In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
--------
Question: a big surprise to me .
the good trailer had hinted that they pulled the impossible off , but making a blues brothers movie without jake blues ( john belushi ) is such a dumb idea i really had no hope .
they replaced him just fine .
not with john goodman , he did n't do much of anything , but with the brilliant actor joe morton , who can really sing .
the fourth blues brother is j evan bonifant , who 's ten .
this was another of my fears for the film , but he 's a really good dancer , and plays a mean harmonica
( although he may have been dubbed ) .
things that intellectually had bothered me before , like no mission from god , everyone being richer , it not being filmed in chicago -- gave me no problems at all .
i 'm quite pleased that there were less car pile - ups , because they meant less music , and john landis seems to have lost interest in the whole thing .
there 's a few early crashes , and then one huge pile - up , but after that it all stops .
it 's just the music .
one of my problems with the first is that cab calloway 's song is so good the actually blues brothers look dull after him , but there 's no problems with this .
the music is all as good as ever , tons of great musicians showing up -- with the exception of johnny lang , who ca n't sing ,
all the musicians do a great job .
the only real problems i had was the special effects .
these were superfluous and a waste of money .
since the film is n't doing very well , they could mean we have no possibility of another sequel , which i want to see .
the bluegrass version of riders in the sky is even better than rawhide .
-- http : //www .
geocities .
com / hollywood / academy/8034/ remove no spam to reply .
" drive carefully but recklessly " , mama , child 's toy
" the only excercise i take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise .
"
peter o'toole

Answer: P

Question: in my review of there 's something about mary , i said something to the effect of " laughter is n't everything .
"
i now need to make a brief addendum to my postulate : laughter is n't everything , unless i 'm watching a jim abrahams film .
see , spoofs are easy with me .
i love movies , and i love movies that make fun of movies that i love .
sometimes i 'm the only one in the theater laughing .
sometimes i laugh so hard that i embarass myself because my laugh is so high - pitched in comparison to my speaking voice
( it cuts right through everyone else 's laughter ) .
sometimes i laugh so much that my cheekbones are sore by the end of the film .
abraham 's latest film , mafia !
, induced this kind of hysteria upon me .
it 's gotten some mediocre reviews , but , hey , i 'm the guy who laughs at everything .
there may be a lot of jokes that flop in this film , but there are far more that work , and i laughed so frequently that the failed jokes usually occurred as i was recovering from the previous bout of giddy madness .
i enjoy films like this because not one second of it is serious or thought - provoking .
most lighweight films that pose as comedies try to do other things , like develop characters , shape stories , and other such nonsense .
mafia !
has no pretentions about characters or story , and it exists for no other reason than to make people laugh .
the film begins on the perfect high note , with a mockery of the opening of casino .
our hero ( jay mohr ) is seen walking from a casino and getting into his car , which subsequently explodes and sends him flying through the air against a backdrop of flowing fire . to describe the story of mafia ! is absurd and pointless , but i will mention that it basically follows the framework of the godfather films , with a lot of casino references inserted throughout .
along the way , the parodies seem arbitrary , and rarely victimize mob films : pictures like the english patient , forrest gump , and jaws undergo severe and hilarious bashing .
movies like this rely on just a few things , but the most important element is direction .
abrahams has been down this path many times before ( hot shots ! , top secret ! , airplane ! , and any other film with an exclamation point in the title ) , and so i hold most of the success of mafia !
to his experience .
he takes just the right attitude in each scene , and manages to wring at least a bit laughter out of even the most oddly placed references ( one inexplicable moment seems like it wants to make fun of titanic , but it never develops ) .
the actors are all energetic , which helps a lot with the tone of the film .
mohr ( suicide kings , paulie ) , who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors , is so good here .
he looks like he 's having so much fun that he 's containing his laughter in every scene ( watch his face in the sequence by the swimming pool ) .
he 's probably the only performer in the cast who manages to urge laughter without the help of the material .
lloyd bridges does a decent imitation of brando 's godfather , while pamela gidley is dead - on in a full - blown mockery of sharon stone .
the hard thing about writing reviews for comedies is that i 'm supposed to give examples of things and be specific .
unfortunately , i was so constantly blindsided by laughter during mafia ! that i ca n't remember a lot of what made me laugh .
but that 's a good sign : mafia !
is so funny that i was n't even given time to apply any of the scenes to memory .
i laughed so hard that it shut off my brain
.
i know that does n't sound particularly complimentary , but when watching a dumb comedy like this , the first thing i want to do is shut off my brain .
finally , a film that does this for me .

Answer: P

Question: sometimes a stellar cast can compensate for a lot of things , and " pushing tin " certainly features some name stars who are going places : billy bob thornton , cate blanchett , angelina jolie , and oh yes john cusack who might not realize it at first , but he 's actually the * veteran * among this quartet of fine - looking people .
sometimes a terrific cast like this can compensate for a lackluster screen treatment of an idea that has " hip comedy " written all over it , compensate for workmanlike but uninspired direction , compensate for an obnoxious score that would have anyone but the tone deaf screaming for the exits , compensate for clich ?
d characterizations , compensate for embarrassing " you have to be joking " situations .
etc .
in " pushing tin , " thornton , blanchett , jolie , and cusack do n't have an earthly .
from the opening sequence the film is in big trouble :
squiggly , " quirky " credits , fake - looking passenger planes circling new york , and anne dudley 's in - your - ear music making us wonder how she ever got that best original score nomination for " the full monty , " let alone won it .
but i , for one , was n't ready to walk just yet .
so quickly we descend into a tightly - edited air traffic controllers montage which screams to us in large capital letters these people have a difficult job , yes , what with their frantic , mile - a - minute instructional personas , juggling planes and passenger 's lives like some huge , real , mid - air video game .
hip , cool , demonic auctioneer nick
" the zone " falzone ( cusack ) is the best in the biz .
of course .
until some hipper , cooler , leather - clad flyboy assist in the guise of russell bell ( thornton ) shows up to challenge falzone 's finite air space .
boys will be boys and some heavy duty testosterone starts exuding , then the macho one - upmanship begins .
it does n't stop with seeing who can juggle three 747s within a cat 's whisker of each other .
oh no .
there are some broken hoop dreams , some wanna - see -
how - fast - i - can - drives , and then the ultimate showdown : was that my wife i saw you with last night ?
director mike newell ( " four weddings and a funeral " ) must have read a different draft of this script because the one that 's being acted out up there between newark , jfk , and la guardia does n't have an ounce of subtlety , and newell has made some awfully good - and funny - movies before .
the antics of these air traffic controllers will make you cringe .
they 'll make you frown in disbelief .
they 'll have you constantly looking at your watch .
but wait !
there 's still 100 minutes to go ! !
the film 's only saving grace is blanchett , whose connie falzone is a spunky , brash , long island housewife who wants to better herself by taking art classes .
this is a wonderful accomplishment for the fine actress who has previously played a red - headed australian gambler ( " oscar and lucinda " ) and a tempestuous british monarch ( " elizabeth " ) .
but she 's not enough to save the picture .
thornton looks terrific and performs solidly but his character is a joke .
jolie ( as russell 's knock 'em dead wife ) is n't bad , but the up - and - coming actress disappoints by allowing herself to be displayed like a plaything .
cusack cracks gum , dons shades , and acts hip throughout but , like everything else in the film ,
his performance is forced .
in the last ten minutes or so , for some inexplicable reason , things start coming together and you begin to get a sense of how this film might have been , like the trailer teases .
but it 's too little too late .
a fine cast aside , " pushing tin " is nothing more than an embarrassment .

Answer:
N