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

synopsis : the president of a company wants to test his self - appointed successor , who 's psychotic , and thinks it 's a great idea to spend a week with him and their wives in an isolated cabin a hundred miles from civilization with no dependable transportation or means of communication after a heavy snowfall .
comments : tracks of a killer had a couple of strikes against it before i even began watching it .
strike one was the fact that someone had scrawled the word garbage on the videotape 's sticker in black marker
( not typically a good sign when you rent a film ) .
strike two came while the previews played .
did you ever get a sinking premonition about a movie 's quality ( or lack thereof ) while watching the trailers that come before it ?
well , the cheesy films being advertised before tracks of a killer were films that no one has ever heard of starring people no one knows , and they all looked bad ( definately not a good sign ) .
tracks of a killer itself completed the strikeout .
about the only positive thing this film had going for it was the fact that it sports some nice scenery .
to be fair , the first half - hour or so promises at least a watchable thriller .
wolf larson , who bears more than a passing resemblance to hugh grant , adequately plays the underling obviously set up as the killer of the film 's title .
james brolin and kelly lebrock seem equally adequate as the loving couple larson will later threaten .
brolin 's character , for some inexplicable reason , thinks its a great idea to spend some time in a cabin , practically isolated , with lebrock and larson , whom he 's decided to test for the week before giving him full control of his company .
by the time the characters arrive at the cabin , this film begins to become tedious .
apparently , brolin 's successor 's test involves chopping wood for the fireplace and skiing , which do n't seem like attributes necessary to run a business in the city .
but , then again , what do i know about business ?
i do think , though , that they should have invested in some better furniture for the cabin ; its beds and closets have a habit of just breaking at the slightest touch .
larson 's character accidently kills his own wife rather than the couple he wants to kill .
this leaves the movie with an hour to go and only three characters , which really is n't enough to sustain it .
the film 's writer must have taken a cue from stephen king , as scenes from tracks of a killer seem lifted out of misery and gerald 's game .
larson and lebrock fight and torture each other ( the tables get turned a couple of times ) while brolin tramps around in the snow looking for help .
some old guy 's around too
, just so the killer can add to his body count without killing the couple , who everyone knows will be alive at the end of the film .
the old guy , however , miraculously survives his first death and appears later to be killed again by the killer in a scene
so ludicrous it 's worthy of a chuckle or two
.
outside of that chuckle , unfortunately , tracks of a killer will just bore you as the obvious plot is drawn out ad infinitum and the actors , for some reason , become increasing obnoxious . if you 're in a video store and thinking about renting this turkey , do n't . make tracks to a far superior suspense film , like misery .
N

when i initially set out to review this film , my tag line was going to be " you too can believe whales can fly " .
then it was going to be
" you too can believe pastel triangles can fly " .
then , it was going to be
" you too can believe wood sprites can fly " .
finally , i just gave up trying to come up with a tag line and decided to say .
..
there 's a lot of flying going on in this film !
as our first host steve martin tells us ,
the original concept behind fantasia was to bring it out every year with some old segments retained and some new segments added in .
well apparently that plan fell by the wayside for a while , because approximately sixty years have passed since the original classic was released .
part of this might have something to do with the cold reception the film got when it was first released in 1940 ( grossing somewhere close to $ 110 , 000 in its original month of release ) .
subsequent re - releases of the film have elevated the popularity of the film to the classic status it has finally achieved ( and rightfully deserved ) .
to celebrate the release of an updated version of fantasia , disney and imax teamed up to present the animated film in a fashion no one had seen before : six stories high .
in an exclusive four month engagement ( from january 1st to april 30th , 2000 ) , fantasia 2000 can be seen at many imax theaters across the us .
after the engagement is over , the film will be shown at regular theaters .
is the format effective for the film ?
with a few exceptions , yes .
the first segment we are presented with is set to beethoven 's fifth symphony .
it 's hard to describe exactly what this segment is about , but
it involves a bunch of brightly colored butterfly looking triangles flitting about happily .
everything seems to be going great for these little things until the ground erupts with swarms of evil , black bat - like triangles that attack and engulf their lighter counterparts .
eventually , shafts of light from above help drive away the evil bat - like things and peace returns to the butterfly things .
though this segment is n't very story driven , some of the images are very visually strong , especially the scene in which the dark cloud of bat things ( who are all outlined in blood red colors ) begin to overtake the skies .
the next segment is set to ottorino respighi 's " the pines of rome " .
in this segment , some humpback whales swim happily through the ocean and eventually emerge from the water and fly around the massive icebergs that pepper the oceanscape .
a whale calf gets into a scuffle with some nearby birds during the flight and ends up getting trapped in a giant iceberg he smashes into while trying to avoid the birds attack .
he is finally saved ( by another liberating shaft of light ) and he and his brethren take to the skies and fly into the upper atmosphere where they frolic in the " oceans " of clouds .
again , visuals are the key with this segment , especially where the whales are involved .
reportedly the whales , as viewed on an imax screen in certain sequences , are shown as actual size .
the cgi whales look incredibly life - like , except for some googly cartoon eyes drawn onto the images .
