because you wo n't get it .
anyway , the crew gets a distress call from a location deep in space to which a failed mining operation had been sent .
during the dimension jump ( i think that 's what it 's called , but do n't hold me to it )
, the captain is killed and the man who sent the distress signal ( peter facinelli ) is brought on board .
he calls himself troy larson , making him the supposed son of a man kaela once had a relationship with .
then a bunch of really predictable stuff starts happening .
have you seen " alien ?
" have you seen " event horizon " ( a lame movie in its own right ) ?
good .
then you 've seen " supernova .
" post - production cuts or not ,
there is nothing original about this screenplay , and nothing unpredictable either . after all , no one 's going to think for a second that troy wo n't turn out to be a villain .
but the bigger problem with " supernova " is that it can ' t just stick to the simple plot it 's afforded .
numerous re - writes ( the script may be credited to three people , but it 's a gross underestimate ) have crammed this lean 90-minute film with tons of extraneous plot threads that all remain underdeveloped
.
was there something about a limping robot shaped like a fighter pilot ?
did the ship 's computer learn something about humanity ?
what was that glowing lava lamp artifact troy brought on board with him ?
and just what does the film 's title signify , if anything ?
as far as i can tell , it refers to a very small plot detail that is n't developed , just like the rest of these unnecessary story elements .
character relationships in this film also make very little sense .
for some reason , every person in this film keeps having sex .
we get an unusually early sex scene between phillips and tunney within the first 10 minutes .
bassett and spader 's characters start off hating each other .
fifteen minutes and one bottle of pear brandy later , they 're engaging in some hanky - panky .
when troy the creepy stranger shows up on the ship , of course both female crew members will fall in love with him .
every single shift in character interaction happens extremely suddenly , which is only one of the many obvious clues to how much this film has been cut .
the most prominent example , however , may be the fact that when the film starts , there are no opening credits !
furthermore , the end of the film looks like they took what were originally intended to be the opening credits and spliced them in right before the real end credits .
maybe that 's why the film 's title is mentioned twice during the end credits , right between james spader and robert forster .
right after you get over the shock of not being told what movie you 're seeing ( lest you decide to walk out upon making that discovery ) , you might notice that the movie seems to have dropped you right in the middle of a scene , with little - to - no introduction to any of the characters or situations .
the rest of the movie feels like they skipped over the middle stuff in the character changes ( you know , where they explain things ) and just went from point
a to point b . point
a : danika is thoroughly enamored of yerzy and is ready to have his baby .
point b : tunney is now shagging troy and yerzy is unusually obsessed with the lava lamp thing .
does n't make sense .
since i did n't understand anything about these characters ' motivations , did i care when troy abruptly starts murdering them one - by - one ( and he does , knocking off three of them in about 10 minutes ) ? not a whit .
it 's a shame , because this cast contains a lot of talented actors looking for something to do .
they do n't find it .
bassett and spader
say every line in the same monotone voice with the same blank expressions on their faces . sexual tension ? more like constipation .
maybe they 're just embarrassed at having to utter such howlers as " this thing was made by someone more powerful than god and a whole lot less nice .
" not that we ever find out who that is , mind you .
the climax of their relationship ( taking place in a transport pod ) is probably the film 's biggest forehead - slapper .
as troy , peter facinelli inhabits the most obvious villain in history that no one ever suspected .
he 's awfully one - note , but it 's not as if he 's given any more notes to work with .
the rest of the cast does even less .
tunney stands around looking cute , then scared .
phillips broods .
cruz flirts with the computer .
then they all die and a star blows up or something , but i really was n't paying much attention by then .
" supernova " is pretty awful , but i 'm cutting it a little slack merely because i expected less than what i got .
that 's it .
if you expect it to be good ( for whatever reasons you may have ) , you 'll probably hate it more than i will .
even the special effects are fairly unimpressive , nothing you have n't seen before , and suffice to say the script is n't going to save the film
.
honestly , though , what do you expect from a film with about a dozen writers and a director who had his name removed and replaced with a pseudonym ?
it usually results in a bad movie , and that 's what " supernova " is .
