instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
after the press screening of " moulin rouge , " i stood in the lobby of the theater listening to the reactions of my friends and colleagues .
everyone seemed a bit numb , understandable after sitting through a barrage of often - incongruous sounds and images .
a pal of mine simply said that he loved the film and could hardly wait to take his wife to see it .
another enthusiast immediately began to analyze the production , while a woman who flat - out hated the movie gave him the skunk eye .
when one fellow quietly stated " i 've never really been a fan of musicals , " the statement surprised me because ,
even though the story is told almost completely through song , i did n't think of it as a musical .
there is so much going on in " moulin rouge " that " musical " seems too small a term to cover it .
"
moulin rouge " is the kind of creation that sends critics scurrying off to the big tub o ' adjectives in search of proper words to describe the experience .
australian director baz luhrmann , the man behind " strictly ballroom " and " romeo + juliet , " fills the heads of viewers with unique camerawork , opulent imagery and songs ranging from " the sound of music " to " smells like teen spirit .
" sumptuous and beautiful , vulgar and overdone , " moulin rogue " travels through the looking glass while an ethereal stereo loaded with 50 years worth of catchy tunes
operates on the " random " setting .
oh , and it has a story as well .
"
it was 1899 , the summer of love . . .
"
christian ( ewan mcgregor ) is a penniless young writer newly arrived in paris , " to write about truth , beauty , freedom and love , " where he encounters a group of bohemians , led by henri de toulouse - lautrec ( john leguizamo ) .
christian meets satine ( nicole kidman ) , a courtesan from the legendary moulin rogue , and his world transforms from black and white to technicolor .
at once fragile and vivacious , the dazzling red - haired woman sweeps him off his feet without even trying .
christian instantly falls in love with her and satine finds herself smitten with him as well , which is quite a hindrance for someone in her profession .
working with the bohemians and moulin rogue impresario harold zidler ( jim broadbent ) , christian writes an opus modestly named " spectacular spectacular .
" zidler quickly finds a backer , the wealthy duke of monroth ( richard roxburgh ) , but there 's a catch ?
the duke also wants the hand of the fair satine .
as if all that is n't enough , satine has a cough , and while a cough in the real world probably indicates a cold , it rarely turns out to be anything that simple in movie land .
like a teeter - totter , " moulin rogue " moves up and down between the ridiculous and the sublime .
one of the loveliest moments comes as christine and satine commune outdoors at night , becoming part of a defiantly unrealistic parisian cityscape straight from a book of fairy tales .
together they dance , while serenaded by the man in the moon ( alessandro safina provides the vocals ) , apparently transported from the classic georges
m ? li ?
s
silent film to guard the nocturnal sky .
other scenes merely traffic in everything - and - the - kitchen - sink overload .
the cavorting of toulouse - lautrec and his comrades gets strained at times and some of their overt comedy , accompanied by cartoon sound effects , is overly reminiscent of the frenzied farce that sitcoms like " bewitched " beat into the ground .
of course , sensory overload was exactly what baz luhrmann had in mind .
"
we never heard from baz to turn it down , " one of the actors told the los angeles times .
"
it was always , ' more !
more ! '
" the director even sent a note to his cast reading , " i dare you to make me say you 've gone too far .
"
the musical numbers reflect his attitude .
one knockout piece , the " elephant love medley , " incorporates the beatles ' " all you need is love , " u2 's " in the name of love , " dolly parton 's " i will always love you " and elton john and bernie taupin 's " your song .
" need more ?
how about " diamonds are a girl 's best friend " spiced with portions of " material girl ? "
luhrmann 's cast offers a wide variety of approaches that , together , add up to something messy , but often wonderful .
ewan mcgregor is extremely likable as christian , emphasizing the sincerity of the love - struck poet .
mcgregor 's singing voice is robust and adds vigor at just the right moments .
once labeled the " ice queen , " nicole kidman melts that characterization with a sizzling , yet tender , performance .
she handles the songs adroitly , although her voice sounds a bit thin in the upper range .
veteran character actor jim broadbent is suitably larger than life as ringmaster zidler ?
wait until you see him perform " like a virgin .
" as the buffoonish duke , richard roxburgh proves to be the film 's weakest link , although i 'm sure he was simply following instructions .
i suspect " moulin rogue " will be one of those love - it - or - hate - it films .
while i did n't completely love it ,
i most certainly liked it a lot .
over the course of a year , i see well over 300 movies , and most of them look like xeroxes of each other .