one especially striking image involves the giant shadow of one of the whales being cast through the wall of an iceberg as the whale calf tries to find a way out to its parent . absolutely beautiful stuff .
the third segment ( and the least of the eight segments ) is set to george gershwin 's " rhapsody in blue " .
this segment is designed as a tribute to acclaimed caricaturist al hirschfeld , and intertwines four different stories about sad souls living in depression era new york .
there 's a construction worker who dreams of being a jazz drummer , an out - of - work sad sack
that dreams of having a job ,
a young girl that dreams of spending time with her parents instead of being hustled off by a schoolmarm , and a nebbish who dreams of being free from his overbearing wife .
i wo n't go into how everything works out , but in fine disney tradition there is a happy ending .
unfortunately , the story drags quite a bit and the seems out of place within the hyper reality of the rest of the segments .
segment four is set to dmitri shostakovich 's " piano concerto no . 2
" and is an animated version of hans christian andersen 's " the steadfast tin soldier " .
a one legged toy tin soldier falls in love with a wind - up clock ballerina ( whom he assumes is also one legged because he ca n't see her other leg extended out behind her ) , much to the dismay of an evil jack - in - the - box jester .
the jester knocks the soldier out of a window and continues pursuing the ballerina .
little does the jester know , the soldier has been deposited in the sewer and has journeyed through the pipelines only to be swallowed by a fish that has been captured and sold to the owner of the set of tin soldiers that the one legged one comes from .
the soldier eventually saves the day and gets the girl .
although the ending has been altered from the andersen story , " the steadfast tin soldier " is decently told with in the framework of a seven minute short .
some children may find the jester to be a little frightening , but otherwise the segment is well made .
segment five is the funniest of the bunch .
set to camille saint - saens " the carnival of the animals " , this segment features a flamingo torturing his fellow flamingos with a yo - yo while they are trying to perform a choreographed dance number . while it is the shortest clip of the group and a throwback to the alligators and hippos dancing in the first fantasia
, it is still well accomplished and a welcome bit of comedy .
segment six is the only segment to be repeated from the original 1940 fantasia , and it 's the one that people remember most , " the sorcerer 's apprentice " .
the story is the most recognizable , so the draw here is seeing it on the enormous imax screen in remastered stereo .
unfortunately , the segment was n't made to be presented on large format film ( considering it was shot full frame ) and exhibits large amounts of grain .
there were at least two occasions where images were very hard to make out due to the excessive grain .
similar problems crop up on modern day releases when projected on screens too large for the image to be shown accurately
( but no one seems to notice for some strange reason ) , an anomaly common to many 18-plus screen theaters .
segment seven is set to sir edward elgar 's " pomp and circumstance march no .
1 "
and is the only other fantasia segment to feature a stock disney character .
donald duck " stars " as an assistant to noah , whose task is loading all of the animals onto the ark .
during the loading , donald and his wife lose sight of each other and both believe that the other one did n't make it on the boat .
they are constantly missing each other due to comic misadventures mainly involving donald being crushed by animals in various manners .
despite the slapstick style of comedy in this piece , it displays more emotion in its final scene than many of the tear - jerkers foisted on audiences these days .
powerful stuff .
segment eight brings a whole new meaning to the clich ?
" saving the best for last " .
set to igor stravinsky 's " the firebird " , an elk awakens a forest sprite that proceeds to change the wintery landscape into a beautiful springtime landscape .
trees bloom and flowers blossom and everything seems to be going well until the sprite becomes inquisitive about a large mountain housing a strange formation .
when the sprite examines the formation , it awakens and becomes the titular firebird .
in a stunning spectacle , the firebird rears back and unleashes and fire storm that destroys everything in its path , including everything that the sprite has worked to create .
some amazing animation is present here , and well worth the ten dollars a ticket alone
( although brush strokes are evident in one scene due to the enlargement of the film ) .
the host segments are largely ( no pun intended ) throwaways , although steve martin 's clip is pretty funny . be sure to stay through the credits for a little more humor from martin .
penn and teller are usually funny , but here their gags seem routine and therefore uninteresting .
the best segment comes from , of all people , bette midler , who gets to tell us about some of the abandoned segments that never made it off of the drawing board .
pieces like flight of the bumblebee , a take on the four horsemen set to wagner 's " ride of the valkyries " , and a strange segment prepared in the ' 40s by salvador dali that never was shown are all previewed here and teased that they may appear in future installments .
for fans of visual stimulation or classical music , fantasia 2000 is a perfect way to spend the afternoon .
the film is also decent family entertainment and contains little to no objectionable material .
as i mentioned earlier in the review , if ten dollars seems like too much for you to spend on this film , fear not because after its run in imax theaters it is going to be brought out in regular theaters .
i must stress that the best way to see this film is on an imax screen though .
then you too can believe that whales / triangle things / sprites can fly .
