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

Q: absolute power , the new film produced and directed by clint eastwood , attempts to be a thriller set in the world of hypocritical presidents and their murderous political staff .
it is about as thrilling as a lecture on the mating habits of the south american grasshopper .
one can only wonder how an utterly absurd script like the one written by william goldman could have ever interested eastwood .
not only is the plot unbelievable and contrived , but even the writing itself lacks any consistency or intelligence .
continually underestimating the audience , the film gives us information we already know or do nt even need .
details essential to the story are so improbably convenient they are annoying
( like why would two unprepared secret service men carry two night - vision goggles in their car ? ) .
oddly enough , the initial setup for absolute power offers interesting possibilities .
a masterful jewel - thief ( played by clint eastwood ) witnesses the murder of the wife of a powerful millionaire ( played by e. g. marshall ) .
while robbing one of marshalls mansions , he is forced to hide in the bedrooms vault .
there , through a two - way mirror , he sees the wife and another man engage in passionate foreplay .
their game of love quickly turns into a violent struggle as the man starts beating the woman . in self defense , the woman grabs a letter - opener and stabs the man in the elbow .
she raises her arm to stab again when she is fatally shot by two secret service men .
the man ?
he is the president of the united states of america .
where does the film go wrong ?
it can not be the acting .
clint eastwood , ed harris and gene hackman as the president give type - cast , but decent performances .
the cinematography is sufficient ; wild and erratic during action sequences , dark and mysterious during psychologically suspenseful scenes , and calm and warm during dramatic dialogue .
even the music is not as bombastic as it usually tends to be in the thriller / suspense genre .
the fault clearly lies in the screenplay , and the screenplay alone .
while setting up a story about misuse of power , about the true possessors of that power , and about intrigue and double - crossing , it does not resolve it .
not one buildup of suspense is resolved by an exciting climax . rather , the tense situations are left dangling at the end , giving the viewer an uneasy sense of incompleteness .
an example of this is a very promising and tense buildup of a scene : in an attempt to arrest clint eastwood , the police have set up a trap at a small restaurant .
police officers are everywhere , incognito of course .
at the same time , not one but two hit men are preparing to kill clint eastwood when he arrives .
all three parties are unaware of each others presence .
this scene is tremendously exciting and the audience is wondering how clint eastwood , who might suspect this is a trap , will get himself out of this difficult position .
he will probably have a brilliant plan , involving ingenious preparations .
however , when he arrives at the trap , both hit men miss ( how convenient )
and in the confusion eastwood simply walks away .
the buildup of this scene took about ten minutes .
ten minutes of close ups of the hit men loading their weapons intercut with the police preparing for the trap .
the scene was resolved in less than 20 seconds .
.. parallel to the story line of catching the real killer is a cliche emotional tale about the estranged relationship between father eastwood and his daughter .
the daughter blames her father for never being there for her , because he was either in jail or robbing a house somewhere .
of course their relationship takes a turn for the better during the adventure and they end up a happy family .
again , it is commendable that absolute power tries to deviate from the mainstream suspense film by giving room for a dramatic subplot . however , trying is simply not enough !
the second story line should be subtle , original and preferably unpredictable .
.. everything this film is not .
how could a screenplay like absolute power ever get the funding to be produced ?
how could eastwood , who has successfully produced and directed many outstanding films such as the brilliant unforgiven , ever believe in a project like this one ?
i am sad to say that my respect for the actor / director / producer has diminished substantially due to this film .
director quentin tarantino once said : " i can make a good movie out of any bad script .
" director clint eastwood obviously can not .

