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

[Q]: capsule : godawful " comedy
" that 's amazingly shabby and cut - rate , and rather bereft of laughs
.
i was having a bad week in my life when i saw austin powers :
international man of mystery .
i desperately needed something to cheer me up , or at least distract me so i could get a clear head .
get some perspective .
even dumb movies can do that for me , sometimes .
i tried hard not to let my dejection affect my judgment , but i am certain now that austin powers would have also sucked rocks through bamboo shoots on the day i won the lottery .
michael myers has taken a character that would barely have supported a five - minute sketch on saturday night live and stretched it to the length of a feature film , padding it out with toilet jokes and the sort of props - strategically - positioned - between - naked - actors - and - camera gags that benny hill got tired of fifteen years ago .
the plot , what little there is of it : back in the swinging mod hep sixties ( i do n't think i 'm doing a disservice to the movie 's attempted early look and feel by describing it that way ) , sexy british secret agent austin powers tangled with his nemesis dr .
evil .
evil launched himself into orbit and cryogenically forze himself to return decades later , when powers was out of the picture .
powers also had himself frozen , and he wakes up to find the nineties a very hard time to deal with .
the basic gag , that of powers ' total inability to cope with the nineties , is not so much exhausted during the course of the movie as never even really dealt with .
the bulk of the movie is taken up with dumb jokes of several basic rubrics : james bond gags ( of which this movie has no end , right down to the silly character names ) , inept slapstick , toilet humor , and strategically placed props . . .
the movie 's amazingly bereft of ideas , come to think of it , with a couple of bright exceptions .
one is dr .
evil 's son -- there is a sidesplitting scene where father and son go to an encounter group , chaired by carrie fisher -- and the other is a throwaway gag where austin mimics various forms of transportation from behind a couch ( it 's a visual gag -- hard to describe , and hard to recommend seeing the movie for ) .
a lot of sixties kitsch has been resurrected and thrown on the screen for this movie , but it 's desperate rather than clever .
instead of skewering the whole thing , it 's a rather bloodless and unfunny tribute
.
myers himself is also desperate : he 's given an idea to play , not a character .
plus , the attempts to make the character work by giving him a relationship with another sexy ( albeit " nineties " ) agent are a waste of time .
i wanted to have the movie end with him trying yet again to get it on with her , only to have her deck him one .
with a couple of exceptions , the movie misses all of its own best moments .
the movie even looks cheesy , and not in a good way : i kept wondering if it had been transferred down from hi - def video or something , so grainy was the film stock in a good many scenes .
the whole thing has the air of being done on the cheap .
my definition of comedy is simply : did it make me laugh ?
the few times that i laughed in austin powers were completely offset by the time i spent cringing and wanting out .
the most damning thing i could say about the movie is that wayne and garth would most likely have shoved it into mike tyson 's shorts and sent it sailing .
[A]: N


[Q]: phew , what a mess ! for his fifth collaboration with director
rich- ard donner ( lethal weapon i - iii , maverick )
, mel gibson plays a motormouth , maybe mentally ill new york city cabbie , jerry , whose wild conspiracy theories are all but ignored by alice ( julia roberts , acting all serious ) , the justice department employee that he has a crush on .
she not interested , but another person is : a cia psychiatrist ( patrick stewart ) who promptly kidnaps him .
is one of jerry 's conjectures correct ?
* is * the metal strip in the new $ 100 bill being used to track your movements ?
is oliver stone still alive , because he cut a deal with george bush to spread * dis * information ?
is this movie really about
* any * of the crazed cabbie 's theories ?
no , no ,
and no . as it turns out
, there 's some other nonsense going on here , involving and revolving around jerry 's background .
( hint : pay attention to an early scene where jerry blacks out and flashes back , in quick succession , to images of an interrogation room , hypodermic needles , and ms .
roberts herself . )
the * initial * premise is pretty good and is played , for a while , at a delightfully dizzying clip .
mel is wider - open that we 've ever seen him and , if his character 's relationship with roberts ' initially strains credibility , their combined star power is blissfully intoxicating .
( the highest wattage of the summer , perhaps ? )
even when the plot contrivances begin to intrude , the two remain a randy dandy screen pair .
there 's a great scene in jerry 's fortress , er , apartment , with alice trying to act casual as her hyperactive host tries to remember the combination to a locked coffee bean container .
( which he stores in another locked con- tainer , his fridge . )
other hilarious moments , of which there are many , include a trio of memorable convention - breakers , where alice ditches a tail , jerry cold - cocks someone , and , later , eludes a foot pursuit , each in a uproariously unexpected fashion .
( that 's donner 's own ladyhawke playing in the theater , btw . )
let 's see , other pleasures include .
. .
a brilliant title sequence , a jazzy score from carter burwell , and the worth - paying - to - see sight of roberts pumping lead into one bad guy and slamming another 's head into a wall .
oh , pretty woman !
getting to the latter , however , requires slogging through an increasingly overburdened and ultimately unappealing story .
the last hour of conspiracy theory devolves from tolerable to torturous to almost unwatchable .
more stuff happens of the stupid shit variety than is worth mentioning here , except , perhaps , for a late sequence that has alice locating jerry in an abandoned wing of a mental hospital by hearing his voice carrying through the air ducts .
and here i thought it was wabbit season .
good god , who rewrites these movies ? and
do they arrive in nondescript black vehicles ?
[A]: N


