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

synopsis : al simmons , top - notch assasin with a guilty conscience , dies in a fiery explosion and goes to hell .
making a pact with malebolgia , a chief demon there , simmons returns to earth 5 years later reborn as spawn , a general in hell 's army donning a necroplasmic costume replete with knives , chains , and a morphing cape .
sullen , wise cogliostro and flatulating , wisecracking violator vy for spawn 's attention .
comments : when todd mcfarlane left marvel comics ( where he had made a name for himself as a first - rate comic book penciller on the " spider - man " titles ) to join the newly - formed , creator - owned image comics , a new comic book legend was born : spawn .
mcfarlane 's " spawn " immediately became a commercial and critical success and a defining comic book series of the 1990s .
mcfarlane created a hero who was not only original but visually intricate , allowing mcfarlane to utilize his knack for artistic detail to the max .
the early " spawn " issues brilliantly capture mcfarlane 's genius at illustration and show his early attempts at writing .
with the popularity of " spawn " and the success of the current warner bros . 's batman film franchise , a movie version of some sort seemed inevitable for spawn .
in the summer of 1997 , hence , new line cinema released spawn , a live - action film based on the groundbreaking series .
this topheavy exercise in violence and special effects
unfortunately topples quickly and leaves fans of the comic book , like me , numbed by how much spawn misses the mark .
what happened ?
why is spawn so bad ?
todd mcfarlane himself
executive produced this disappointing misfire and even appears in a cameo .
i do n't think , however , that his presence necessarily hurt ( or helped )
the film .
i place the blame , in part , on the recent hollywood trend , fueled by public demand apparently , for special effects blow - out movies utilizing the latest computer technology .
these films focus upon the effects at the expense of everything else : character , plot , dialogue , etc .
spawn , reflecting this trend , shows the audience one gratuitous scene after another populated with morphing characters and filled with unnecessary pyrotechnics .
hardly a minute goes by in this film without fires , explosions , knives and chains appearing out of nowhere , glowing eyes , or constantly transforming demons .
a lot of it is visually interesting and technically solid , do n't get me wrong , but , because the script and cast are n't engaging , spawn ultimately comes across like overwrought wallpaper ( the surface may capture the eye , but nothing exists underneath ) .
spawn 's translation of the comic book suffers the most at the storyline level .
mcfarlane 's spawn was a tortured hero .
a mercenary by trade , al simmons was nonetheless a warm man in love with the beautiful wanda .
having died and journeyed to hell , he made a pact to return to earth to be with wanda .
simmons , however , discovers that his memories are fragmented , his body a creepy mess , and his wife married .
despite his sometimes violent nature , readers could n't help but feel sympathetic toward his plight as the spawn of the underworld .
spawn attempts to show all of this but does not spend nearly the time it should to do so .
when the characters are developed , they seem absurd rather than touching .
the cartoonish dialogue and implausible subplot
( a general possesses the antidote to a supervirus called heat-16 which he wishes to unleash to enslave the world ) do not help matters .
spawn , in an apparent attempt to duplicate the success of batman , also unwisely spends too much time on a villain , the violator ( batman favored the joker over batman ) .
john leguizamo , like jack nicholson in batman , receives top billing in the cast as the violator ; michael jai white ( al simmons / spawn ) is second .
i ordinarily find leguizamo an intensely annoying presence in films which seems to make him a perfect candidate for the violator .
the film , however , spends so much time on the violator 's offensive antics that they grate on the nerves .
apparently meant to be the comic relief in the film ( as nicholson was in batman ) , especially when contrasted with the sullen spawn , the violator 's lines are oftentimes grotesque and unfunny , leaving the audience wishing he would leave .
leguizamo does a satisfactory job in the role , but he is seen far too often in the film .
michael jai white , a relative newcomer to theatrical releases , seems to be an appealing actor , and he handles his role adequately , but we see little of him without various masks on .
more time needed to be spent on white 's character before he became spawn for the movie to pull at the heartstrings .
a special note should be made about martin sheen as the over - the - top , obnoxious , evil general wynn .
easily the hammiest performance in the movie , it 's hard to imagine how sheen mucked up his role so much ; after all , he played a vietnam assasin brilliantly in the great apocalypse now .
sheen 's excessive demeanor do not help the audience accept him as a mastermind villain and comes as a surprise considering his extensive career in film .
many other elements conspire with the disappointing script and abundant special effects to drag spawn down
.
mtv - style , jerky , in - your - face editing is one of them .
flames , for example , roll across the screen sometimes to announce a shift in setting .
cogliostro , unlikely wannabe guide for spawn , serves as a poor narrator for the film .
he goofily tells the audience , at one point , that " how much of [ spawn 's ] humanity is left remains to be seen , " as if the audience really cares as one violent sequence leads to another .
the music , finally , assaults the audience as much as the manic violence and offensive dialogue .
loud and obnoxious hard rock fused with drum loops dominate some scenes .
to be fair , however , marilyn manson 's " long hard road out of hell
" effectively compliments spawn 's return to earth , while filter and the crystal method 's
" ( ca n't you ) trip like i do " proves a surprisingly fitting theme song .
for as good a comic book as it is , " spawn " did not spawn a good movie .
spawn , instead , suffers from too much pomp and circumstance , and too little plot and character development
.
it receives two stars for its technically well - done special effects .
many other films , though , have equal , if not superior , special effects and are much better .
rated pg-13 , spawn seems more violent than many r - rated movies and probably would n't be appropriate for the very young .
N