A: N
****
Q: robert altman 's cookie 's fortune is that rare movie that does not depend on sentimentality to be uplifting and to make its viewers feel good .
it is a sunny , delightful , dreamy comedy , filled with lovely performances , skillful direction and topped off with an understated , clever , extraordinary script .
as this is an ensemble piece , it is forced to start of slowly as it introduces us to its characters , all of them residing in a southern town called holly springs .
first we meet willie ( charles s. dutton ) , an honest man with a slight drinking habit .
we then see that willie takes care of an elderly lady nicknamed cookie , who is slowly losing her grip on sanity and is being filled with loneliness , despair , and want of her dead husband .
we cut to camille ( glenn close ) who is obsessively directing a play with her sister cora ( julianne moore ) .
then we briefly get acquainted with emma ( liv tyler ) , an apparent relative of cookie , who is a down - but - not - out teen outcast , still full of love and hope even though she has no real place to live .
we also fleetingly see emma 's lover jason ( chris o'donnell ) , an ambitious but far too excitable young cop .
we are now about one quarter through the two hour picture , and robert altman decides that it is time to set the plot in motion .
we see the ecstatic cookie stare hopefully at a picture of her husband .
she exclaims " here i come ! " and then puts a pillow to her face and shoots herself .
soon after , her niece camille stops by to get a fruit salad bowl , comes upstairs , finds cookie dead and flips out .
convinced that suicide is a disgrace and that she will have none of that in her family , she eats the suicide note and convinces her slightly slow ( yet sweet ) sister that it was a murder .
she makes sure that she stages it like a murder as well ; scattering jewelry all over the floor , breaking a few cabinets , windows and doors , and then throwing the gun out in the back yard .
the only reasonable suspect is willie , who immediately gets taken into custody , and put in a jail cell
( they all know he did n't do it , so the cell stays open and he plays scrabble with the sheriff and the faithful emma ) .
meanwhile , the unperturbed camille continues her none - too - subtle manipulations trying to further cover up for the murder while at the same time making her easter play a success .
so begins cookie 's fortune , a film aptly described by critic scott renshaw as " a southern spin on fargo , " except that this one is far funnier and much more enjoyable than the coen brothers ' darker , somewhat disturbing and slightly overrated escapade .
robert altman 's slight picture is in some ways reminiscent of something like midnight in the garden of good and evil as well , in that both films focus ( on and off ) on the eccentricities of the residents in a southern us town .
indeed , most of the characters in cookie 's fortune are loads of fun to observe , and a portion of them are fascinating and surprisingly multi- dimensional .
glenn close turns in an insubstantial ( in terms of her career ) but magnificent performance
as the conniving camille and is also the source of a good portion of the many laughs that we enjoy in this movie , and she is perfectly cast as the prolific " aunt alexandria " character , endlessly obsessed with family dignity .
the equally essential role of willie is handled with an intangible grace by veteran thespian charles
s. dutton
( mimic , a time to kill ) there is nothing like a movie which leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy
inside hours , even days after the film ends .
cookie 's fortune is such a movie .
i loved the light , kindhearted approach altman ( whose last project was the dark , intense drama the gingerbread man ) took towards the tricky subject matter .
i enjoyed the talented ensemble cast .
i even liked the trite " in the south everybody is related to everybody " cliche that is inevitably employed by the time this movie draws to a close .
i 'm not sure
why cookie 's fortune had such an all - around pleasing effect on me .
perhaps it 's that good ol' southern charm .

A: P
****
Q: it 's always a bad sign when the core audience of a film -- children -- are either walking out early or are half - asleep when the credits roll at the end of a film .
that about sums up the dreadful ugliness of 102 dalmatians , a cold pea soup of cute animals , stupid home alone antics , a boring puppy love subplot between dumb humans , and glenn close reprising her best joan crawford impression .
indeed , walt disney is rolling over in his grave again , cursing john hughes ' name for making the original live - action 101 dalmatians , one of the worst kiddie flicks of all time , and now its sequel .
the main culprit behind the hideousness of 102 dalmatians is its predecessor , 101 dalmatians .
the original made more than $ 100 million dollars at the box office , spawned a torrid collection of " collectible " items that ended up months later in the discount bins of wal - marts across the country , and generally made every kid on the planet want a damn dalmatian pup for christmas .
well , it 's been about four years since then , and dalmatian fever is coming back , and this time it 's digitally enhanced .
here 's the story .
cruella de vil ( glenn close ) is released from prison due to the " cure " of her puppy homicide urges by one dr .
pavlov .
( oh , how witty . )
she rejoins the world as a dog lover and is assigned to a probation officer , who oddly turns out to be her victim from the original film .
cruella then becomes ella -- dog lover -- until the plot twists , like a dog with his leash caught on the back of a moving truck , and she becomes the evil vixen again .
a kidnapping plot unfurls again as cruella decides she still needs her dalmatian coat , but she now needs 102 dalmatians instead of the commonly used 101 dalmatian formula .
at this point , i was envying those kids filing out of the theater .
how low have glenn close and gerard depardieu ( as the film 's villain ) sunk in the film business ?
it 's almost laughable in a sadistic way to watch close walk around in costumes that seem to be pulled from the wardrobe of flash gordon . and depardieu . . .
how can a french guy have a bad french accent ?
and never mind the toilet brush haircut .
the only minutely positive selling point i can even think to point out is the talking bird with a british accent ( courtesy of eric idle ) that thinks he 's a rottweiler .
now that 's funny .

A:
N
****