" moulin rogue " is an original , and an original , even a flawed one , is a thing to be cherished .
answer:
P


question:
by the time dennis quaid , the ostensible star of switchback , makes his first appearance at about the 22-minute mark , you may find yourself wondering why he bothered .
after all , writer / director jeb stuart has already set up a fairly promising pair of parallel story lines .
the first finds amarillo , texas sheriff buck olmstead ( r . lee ermey ) facing a hotly - contested election battle just as a brutal double homicide is discovered at a motel in his jurisdiction .
as olmstead begins his investigation , we also meet the two men who come to be our prime suspects .
lane dixon ( jared leto ) is an enigmatic young hitchhiker ; bob goodall ( danny glover ) is the jovial motorist who offers lane a ride from texas to his utah destination .
all the necessary conflicts seem to be in place -- the internal struggle of olmstead over the clash between good politics and good police work , and the external struggle as one of the two travelers eventually becomes villain to the other 's protagonist .
but then quaid shows up as grimly determined fbi agent frank lacrosse .
lacrosse is certain that the amarillo murders are the work of a serial killer he has been tracking for nearly two years .
he 's not supposed to be tracking him any more -- according to the bureau , they 've got their man -- but lacrosse has a very important reason for believing otherwise .
two months earlier , lacrosse 's own son was kidnapped by the killer , and the boy has yet to turn up anywhere .
lacrosse knows his killer 's work , and he knows that the man is still out there somewhere trying to continue their game .
it would n't be fair to reduce everything that 's wrong with switchback to quaid 's presence , but it 's a pretty good place to start .
there 's a reason lacrosse feels like an intruder in the narrative instead of its vital center :
as a dramatic actor , dennis quaid possesses exactly one facial expression and one vocal intonation .
we can tell lacrosse is determined because his face is a perpetual tight - jawed , sourpuss pucker ; we can tell he 's grim because every word comes out in an eastwood - esque rasp .
a more flexible performer might have given weight to the character , pulling the audience into his haunted intensity , making switchback _ his _ film .
quaid
merely looks annoyed and slightly constipated .
it 's tough to become emotionally invested in a character 's turmoil when it looks like all he really needs is a big bowl of bran flakes .
even without quaid , it does n't appear that switchback would have stayed on course .
the early scenes between leto and glover have a lively energy , building our curiosity over which man -- the taciturn kid or his gregarious benefactor -- is the real threat .
unfortunately , stuart tips his hand far too early in the game , both through the pitch of the individual performances and the facts he chooses to reveal .
once the mystery of the killer 's identity is dispatched , the interaction between leto and glover becomes stale and predictable
.
in fact , " stale and predictable " describes the direction that switchback takes in general , falling back on far - too - common hollywood devices like cats jumping out of nowhere , a climactic fistfight on board a freight train , and edgy law enforcement agents .
it 's too bad stuart was n't willing to spend more time with sheriff olmstead , far and away the most interesting and appealing character in the film .
played with atypical restraint by r .
lee ermey
, he 's a wonderful , unconventional hero who seems genuinely comfortable accepting the consequences of acting on his convictions .
a film focusing on the olmstead would have signaled a film - maker willing to take a few risks with his casting and story - telling .
instead , stuart places his trust in a " name " star who ca n't carry the material .
maybe next time he 'll throw away that one crucial page in the script , the one where the grimly determined fbi agent wanders onto the scene to muck up a perfectly good story .
answer:
N


question:
the opening crawl tells us that the galaxy is in turmoil over the taxation of trade routes , and the greedy trade federation has used it 's armada of powerful space battleships to blockade the planet naboo .
we soon find that the federation plans to invade the planet with an enormous army of warrior robots and force naboo 's ruler , the young queen amidala ( natalie portman ) to sign a treaty giving the federation control .
however , the galactic republic has sent jedi knights qui - gon jinn ( liam neeson ) and obi - wan kenobi ( ewan mcgregor )
as emissaries to the federation in order to negotiate for the ending of the blockade .
no sooner do they arrive than the federation leaders are instructed via holographic transmission by a mysterious cloaked figure to destroy the jedi , and the first battle begins .
it seems that for me and thousands of people like me , the love for george lucas 's trilogy of star wars movies has only grown over time .
we 're the fans , not the freaks .
we wo n't go dressing up like darth vader ( although you have to admit those imperial uniforms are pretty darn cool ) , and we wo n't incorporate lines from the script in our everyday conversations ( not all the time , anyway ) , but if someone wants to challenge us to a little trivia contest , we 're throwing down .
all right , stop looking at me like that .
we have been faithfully and patiently waiting . waiting for this movie ever since the end credits of return of the jedi started to roll .
you see , the trilogy is not just a set of movies , but a religion of sorts to we , the faithful disciples , and the phantom menace is tantamount to the second coming of the messiah .
unfortunately , it is not our savior .
for weeks beforehand , i was going around telling people that this movie had better be damned good - stupendously good - miraculously good .
