instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
field of dreams
almost defies description .
although it 's about baseball , it 's not a baseball movie .
although the film is extremely spiritual , it 's not about religion .
and although field of dreams is melodramatic , it 's not a tearjerker .
to really understand what field of dreams is all about , you have to see it .
in the film , kevin costner plays ray kinsella , a baseball fan , ' 60s berkeley graduate , and iowa farmer .
one day as he is standing in the middle of his expansive corn fields , ray hears a voice ; it tells him : " if you build it , he will come .
"
then ray has a vision and somehow concludes that if he builds a baseball field in the middle of his corn , shoeless joe jackson will arise from the dead to play ball once again .
and even though it depletes his family 's savings and his neighbors think he 's crazy , ray clears away the corn and builds a baseball field , complete with bleachers and flood lights .
"
if you build it , he will come .
"
and lo and behold , shoeless joe does come -- bringing with him several of his dead teammates .
and then ray hears the voice again ; it tells him to " ease his pain .
" ray thinks this means that he must travel to boston to meet terence mann , an influential and radical novelist from the ' 60s who has since stopped writing and dropped out of society .
with great aplomb , james earl jones plays the disillusioned author who joins forces with ray and embarks with him on a magical and spiritual journey .
the cast in field of dreams is excellent ,
especially kevin costner in the lead role .
costner gives a quiet , subtle , and moving performance as a man who before building the baseball field had done nothing crazy or spontaneous in his entire life .
costner gives ray just the right mix of enthusiasm and idealism to make us believe in his mystic visions and swallow this wondrous fairy tale .
amy madigan gives a fine supporting performance as ray 's feisty and loving wife , who against her better judgement supports her husband 's crazy ideas .
in her most impressive scene , madigan vehemently argues against book burning at a p .
t .
a . meeting , displaying the sincere passion of a ' 60s berkeley radical .
ray liotta is appropriately eerie and awe - inspiring as the ghost of shoeless joe , the legendary batter who was suspended from baseball for his involvement in the 1919 chicago " black sox " scandal .
and finally , burt lancaster is memorable
in a small , but important , role as a small town doctor whose professional baseball career was limited to only one inning .
field of dreams is a touching fairy tale full of life , wonder , mystery , spirit , and humor .
it , for the most part , succeeds in capturing our emotions and suspending our disbelief .
ray kinsella 's spiritual quest in pursuit of his dreams proves to be moving and miraculous .
but while field of dreams generally avoids excessive melodrama , it unfortunately does at times go overboard , and by the end it gets down - right sappy .
in general , however , field of dreams is an emotionally satisfying fantasy -- one i can recommend to everyone but unromantic cynics .
answer:
P


question:
first and foremost i think this movie comes to grief at the hands of the pg rating it 's been given .
for those of us who have n't read the james lee burke novel that heaven 's prisoners is based on , do not rabidly go out and buy tickets to movies featuring the combined talents of alec baldwin and eric roberts , feel vaguely depressed by the notion of swamps , gangsters with louisiana accents , plots , sub - plots , more plots , and well , really just want to see teri hatcher naked , this is one movie you 're going to worry the price of admission over .
hopeful still ?
well , let me share my moment of sheer panic , and then the cold enervation of the big let - down when a semi - robed hatcher purrs to alec baldwin , " what do you think of my butterfly ? " .
butterfly ?
, i asked myself , what butterfly ? !
and then it hit me . . .
the scene had been snipped !
damn you , godless pg rating , show us her butterfly ! !
we want to see the goddamn butterfly ! ! !
so . . .
no naked teri hatcher . forget about that .
okay ?
now . . .
heaven 's prisoners is about ex - alchoholic ex - cop dave robicheaux ( alec baldwin ) who 's trying to discover life anew running a bait shop and boat hire business with his loving , down - to - earth wife annie ( kelly lynch ) .
everything dull , but hunky dory until a plane carrying illegal immigrants crashes almost ontop of the couple while they 're on their boat .
the plane nosedives into the water and sinks , but from its wreckage robicheaux rescues a little pixie - faced salvadoran girl whom he and his wife immediately decide to adopt .
what they do n't realise is that the plane 's pilot was also a drug dealer , and that the plane had been sabotaged by the latter 's erstwhile colleagues .
when robicheaux discovers this , he predictably , against the advice of his wife , a well - meaning dea agent , and two gangsters who rough him up , begins ' poking his nose where it do n't belong ' , we know that the man deserves all the misery he 's going to get .
the question now is whether or not you want to be dragged along for the ride through a tedious , meandering yet utterly suspenseless plot with an unlovable hero as your guide .
as dave robicheaux , alec baldwin is fat . . .
no seriously , this is not the svelte , thinking man 's hero of the hunt for red october , it is an out - of - shape guy who does n't look too good in a roof - top chasing scene .
he 's also unconvincing in the movie 's dramatic moments , acting with what as far as i can tell is a steven segal - like economy of expression .
three - quarters of the way through the show , while you 're probably waiting for the next scene in a bar where robicheaux contemplates succumbing to the temptation of the whiskey bottle , getting drunk and beating up someone or getting beaten up
, you 'll want to beat on him a little yourself .
on the other hand , mary stuart masterson ( some kind of wonderful , fried green tomatoes , benny & joon ) cast as a down - and - out stripper who has her fingers broken is quite a breath of fresh air , with just the right mix of cynicism , warmth , insecurity and humour to be the movie 's only endearing character .
eric roberts as bubba rocque , always believable as the woman - abusing bad guy who knows how to box ( see final analysis , coincidentally also directed by phil joanou ) is believable here as the woman - abusing bad guy who knows how to box .
and lest we forget teri hatcher 's role in all this , this being her rather well - publicised paid vacation from playing lois lane on tv 's " adventures of lois & clark " . . .
she is totally ridiculous as rocque 's manipulative and seductive cajun wife , coming across as devious as a mildly disgruntled au pair who 's trying to get back at an employer who has n't been giving her enough days off .
it 's probably safe to say that her day job beckons .
and at the end of our day , none of this is really worth 2 hrs and 12 minutes of our personal misery .
the flying inkpot 's rating system :
* wait for the video .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .
answer:
N


