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

[Q]: it happens every year -- the days get longer , the weather gets warmer and the studios start releasing their big - budget blockbusters .
this year 's crop already seems inferior to that of past summers , even 1997 's lackluster trio of batman & robin , the fifth element and the lost world .
the marketing blitz in 1998 has been centered on godzilla ( " heeere , lee - zerd , lee - zerd . . . " ) , which does n't make me optimistic about future summers .
godzilla is , of course , based on a series of cult movies ( translation : really bad movies only a few people can tolerate ) from japan that turn up really late at night on ted turner - owned cable stations .
that this big - budget remake wo n't rise above its roots is fairly obvious .
the credits show us the origin of godzilla .
in five words : nuclear explosion creates giant lizard .
sounds like an enquirer headline , does n't it ?
the mushroom cloud is followed by the inevitable " discovery " sequence .
this time , a japanese guy is eating noodles with chopsticks while watching sumo wrestling ( if that ai n't a stereotype . . . )
when he discovers the telltale radar blip .
people die .
cut to our protagonist , played by matthew broderick .
he makes his first appearance wearing headphones , warbling along to " singin ' in the rain .
"
it 's a none - too - subtle sign that he wishes he were in a classier movie .
no dice , bueller .
from the beginning , poor matthew has to do embarassing things like fondle giant earthworms and stand in godzilla 's enormous footprint .
every disaster movie has to have a know - it - all scientist , and this time broderick is it .
as the world 's leading expert on radiated earthworms ( and would n't you love to have that printed on your business card ? ) , broderick is invaluable to the government .
he immediately dispels vicki lewis ' theory that godzilla is a dinosaur because , hey , you ca n't take seriously the intellectual arguments of " newsradio " cast members .
broderick instead hits the nail on the head , announcing godzilla is a radiated lizard .
"
the radiation is n't an anamoly , " he announces , and lightning strikes .
"
i believe this is a mutated abberation , " he continues , and lightning strikes again .
it 's vocabulary lightning , you see ,
activated by words of four syllables or more .
meanwhile , we 're introduced to our new york cast , headed by an ambitious broadcast journalist ( maria patillo ) , broderick 's former love .
gee , what are the odds their paths will cross again at a dramatically important time ?
poor patillo has been trying to get ahead in the news business for years but has been held down by heartless anchorman harry shearer .
italian cameraman hank azaria tells her she 's not ruthless enough : " nice does n't get you anywhere in this town .
it 's dog eat dog .
"
actually , it 's lizard eat city , as godzilla emerges from the atlantic to begin a rampage on the big apple 's core .
the filmmakers provide us with a one - note drunk fisherman who hooks godzilla .
"
i think i 've got a bite , " he announces as a gigantic tidal wave begins rushing toward him .
you can guess what happens next .
similar reactions spring forth as the monster prowls the city .
hearing the rumble of approaching footsteps , one new yorker remarks , " please do n't tell me that 's another parade .
" please do n't tell me that 's the best line you could come up with .
mayor ebert is not pleased . played by the principal from " head of the class , " he continually makes the wrong decision when given an option , and bickers with his assistant gene .
i guess the filmmakers knew they 'd be getting two thumbs down from the critics and did n't even bother to kiss ass .
the problem is , if you 're going to attack siskel and ebert , you should at least make it funny .
dialogue like , " did n't we agree that we were n't going to have any sweets until after the election ?
" followed by , " back off , gene , " just does n't work for me .
other lame running jokes include everyone mispronouncing the broderick character 's last name and frenchman jean reno 's inability to find a good cup of coffee in new york .
there 's even more fun to be had as godzilla progresses .
as the beast heads back into hiding , broderick suggests the military lure it out with food .
cue twelve dump trucks , all dropping fish into a new york intersection .
( broderick :
that 's a lot of fish . )
that ambush fails , but broderick soon figures out why godzilla came to new york by buying $ 50 worth of home pregnancy tests and running lizard blood through them .
yep , godzilla 's with children , which makes you wonder just what kind of creature would be horny enough to have sex with godzilla .
that 's until broderick explains that godzilla reproduces asexually , like linda tripp .
godzilla comes to us from the makers of independence day , so
it has a lot of dumb action scenes , destructive special effects and shallow subplots .
look no further than patillo 's betrayal of broderick
( patillo : what have i done , animal ?
what have i become ? ) and the climactic " godzilla 's nest " sequence in madison square garden .
the main difference is , independence day was about the experience .
it had a real global , patriotic element to it , and some genuinely fun characters .
godzilla has lots of rain and lightning , reptilian action ripped off from jurassic park and endless product placement from the likes of kodak , blockbuster , juicy fruit , swatch , sprint and bumble bee tuna .
yes , bumble bee actually paid to be known as the official tuna of godzilla .
that fact alone is twice as interesting as anything in the movie .
