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

nicolas cage comes up with an ingenious survival mechanism for his role in the wink - and - a - concussive - nudge bombast - o - rama con air .
the opening credits sequence introduces us to cage as cameron poe , a gulf war veteran convicted of manslaughter and serving eight years in prison after an ill - fated bar - room brawl .
the prison scenes are accompanied by voice - overs in which poe , in a languid southern drawl , describes prison life to his wife back home and offers simple homilies for the daughter he has never met .
if the scene gives you a tickle of familiarity , it probably should .
cage appears to realize that con air is going to be utterly dim - witted and ridiculous , and that he 's going to have to do something to keep himself entertained .
and thus he slips into a familiar , surreal role as his own commentary on the proceedings -- cage plays cameron poe as a buffed - up version of raising arizona 's h .
i .
mcdonnough .
cage should have known what he was getting himself into .
he got a paycheck from jerry bruckheimer last year for the rock , and if there 's one thing you can count on from a bruckheimer production ( even without his late partner don simpson ) , it 's that you can count on seeing everything you saw in the _ last _ bruckheimer production .
the critical difference between the rock and con air is cage 's performance .
in the rock , cage appeared to be having the time of his life jumping into the action fray for the first time .
that sense of discovery has been replaced by a wry self - awareness .
while the plot of con air finds poe a parolee on board a hijacked prison transport plane whose goal is just to get home , cage 's goal is different but just as simple : to get out of the film with some measure of dignity intact .
audiences , too , should know what they 're getting themselves into with a bruckheimer production .
in fact , the marketing people are counting on it .
no one who loathed the rock for its swear - grunt - blast repetitiveness will be converted by con air ; no one who loved the rock for exactly the same reasons will be dissuaded .
director simon west ( yet another tv commercial auteur plucked by bruckheimer from the advertising equivalent of the schwab 's soda fountain )
delivers exactly the kind of adrenaline / testosterone cocktail which could launch an endocrinology lecture
( it 's perversely appropriate that one sympathetic con spends most of the flight nearing a diabetic coma ; like insulin , con air does the work of a gland ) .
what he does n't deliver is a moment of suspense .
a bruckheimer film has no use for hitchcock 's notion that showing you the bomb under the desk creates a more interesting scene than just blowing up the desk ; a really , _ really _ big desk and a really , _ really _ big bomb will serve the purpose nicely .
if either west or bruckheimer were interested in genuine tension , they might have done something with con air 's creepiest set - up .
at a desert stop for the plane - load of convicts , serial killer garland greene ( steve buscemi )
wanders of into a trailer park where he meets a little girl having a tea party in a drained swimming pool .
their tete - a - tete is eerie and menacing , providing a welcome shift in tone and giving buscemi a chance to stand out in a cast with too many villains ( danny trejo , ving rhames and a characteristically reptilian john malkovich among them ) .
in fact , con air usually opts for too much of something when the tiniest measure of restraint would have been an improvement -- too many characters , too much editing , too many dopey punch lines , too much of the cheap , ugly appeals to machismo which characterize too many bruckheimer efforts .
it is that kind of exhausting excess to which cage is responding with his detached performance .
while malkovich goes for the outrageous and john cusack ( as a u . s . marshal )
goes for
earnest , cage looks like he just wants to go to sleep .
his recycled raising arizona performance is a means of escape , his chase after a stuffed bunny a continuation of his pursuit of that big box of huggies .
it does n't bode well for cage 's appearance in face / off later this month ; perhaps he already realizes that all he can do in action films is more of the same over and over .
there 's a word for people like you , nicolas .
that word is called recidivist . . .
repeat offender .
N

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 .
P

part one of " the strangest movies ever made " series at www .
mediajunkies .
com by scott watson [ light spoilers , nothing you should n't read ]
existenz has been called " a gooey matrix " , and while this is a correct description in some ways , in others it is completely off .
the only thing the two films have in common is the idea of a virtual reality that is indistinguishable from normal , " real " reality .
a major difference is that " the matrix " has a base reality that is obviously the true reality , while existenz does the impossible and makes us accept the most bizarre reality ever as true .
and oh what a reality it is .
david cronenberg has shown us before that he knows how to create strange movies ( naked lunch , crash ) , but this one is one of the strangest .
maybe it 's because of how the mundane is mixed with the bizarre .
technology is organic , but only some of it .
cars are normal .
gas stations are the same .
cell phones are glowing bug like appendages .
you jack into a virtual reality game using a quivering pink gooey animal like apparatus ( referred to simply as a " pod " ) .
high technology has been replaced with organic creatures , and it provides a truly surreal setting for the characters .
a famous game designer , allegra geller ( a fine looking jennifer jason leigh ) , flees a demonstration of her latest game , existenz , after an assassination attempt .
she is on the run ( from who , i 'm still not sure ) , and has to save her pod by playing her game with " someone friendly " .
that someone friendly is her dubious companion and security guard , ted pikul ( jude law ) .
unfortunately he is lacking a fundamental requirement for playing , a bioport .
sort of a hole in your spine
( ok , exactly like a hole in your spine ) , a bioport allows you to plug the vaguely entrail - looking wires from the pod into you , allowing you to play the game .
luckily a bioport can be installed easily ( they install them in malls ) , so off they go to get one .
after a crazy series of events at the local country gas station , they are able to plug in and play existenz .
the plot itself is a surreal melding of conspiracies , reality distortion , chinese restaurants , and multi appendaged amphibian things ( " it 's a sign of the times " ) .
but the plot , while cohesive in it 's own creepy way is secondary to just trying to figure out what the hell is going on in this universe .
cronenberg just slaps this weird organic - tech world into the viewers lap , and it 's up to you to figure out how all these things work .
and that 's the true joy of this film , entering the vaguely nightmarish world in which existenz takes place .
you learn a little bit piece by piece ( oh , they make pods out of those ) , and it 's just enough to get you to accept the world that is presented to you .
there are all kinds of twists and turns as the characters wander around , including a fantastic scene in a chinese restaurant that will leave you trying to assemble something out of your moo goo gai pan for months afterwards .
also the bioports are occasionally used for things other than porting into existenz , the specifics of which i will leave for you to discover .
there 's lots of little things that set off the weird - o - meter , like the little tiny pods that you can buy in the video game store , the two headed amphibian creature , and why that guy at the gas station 's name appears to be " gas " .
it all adds up to a supremely far out trip , and given the choice i think i would rather live in the matrix 's virtual world .
. .
oh wait
, i already do .
P