question:
the premise of wag the dog is so simple that it 's adequately explained by the commercials .
with 11 days to go until the election , the president ( who we never see ) calls in political dirty - tricks artist robert deniro to distract attention from a burgeoning sex scandal .
deniro enlists hollywood producer dustin hoffman to produce a " pageant " , a phony war against albania , fought on the blue screens of hollywood and the recording studios of nashville , with woody harrelson as the reluctant , psychotic hero .
and if there was n't anything more to the movie than this , it would be a second - rate heist comedy at best , enlivened by great actors -- like sneakers goes to washington .
( a heist comedy ?
yup .
deniro and hoffman are " stealing " the election , so to speak , and the movie is more about how they do it -- and the fun they have doing it -- than anything else . )
wag the dog succeeds because it 's based one great truth : the american people are stupid .
ok , maybe it 's not " love thy neighbor as thyself " or even " two plus two makes four " , but a truth nonetheless .
( any average person who thinks that they 're really smart about the two things this movie satirizes -- moviemaking and the political process -- is invited , nay , challenged , to spend a week either watching a movie actually being made or
48 hours straight watching c - span when the house is in session . )
and because we 're so utterly , predictably stupid , hollywood knows that a certain percentage of us will go see hard rain or magoo , washington knows that we wo n't notice a few million dollars spent here and there on porno art grants and cigar subsidies -- and deniro 's character knows that american geography skills are so weak that we wo n't be able to locate albania on the map .
the beauty of wag the dog is that it is n't a light , meaningless comedy about politics ( like speechless , the michael keaton - geena davis picture ) or from the level of light - hearted politcal satire to near - greatness .
nor is it a hard - edged cynical look at the manner in which a morally - deprived , ethically challenged baby - boomer connives his sleazy way into the white house ( like primary colors --
and yes , i am a little disappointed in the way the last two elections turned out , thanks for asking ) .
instead , david mamet 's script strikes that delicate balance between comedy and cynicism needed for satire .
it does this by keeping us in a fantasy world where most of the schemers ' schemes come off beautifully , and fail only in entertaining and humorous fashion .
deniro is playing a variation on his al capone character from the untouchables , without any of the violent rages .
it 's all :
" what do i love ?
what is it that brings me joy ?
baseball ,
" minus the savage bloody beating with the bat .
he threatens a lot of people , mind you , but he 's doing it in a very nice , polite way .
it 's a very mellow , restrained performance , which fits in with the air of gamesmanship in the script .
hoffman , on the other hand , is giddy , exuberant and joyous .
this kind of thing is what his character lives for , and he 's so excited that he ca n't even shut up .
even on the edge of disaster , he 's bright - eyed ( behind oddly tinted sunglasses ) and positive .
insiders note that he 's basing his character on some powerful - but - anonymous producer -- which may or may not be true , but hoffman still exudes the kind of lets - put - on - a - show electricity that you figure a producer needs to have .
the best part and the most frustrating part of wag the dog is in the supporting cast .
the characters are so well drawn and so well acted that we want to see more of them , listen to them talk in that wised - up mamet dialogue , get to know them better -- which we do n't .
anne heche , is dead - bang - on in her portrayal of a political press aide -- cool and composed on the outside , panicked and frenzied on the outside .
denis leary ( one of my favorite actors -- see the ref ) is the " fad king " , who handles the profitable " back - end " -- t - shirt tie ins and shoe contracts and other creative , innovative ways to separate a fool from his money .
they could make a whole movie , just about the fad king , and i 'd go see it .
willie nelson and merle haggard handle the musical end of things fabulously , from the upbeat gospel chorus theme song , to the weepy country waltz , to the hilarious " ballad of the green berets " parody .
woody harrelson has a brief , but memorable part as the overmedicated " hero " of the albanian conflict .
craig t . nelson , as the opposition candidate , and the ever - reliable william h .
macy , as a wacky cia agent , are given surprisingly short shrift .
( one of my small gripes is that we never see what the spin doctors on the other side are doing . )
wag the dog is a funny movie about serious problems :
the trivialization of american politics , the role of the press in dumbing down the issues , the impact of hollywood in creating campaign commercials , the reduction of all things political to soundbites and sidebars -- the list goes on .
we can solve most of these problems by taking a greater role in our national life and educating ourselves as voters and citizens .
wag the dog reminds us of what can happen if we do n't .
answer:

P