[EX A]: N

[EX Q]: i rented this movie with very high hopes .
this movie got praise as one of the best films of 1998 , and unfortunately , was not as good as i hoped , but was still very intriguing and thought provoking .
first of all , the casting for this film is great .
tobey maguire and reese witherspoon are the future of hollywood .
they play their roles as the parker brother and sister perfectly .
with a plot as unbelievable as this film , you need chemistry and honest acting from your cast .
tobey and reese ( bud and mary sue parker ) play their roles perfectly and display their characters with honesty and believability .
william h. macy , an actor i have grown to love over the past year , turns in another great performance as the tv dad who is torn over his wife , a " colored " person and his friends , the " non - colored " ones .
he also displays believability and must display a certain lack of chemistry with his wife .
he does this perfectly and yet again shows why he should be one of the top actors in hollywood .
joan allen is equally great as betty parker ,
the ideal tv mom .
her character is the most ambitious .
she is very na ?
ve , and must display this well to make her character believable
and she does just that .
her lack of chemistry with macy , which the role calls for , and her developed chemistry with jeff daniels is terrific , and if daniels would have been as stellar as the rest of the cast , then this film would even been even better .
as said before , jeff daniels gives a bad performance .
his character displays the change going on throughout the town , yet he does not display it with enough conviction .
his character is very confusing and he is not very believable .
this film could have been elevated to a whole new level had daniels been able to give a better performance .
the movie is very provocative .
it challenges the issues of racism that existed in the past and that still exist today .
i really was not expecting all of the elements they brought up ,
but they pulled them off with such flair that it was mind blowing .
they demonstrate the racism issue without a hitch , but do it in a slow pace .
the only major flaw in the film besides the performance by daniels is length .
some films are not meant to be that long .
pleasantville is one of those films .
this film could have been so much better had they not moved so slowly to it .
first , they are amazed by the implementation of color .
then they want to have it .
then they do not want to .
then the war ensues between the colored and non - colored .
this is all strung out over two hours , which was way too long .
some movies need a lot of time .
saving private ryan was a little bit under three hours long and i thought it could have used more time .
this film is only two hours long , and seems much longer .
length is everything in films .
if you can nail down the perfect timing and pace , you can win half the battle .
pleasantville can move at a good pace at times , but it is not consistent enough .
overall
, pleasantville is a very pleasant and provocative departure from the predictability of most films these days .
i went in expecting a light - hearted film about change .
i left learning an important lesson about racism and the way things change .
luckily
, pleasantville teaches this lesson in such a way to make it appeal to all audiences .
only if it could have done in a shorter amount of time .
[EX A]: P

[EX Q]: why do so many children 's films treat their target audience with utter contempt ? too many of those who write or direct for children 's movies assume that the kids just ca n't handle serious , thoughtful discussions on meaningful issues .
"
the iron giant , " which was directed and co - written by brad bird , late of such animated series as " the simpsons " and " king of the hill , " assumes that not only can children handle such discussions , but that they can do so while being entertained at the same time .
"
the iron giant " holds absolutely no contempt for the young people in the audience , making it a film that 's enjoyable for both children and adults alike
.
hogarth hughes ( voice of eli marienthal ) is a spirited young lad who lives with his hard - working single mother , annie ( jennifer aniston ) , in a small town in maine .
after staying up late and watching scary movies on a night his mother is away , hogarth treks out into the forest to investigate what has stolen his antenna and ruined his tv reception .
he comes across a giant robot ( vin diesel ) from space that eats metal for food .
after saving the robot , nicknamed the iron giant , from electric shock , hogarth befriends the creature and takes him in as a pet of sorts .
because of damage he suffered upon landing , the giant has forgotten what his original mission was , so he just follows hogarth around like a lost puppy .