[A]: N


[Q]: when i first heard that disney 's next animated feature was going to be tarzan , i was almost horrified .
i was worried that disney was going to make another hercules ( sorry , jerk - ules ) .
that effort was too overloaded with comedy ( and the hero was too boastful and pompous to be considered a sympathetic hero ) , and , after viewing it to this day , i find it a disgrace for disney animation .
when i saw the trailers , i was thinking " hmm . . .
this is n't bad at all .
this just might have potential .
"
when i bought the soundtrack , i was really quite surprised at how different it sounded from most disney features .
i have never really heard of phil collins , nor have i heard of mark mancina , so i was wondering , how would these two make this disney flick spin ?
i was pleasantly surprised : the music is top - notch .
phil collins ' songs are terrific , percussion - heavy pieces of work that seem to break the formula for typical disney songs .
the score from mark mancina was also neat
; it reminded me a bit of the lion king , but it was more original .
so , the soundtrack was n't bad at all , considering it was by two people i am not familiar with .
this film could be good . . .
but will it be ?
when i finally went to see it ( on opening day , as i tend to do with most disney animated features ) , my question was answered , in a complete turnabout of expectations for me : disney 's tarzan is surprisingly decent .
the story starts out with tarzan 's parents surviving a shipwreck and finding a home on an island where apes live in peace .
however , one day , a vicious leopard , sabor , attacks and kills tarzan 's parents , leaving him ( at this time , a baby ) alone - until kala of the apes rescues him .
kala wants to raise the child as her own ( she lost hers previously to sabor ) , but her mate , kerchak is not too sure .
"
it 's not our kind , " he says .
he agrees , though , to let her take care of little tarzan , but " that does n't make him my son .
" tarzan grows up , vowing to be " the best ape ever " , but no matter how hard he tries or what he does ( at the guidance of his hilarious ape friend , terk ) , he just ca n't convince kerchak that he is one of the apes , even when he defeats sabor in a battle .
one day , a new animal shows up : humans .
this is where jane comes into the picture .
she is on an expedition with her father ( professor porter ) , and a despicable hunter ( clayton ) searching for gorillas .
tarzan rescues her when she is chased by baboons , and soon they get to know each other .
even though tarzan falls in love with jane , this causes things to go wrong .
clayton tricks tarzan into taking him , jane , and porter to see the apes , who are convinced that he has betrayed them .
worse , clayton has plotted to send the gorillas to london for money .
will tarzan find out which family he belongs to and save the apes ?
i 'm not gon na tell you , sorry .
you 're gon na have to see for yourself .
and see it you should ; the animation is , as always ,
top notch , particularly when tarzan goes soaring through the trees
( read that , skateboarding ) .
the deep canvas computer generated effect adds an authentic feeling to the jungle which tarzan lives in .
in fact , it seems similar to the computer imagery / cel animation combination in rival disney animted films , such as fox 's anastasia and dreamworks ' prince of egypt .
could it be that disney was actually taking ideas from their rivals ?
the casting is fairly good .
tony goldwyn is emotionally believeable as tarzan ( and to my relief , the animators have succeeded in not making him another hercules .
nicely done ) , and glenn close is wonderful as kala ( she has a beautiful singing voice , too , by the way ) .
lance henrikson as kerchak somewhat reminds me of robby benson 's beast voice , which makes him all the more ferocious and gripping .
minnie driver had me a little worried at first as the voice of jane .
i thought she had the most annoying voice in the whole film ( when i first saw the trailers ) , but when i saw the film , i did n't have a problem with her .
i take back my insult on driver .
it 's nice to hear nigel hawthorne do another voice for a disney animated feature
( he was fflewdurr flamm in disney 's most underrated classic , the black cauldron ) ; he is funny and delightful as professor porter .
on the villiany side of the voices , brian blessed ( the guy who did boss nass in star wars : episode i - the phantom menace ) brings a pompous , and later on vicious , voice to the sinister clayton .
he might not be the strongest character in the film
( he 's just a plain bad guy , nothing else ) , but blessed 's vocal work contributes greatly .
but if there is any voice that i think steals the whole show , it should be rosie o'donnell , who is hilariously funny as terk .
she also has a fiesty attitude
( " i 'm gon na kill ya !
"
she says , more than once ) .
i almost sung along with her during one of the film 's best moments , where the apes make a mess of the human 's camp , via song , er , scatting " shoo - be - doo , da - be - dah " .
i can see why she wanted to have a rock song for the film
, she 's a good singer .
not that she was the only funny character in the film , though .
wayne knight ( who played stan in space jam ) gives a whimsically funny style to tantor , an elephant who is especially worried about stepping into " un - sanitary " water .