anything less
and it 'll be the biggest disappointment of the century .
i did n't want the doomsaying prophecy to come true , really i did n't , but this film nevertheless fails to reach the pinnacles of filmmaking .
character development is virtually nonexistent .
with the possible exception of qui - gon , most of the film 's characters seem left with nothing to do but go through the motions .
none seem very affected by their experiences , and few even show any passion at all .
contrast this with the horribly irritating comic relief we are nearly continuously subjected to in the form of jar jar binks , a creature belonging to a race which lives in underwater cities on naboo , in precarious symbiosis with the land dwellers led by amidala .
jar jar 's life is saved by qui - gon early in the film , and travels with our heroes for the sole reason of making us laugh ( or
supposedly so ) .
his speech mannerisms are so " cute - ified " that i could n't understand a third of what he was saying , and the slapstick he performed was just distracting .
his head gets caught in an electronic field , his foot gets caught in the stirrup of some large beast , he describes being in trouble as " deep doo doo , " and even manages to step in some of the same while walking around in mos eisley spaceport .
therein lies a key difference between this film and one of its predecessors .
in star wars , we had obi - wan telling us mos eisley was a " wretched hive of scum and villainy .
" in the phantom menace , we get doo doo .
the films of the trilogy took me away from my everyday life and immersed me in a story " a long time ago in a galaxy far , far away . . . .
"
this film , on the other hand , constantly reminds me that it 's only a movie by including situations and phrases that are so uniquely modern american that they seem incredibly out of place and serve to jerk the viewer from the experience .
perhaps the most blatant offense occurs during a scene where young anakin skywalker enters into a pod racing competition ( it 's kind of like chariot racing with large engines instead of horses ) , and there are a couple of commentators in a press box delivering indy 500-like play by play .
i liked the pod race ; it was really exciting and ratcheted the tension , but when the heck did lucas think up the idea of putting in the sportscasters ?
the race would have been even more exciting without the distraction .
this aspect , coupled with the emphasis on humor simply baffled me .
i suppose one may say that lucas was trying to appeal to the younger viewer , but would more intelligent scenes and dialog hurt this appeal at all ?
did n't millions of youngsters still go back to see the original star wars in 1977 over and over again ?
did n't the action figures still sell like hotcakes ?
of course they did , and it 's only poor judgment that allows the most - eagerly awaited film in history to be marred by pandering to children who would still have enjoyed a film with more appeal for adults .
one aspect that will appeal broadly , however , is the use of special effects .
the people at lucas 's industrial light and magic , the world 's premiere effects house , outdid themselves in providing seamless integration of computer - generated images and real - life footage .
some of the scenes have to be seen to be believed , especially the shots of a land battle between the federation 's robot army and jar jar 's countrymen .
the space battles are also impressive , although improved over past efforts by only subtle margins to the casual observer .
this , however , is a testament to the work which ilm produced two decades ago and still holds up well today .
john williams is back , of course , providing a score for the film as only he can .
his music is pervasive throughout , as rousing and as dramatic as ever , always serving to punctuate scenes noticeably and appropriately .
since this film is supposed to be the first installment in a nine - episode story ( star wars , the empire strikes back and return of the jedi being episodes four , five and six , respectively ) , the phantom menace has the daunting task of setting up the origins of several characters we know already , in addition to those with whom we unfamiliar .
as a result , attention to history and characterization was spread a little thin .
it would have been nice to get more in depth with yoda and obi - wan , for example , but given the fact that there were several new characters to cover , it is understandable that some of the development has been left for the next two films .
one of the new characters is darth maul , hailed as the new villain with as much hype as marketing forces could muster prior to this film 's release .
in spite of the hype , darth maul is a character which almost did n't have to be in the film , his role is so insignificant .
he has maybe three spoken lines ( believe it or not , a second actor voices the character ) and the rest of the time just scowls and looks mean .
with that working against him , he never has a chance at being interesting and instead ends up an utter disappointment .
lucas seems to have wanted to develop the spiritual nature of the star wars universe , something which has been prominent throughout .
however , he does so largely by paralleling the star wars spirituality with the bible , offering an easy out for story - writing and once again bringing the viewer back to planet earth with a real - life connection .
oddly , while trying to capitalize on spirituality , lucas at the same time introduces the fact that mastery of the force is dependent upon having little force - loving parasites in your body 's cells .
this only serves to de - mystify the workings of the force a few notches by offering a scientific connection .
do n't let me mislead you too far .
the phantom menace , by most standards , is a good film .
it contains a lot of visual treats , sets the stage for an epic story , gives us a bit of excitement here and there , and even allows us to revisit some of our old friends .
it 's just that when held up to it 's predecessors ( and to not do so would be unrealistic ) , this film simply pales .
answer:

P