if you 're the type of person who goes on the submarine ride every time you visit disneyland , you 're going to love the hunt for red october .
you 'll also love the film if you enjoy cat and mouse military tactics , or if you 're a sean connery or alec baldwin fan , or if you admired director john mctiernan 's earlier films , die hard and predator .
in fact , the only people likely to be disappointed with the hunt for red october are those who have read the book , since films almost never live up to the novels which inspired them .
the hunt for red october is an epic thriller , adapted from tom clancy 's best selling novel .
set in an era before glasnost , the movie revolves around a top - secret soviet submarine , called the red october .
the nuclear sub has a revolutionary propulsion system , which makes the vessel silent and allows it to escape sonar detection .
the red october embarks on its maiden voyage under the command of captain marko ramius , played by sean connery .
ramius has strict orders just to test the submarine , but he has other ideas .
he takes the sub and its crew and disappears into the atlantic ocean .
is he planning to start world war
iii ?
cia analyst jack ryan does n't think so ; he 's convinced that ramius plans to defect to the u . s .
ryan , played by alec baldwin , is given three days to prove his theory and find the missing sub .
the characters in the hunt for red october are paper thin , but the performances , thankfully , are rock solid .
baldwin and connery anchor the film with their customary vigor .
sam
neil gives a sturdy performance
as connery 's somber first officer .
it 's ironic to see neil and connery playing russians , since they are both best known for their roles as british agents , connery as james bond and neil as reilly , " ace of spies .
"
the large cast also includes scott glenn , james earl jones , tim curry , and joss ackland , plus richard jordan as the smooth u . s . national security adviser .
the special effects are remarkable , but more than anything , the hunt for red october is distinguished by its water - tight plot .
screenwriters larry ferguson and donald stewart have gracefully navigated red october through a story line full of twists and turns .
they keep us involved in the action by unveiling plot strands at just the right moment .
the movie does n't get as sweaty or breathless as die hard , because it would rather tell a good story than hit you over the head with non - stop action .
the finale is rousing and suspenseful , but essentially , the hunt for red october is a superior potboiler .
P

some movies require you to turn off your brain in order to watch .
then there are movies that require you to accept that everyone * in *
the movie has turned off
* their * brains .
the real mccoy is both .
it 's charmless , molasses - slow and so full of genuinely stupid people that the film commission of atlanta , where the real mccoy is set , might well consider some sort of ritual suicide for their complicity in this humiliation .
the real mccoy opens with
bank robber karen mccoy ( kim basinger ) being arrested in the middle of a job .
six years later , karen is out on parole and looking to stay straight .
she soon bumps into j .
t .
barker ( val kilmer ) , a hapless would - be thief who idolizes karen .
j .
t .
also has ties to jack schmidt ( terence stamp ) , the man who blew the whistle on karen six years earlier for refusing to work with him .
schmidt , who is in cahoots with karen 's sleazy parole officer ( gailard sartain ) , again wants karen to help him stage a robbery .
this time he has some leverage : karen 's kidnapped son .
just when she thought she was out , they keep pulling her back
* in .
* contrivances and sloppy plotting fly off the screen so fast and furiously
you have to duck to avoid being hit by them .
leading the list is the jack schmidt character , who through unexplained but presumably foul mains is already extremely wealthy when our story begins .
there is no reason given why he should need or want to get involved in another crime , let alone why he would actually participate in the break - in .
karen 's initial encounter with j .
t .
during a botched convenience store hold - up also strains the limits of credibility .
it would have been simple enough to have them somehow entangled at that point , but instead they run into each other the next day because they 're leaving their parole officers at exactly the same moment .
small world , eh ?
then there 's the convenient car trouble during an attempted escape , and pet tigers which , through the power of the laws of bad cinema , must inevitably confront someone who has blundered into their cage .
however , the buffoon prize goes to the atlanta police , who come off like the keystone kops on a bad day .
but the fun does n't end there in the shambles of a script by william davies and william osborne .
there is also the absence of a single , solitary interesting character .
karen is earnest and single - minded in her motherly devotion , but lacking any kind of edge which would make her a convincing criminal , and basinger is not a thespian adept at fleshing out flimsy material .
schmidt is a flaccid villain
, the parole officer is a complete blank , and karen 's son and ex - husband might as well be furniture .
only kilmer 's j .
t . is remotely appealing , but his one potentially intriguing quality , his ineptitude , is never developed .
in fact , kilmer disappears during the middle of the film , just when his admiration for karen could have made for an interesting sub - plot .
i might have been more forgiving if the pacing had been more appropriate to a caper comedy , but the real mccoy goes nowhere fast .
various scenes of sneaking and skulking seem to take forever , and some end with no reason evident why they did n't end up on the cutting room floor .
even the reasonably clever climactic break - in falls victim to this syndrome , including a scene of one of the thieves drilling open a vault which lasts ( i kid you not ) four minutes .
there is no tension in the scene , just tedium .
russell mulcahy ( highlander ) is a director with some style , and indeed the real mccoy looks reasonably good , but he completely stumbles in the editing room .
there are so many big problems with the real mccoy that i 'm tempted to overlook the little ones .
like karen disarming one of schmidt 's henchmen and throwing his gun into the middle of a park where her son is playing .
like a fountain crushed when a van runs into it reappearing in one piece a few moments later .
tempted .
but i 'm pretty good at resisting temptation .
N