realizing he ca n't just keep the giant in a barn all the time , and that the giant needs food , he takes him to a junkyard owned by dean ( harry connick jr . ) , an eccentric artist who assembles sculptures out of scrap iron in his spare time .
it soon becomes apparent that dean and hogarth ca n't keep the giant a secret forever , because a government spook named kent mansley ( christopher mcdonald ) has been brought in to investigate mysterious sightings in the surrounding forest area and considers the giant a threat to national security .
he suspects hogarth knows something about the giant , and takes up residence in hogarth 's house as a lodger .
meanwhile , the giant begins to exhibit ominous behavior that suggests he was built to be a weapon of some kind .
"
the iron giant " is exactly what family films ought to be , because it doesn ' t talk down to its audience .
the story is simple , very simple , about an alien being that drops out of the sky and befriends a young boy .
it 's very similar to the spielberg classic " e .
t . , ' and such comparisons are actually deserved in the case of " the iron giant .
"
the film holds many of the better elements of spielberg 's film , such as the ability to be sentimental without turning sappy .
the film delivers several serious messages , the most important of which is one 's ability to choose one 's own fate .
hogarth teaches the giant to go against his programming and become what he wants to be : a hero .
the final sequence is touching and appropriate , though i wo n't give it away , i will say that very few will be disappointed .
the animation , while not up to disney standards ( what could be , after " tarzan " ? ) , is good enough to make you forget you 're watching a cartoon .
the giant is computer - animated , while the human characters are all hand - drawn the old - fashioned way .
the characters ' faces are done quite well , drawn realistically enough to make the personalities credible , but the features are exaggerated so as to allow for the cartoonish expressions that provide for comic relief .
fine voice work is turned in by young eli marienthal as hogarth , and jennifer aniston is surprisingly convincing as his waitress mother .
harry connick jr .
does a nice characterization as dean , and i really enjoyed the voice work of john mahoney ( of tv 's " frasier " ) as an army general called in by agent mansley .
unlike several cartoon features , each character is actually a developed personality , rather than a stereotype , and is actually integral to the plot , rather than being a superfluous comic - relief sidekick ( a clich ?
disney still has n't ditched ) .
dean , for example , could have been a stereotypical beatnik ( his character profile seems to suggest that ) , but he is presented as a character with real emotions , thoughts , and motivations .
even the heavy , agent mansley , is not a villain who does bad things simply because he wants to , but out of his own fear and paranoia .
a lesser animated feature would have drawn up paper - thin stereotypes and figure the kids wo n't mind , but " the iron giant " has clearly put a little work into making the characters real , and it pays off .
the film is n't only around to deliver heavy - handed messages , though .
it 's also very funny , and the humor is of the kind that both children and adults will enjoy .
the scenes in which hogarth teaches the giant to do certain things , such as dive into a pool , are handled well , and director brad bird clearly has a sense of comic timing , having worked on " the simpsons " for many years .
a sequence where hogarth and mansley attempt to " outlast " one another by trying to stay awake is very nicely timed , and also extremely clever .
the film even takes some jabs at america 's nuclear paranoia during the early stages of the cold war , satirizing the lame safety films shown to grade school students that tell them to " duck and cover " in the event of a nuclear attack .
"
the iron giant " has much more of a satirical edge to it than most family films , and the edgy humor is actually quite refreshing .
instead of seeing people get bonked on the head , we get well - timed , clever gags that seem to have required some imagination to come up with
.
when you get right down to it , " the iron giant " is no more than the story of a boy and his robot .
the story is so straightforward , so quaint , that it ultimately becomes charming .
though i enjoy the complex plotting of film noir as much as the next person , when it comes to family entertainment , simple is the way to go .
it 's akin to one of those bedtime stories your father told that had you hanging on his every word , but it 's not the story that sets the film above others of its kind ,
but rather the elements that go into the story , namely real characters and thoughtful dialogue , which " the iron giant " has in spades .
[EX A]:
P