[ g ]
P

the reunion film is not an original idea in any way , shape , or form .
it 's been done throughout film history over and over again , and has become one of the many sub - genres , like the prep school sub - genre , the angst - filled teen sub - genre , and the slasher sub - genre .
what makes " peter 's friends
" so remarkable is not how it does n't follow the rules of this sub - genre , but how it follows it so well , and creates characters that i would n't mind hanging with .
what are the rules of the reunion sub - genre ?
well .
. .
. 1 .
you need a group of friends , most of them married or at least dating , and sometimes even married or dating eachother .
2 .
you need to have them brought back together over some sort of a crisis .
3 .
they are not to have spoken together much since they split apart .
4 .
the reunion has to come in intervals divisible by 10 . 5 .
they all have to be slightly to highly neurotic .
6 .
the reunion has to bring them together , seperate them with little crises , then bring them back together because , after all , they 're friends .
7 .
there has to be some sex or at least some making out either between the friends or with other people that are there or were invited .
8 .
eightly , they 're all unhappy or marginally so .
9 .
there 's some sort of sexual tension amongst some of them that 's built up over the years .
10 .
the friends are all wildly successful in the world of entertainment and the arts , sometimes internationally so .
11 .
the film is filled with nostalgic radio hits from the time when they were friends , sometimes causing them to get together in dance / song .
since it follows these rules so closely , it will probably be ( and has been ) coined off as just a " british ' big chill . '
" and in some ways it is .
both follow the rules , as i said , and both feature lots of bitching , big confessionals , and broken relationships .
but while " the big chill " was , at least to me , a tad too whiny and unsatisfying , " peter 's friends " hits its mark , making this film funny , dramatic , and poignant .
the friends of peter 's were all in the same theatre group back in ' 82 , performig wildly outrageous british acts for people far too stuck up to enjoy them
( the opening scene has them all dancing in tux tops and tutus ) .
after peter 's ( stephen fry ) wealthy father ( richard briers , hardly on screen enough to register , but oh well ) dies , leaving a giant mansion to him , he has to decide whether or not to keep it .
not sure what to do with it immeadiately , he decides to throw a giant reunion party , inviting back all his old chums .
of course , all or most of his chums follow the tenth rule .
andrew ( kenneth branagh , also directing here ) is an actor who 's unhappily married to a tv star , carol ( co - writer rita rudner ) .
maggie ( emma thompson )
is a successfuly publisher of self - help books , but looks like she needs them more than her customers , as she is lonely and unhappy .
roger and mary ( hugh laurie and imelda staunton , who were also married in " sense and sensibility " ) are married , and are the most successful creators of jingles in the uk , but have suffered a tragedy as one of their newly born twins has recently died .
and sarah ( alphonsia emmanuel ) is as promiscuous as ever , having a new boyfriend as of two weeks named brian ( tony slattery ) who 's married and wants a divorce because of her , giving her doubts .
as for peter , things seem okay . . .
the film features lots of inner - friend jokes , and even some old theatre anecdotes ( which i at least find a lot of fun in , as i 've done lots of theatre myself ) .
and there are big confessions , brawls between the friends , and by the end , almost everyone is unhappy , even though some have resolved their problems long before the end ( which i kinda dug ) .
the final twist would seem forced an anti - climactic , but for some reason , i felt the same way the rest of the friends did .
maybe it 's because the people in this film are so likable that i just wanted to join their clique .
that 's really what makes " peter 's friends
" so lovable
: the way you just want to hang with a group of friends who can be so dysfuntional sometimes , but when someone 's in crisis , can come together wonderfully for one another .
it 's when you have a giant crisis like this and people want to selflessly help you out instead of subtely pushing you away
that makes you realize you have true friends , and these people are true friends .
not to mention kenneth branagh is able to make the film seem nostalgic for the 80s
( a decade i grew up in , unfortunately ) without taking us outside of the 90s .
there are some 80s classics and anti - classics like tears for fears " everybody wants to rule the world , " but unfortunately no stupid / fun 80s songs ( i think if i ever did an 80s reunion film , i 'd put some crap go gos song on , or at least some good old " come on eileen " ) , but this is the british 80s we 're talking about .
oh well .
but anyway , the direction is pretty good , although nothing amazing .
branagh 's forte is really making shakespeare fresh and magical , but at least he 's very good with making a less ambiguous film like this .
the writing is good from rita rudner and martin bregman , with lots of good one - liners , and even some really bad but good puns ( to mock the fact that andrew lives in l .
a .
, peter , while cutting some logs , asks him is he has wood in l .
a . , and andrew says ,
" no ,
but we have hollywood
" - punishment like that ) .
the actors , as in most speaking movies , are better than their material , though , with some stand - out performances to the six friends , as well as the outsiders like slattery , rudner , and phyllida law as the old housekeeper of the peter 's mansion .
a little note should be made about hugh laurie 's performance , as he looks like he took some massive doses of prozac before doing this - i mean , i 've never seen him actually act this dramatically .
"
peter 's friends " is a really enjoyable film which makes people like me pine for some sort of future reunion , although i do n't know what kind i 'll have ( like most people , i do n't look forward to my high school reunion ) .
because of the way these friends are still able to maintain the same amount of care they have for one another and after such a long period of seperation , i just look forward to the day when i can have friends like that .
P