[Q]: the computer - animated comedy " shrek " is designed to be enjoyed on different levels by different groups . for children ,
it offers imaginative visuals , appealing new characters mixed with a host of familiar faces , loads of action and a barrage of big laughs ( including numerous gags related to body functions and yucky substances , apparently a requisite in contemporary family films ) .
for adults , it 's a fractured fairy tale packed with rude jokes that will sail over the heads of the kids .
all in all , " shrek " is a snappy ride , although there are a couple of points i found disturbing .
but first the basics .
based very loosely on a 1990 children 's story , " shrek " follows several momentous days in the life of the title character , a rotund green ogre voiced by mike myers in that pleasant scottish accent
he is so fond of using .
shrek is a grumpy fellow living a solitary life deep in the swamp , until a local nobleman disturbs his peace .
petty tyrant lord farquaad ( take away the " awk " in the middle
and you have the basis of a string of impolite one - liners ) owns the land on which shrek resides .
he proceeds to turn the ogre 's yard into an ellis island for storybook characters when he banishes the fanciful beings from his castle .
as a result , shrek finds himself surrounded by legends like the three blind mice , pinocchio , the big bad wolf , the seven dwarfs , and the three bears , to name but a few .
an enraged shrek storms to the castle , only to find farquaad ( john lithgow ) ready to bargain .
lord obnoxious wants to become king and the magic mirror from " snow white " has shown him the way .
all he has to do is rescue a damsel in distress and make her his wife .
the mirror unveils three choices in a presentation straight out of " the dating game " ( when snow white is shown , the cheeky announcer purrs , " even though she lives with seven men , she 's not easy !
" ) farquaad selects the lovely princess fiona ( cameron diaz ) and offers shrek a deal :
if the ogre snatches fiona from the dragon - protected , lava moat - filled castle in which she is held captive and brings her to the throne , the lord will allow the fairy tale pests to move back on his grounds .
shrek reluctantly agrees and sets off on his quest , accompanied by a motor - mouthed donkey ( eddie murphy ) determined to make the green grump his best friend .
they finally hook up with the princess , only to learn she is not the helpless maiden they expected to meet .
for the matter , the dragon offers a few surprises as well .
the movie references a great many other flicks , from " babe " ( " that 'll do , donkey .
that 'll do " ) to " the graduate .
"
but the lion 's share of the jokes come at the expense of the wonderful world of disney .
the public - domain characters made into icons in various disney films take their hits ?
pinocchio is referred to as a " possessed toy " and when shrek spies a sleeping snow white in his cabin , he bellows , " get that dead broad off the table ! " ?
but the biggest slams come when shrek visits farquaad 's royal domicile , which closely resembles a certain magic kingdom , from its souvenir stands and queue lines to a display of animatronic figures that sing the palace rules in a relentlessly peppy tune that sounds a lot like
" it 's a small world .
" which brings me to disturbing point number one .
i laughed at all the disney swipes , but found the mentality behind them a bit sad .
the acrimony between dreamworks honcho jeff katzenberg and disney big wheel michael eisner is well known .
for years the two companies have tried to sabotage each other 's film and video releases by issuing similar competing productions on the same day .
and now we have katzenberg using an entire movie to attack his former employer .
here 's a suggestion for the two boys : grow up !
put the past behind you !
there 's room in the sandbox for both of you and if you farquaads ca n't play nice , then go to your rooms !
the other area i found troubling came in the portrayal of lord farquaad .
beyond all the irreverence , " shrek " actually has a message : people should learn to look beyond physical appearances , because true beauty lies within .
it 's a lovely notion , but the film betrays its own moral by incessantly taking cheap shots at farquaad 's diminutive stature .
do we really need a family film reinforcing the idea that mocking short people is acceptable ?
the pompous , selfish behavior of farquaad is enough to make him a target for zingers .
adding short jokes is simply mean .
still , " shrek " is a rollicking good time .
the computer animation is mostly impressive
( although several key characters look like animated rubber squeeze toys and the human movements are often jerky ) , the voice work is strong ( particularly from eddie murphy ) ,
the laughs come fast and furious , and the moral , tainted though it may be , is a good one . to trot out a clich ? , " shrek " is fun for all ages .
parents , though , should remind their young ones during the ride home
that taunting others because they are short , tall , skinny , fat , etc . is a bad thing .
[A]:
P