( thankfully , there is no real sound of flatuence -
that would have killed the picture ) .
the songs , as i said before , are decent , mostly sung by collins .
this sets a new standard for disney animated films because for the first time , the characters do not sing .
i tolerate musical numbers from characters a lot more than some other guys would , but i found this to be a nice change of pace .
the story does have elements of comedy in it , but they also load it with strong dramatic touches , which makes this film far better than the unbelieveably uninspired hercules .
if there is anything disappointing about tarzan , it might be the omission of the ' n sync version of " trashing the camp " from the film .
i heard it on the soundtrack , and wondered where it was going to be .
i was upset that it was n't , because i had thought of taking a few friends of mine who like ' n sync to see tarzan .
oh , well . . .
overall , i was enthralled with tarzan .
i would n't hold it high the way i do with mulan or the hunchback of notre dame ( my all - time favorite disney classics ) , but this film deserves a high place among disney 's greatest achievements .
i give a nod to disney for following up their spectacular
*
*
*
* * masterpiece , mulan , with this great animated adaption of egar rice burrough 's tarzan .
[A]: P


[Q]: vampires starts out almost in the style of a spaghetti western with an attack on a small homestead in new mexico .
the house has a nest of vampires and jack crow ( james woods ) is leading a team of vampire hunters in to clean them out .
while the initial imagery is a little over - dramatic , it gives way to what is a fairly decent action sequence .
that is enough action to last us a while
and we could , director john carpenter would let us , get to a story line .
but it is not very long and there is not much plot until the next big action scene .
then there is only a bit more of plot before the next action scene after that .
the plot is kept to a minimum and the interesting ideas in the plot really get the short end .
and that is something of a pity because the film , based on the book vampire$ by john steakley , gives us a myth for the origins of vampires and explains why vampires are so intertwined with religious imagery .
this could be an interesting departure from the standard vampire film , but carpenter decides to tell us about it rather than to show it .
what carpenter saves his serious screen time for a sequence of spectacular fights between hunters and vampires .
there is a lot of fighting and lots of gore .
anything intriguing is kept to a minimum to so it does not get in the way of pleasing the action film fans .
this has not always been carpenter 's style .
his 1981 version of the thing has action but also challenges the viewer to do a little thinking about the film 's central science fictional question .
jack crow heads a vampire swat team , cleaning up nests of vampires with high - tech spears and crossbows .
in the early part of the film his team is wiped out by a particularly mean vampire valek ( thomas ian griffith ) who has been tipped off to who crow is .
now crow team is gone and he is down to himself and his sidekick tony montoya ( daniel baldwin ) . to make matters worse
, he does not know the people on his own side , tony and his backers , he can trust .
meanwhile jack is sure the vampires are looking for something that must be hidden somewhere here in new mexico .
if this is sounding like a very tired police corruption plot with a few obvious substitutions , that 's exactly what it is .
the same story looks just as well with two partner cops looking for a gang of hood who are themselves looking for a packet of heroin .
but carpenter goes against a familiar principle of film : show people , do n't tell them .
just about everything in the plot other than the fights we are told about in the dialog and not shown .
fundamental questions in the plot like where does crow get his funding
, why are the vampires in new mexico -- what do they want and why do they want it
, what is the connection of the vampires and the catholic church , how did crow come to be a vampire hunter and why devote his life to it ?
the answers to any of these questions could have been dramatized , but instead are revealed through dialog .
now if all this was not bad enough , carpenter misuses the james wood persona .
woods plays a particular sort of cool lowlife very well .
but carpenter leads off the film by having woods do some sergio - leone- style mythic posturing .
while his crew prepares for an attack he stands staring fixedly through shades at the house that will be his target .
woods does not work as a larger than life mythic hero .
that is not his style and it just does not work very well .
there are some simple things that carpenter should be looking for as director that he misses .
in one scene we are looking at a motel room with dead people on the floor .
one female corpse is on the floor in front of a chair so that there is about an inch of daylight between her and the chair .
as the actress breathes the gap widening and narrowing makes it obvious her arm is moving up and down .
one also wonders how the existence of vampires is kept secret .
these vampires do not maintain a low profile .
there are arguably logical flaws in the film .
there is some question in my mind whether carpenter has a consistent policy on what effect bullets have on vampires .
it would take some rationalization to explain why in some scenes sunlight has a dramatic effect on vampires , yet in a scene toward the end a vampire can walk under a burned roof that lets him be swept by beams of sunlight .
i suspect that the book on which this film was based was better thought out .
while i might recommend this film to an action audience i would say that what i look for in a vampire film vampires rates a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale .
perhaps i will read the book .
[A]:

assistant: N