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

Q: the job of the film critic is to see a movie and write a review of it that tells you what it 's about and why it 's good or bad .
i feel kind of embarrassed to admit this , but i after having seen " get carter
" i really ca n't tell you what it 's about although i could go on and on about how and why it 's a bad movie .
" get carter " falls into that category of ?
movies that continue to be made for reasons unknown to anyone outside of a hollywood executive board room .
you might call them the " steven seagal / mickey rourke / jean - claude van damme / wesley snipes school of mediocre action / crime thrillers .
"
you know - the potboilers that are heavy on fistfights , shoot - outs and car chases but really light on plot and character development .
they have stories where the so - called hero just keeps running into characters who have some connection to one of the other characters who are all antagonists without a reason for being in the movie other than to give the protagonist someone to fight , chase or shoot at .
sylvester stallone stars as jack carter , a las vegas - based mob enforcer who returns home
* for his brother 's funeral .
he believes his brother ?
richie was " taken out " and did n't die from a dwi accident .
carter 's one of the most cliche bad - asses ever captured on celluloid .
his face alone is pretty intimidating and there 's quite a few scenes in which he leans on both regular citizens and criminal lowlives simply by staring them down and speaking with confidence in his " rambo - on - testosterone - therapy " voice .
stallone 's performance in this movie is so forced and unnatural
he does n't realize he 's mocking himself .
the actual story involves carter 's investigation into his brother richie 's death .
he 's in a town that 's not his
but somehow the local top dogs know him very well .
mickey rourke co - stars as one of these characters , a sort of crime boss who has something to do with running a porno web site and blackmailing a young internet tycoon
( played by alan cummings looking and acting a lot like pee wee herman ) .
there 's also another plot involving richie 's mistress , a secret cd - rom with some convicting and disturbing evidence on it and something terrible involving one of carter 's still - living relatives .
i 'm rolling my eyes
just thinking about trying to critique all this in a way that could be remotely comprehendible .
i could just rip the screenplay to shreds , plus the direction or the editing or the production values but that would require discussion of nearly every scene in order to explain it all .
i do n't like to put spoliers in my reviews either intentionally or accidentally .
yes , " get carter " is just that complicated and complex .
and what 's worse is that it 's not this intricate to make it seem smart like " the usual suspects " for example - just the opposite .
you get the feeling whoever wrote this script
did it in short intervals spaced far apart
and they probably did n't remember what had already happened and did n't figure out how each scene would lead in to the next one or how the major plot points would work towards the climax .
all you really need to know is that most of the film is just scenes of carter tracking down one scumbag or supposed witness after another , asking them what they know , getting information and then realizing that if he was n't a complete idiot he could have figured it out in the first five minutes .
although the supporting characters are equally stupid themselves since they tell him everything which comes back to haunt them in one violent way or another .
making a movie entirely about criminals does n't necessarily mean they have to be unlikable and cliche cutout characters .
mel gibson starred in " payback " a few years ago
that had a story not unlike this one but had such a good screenplay you could n't help
but like him even though he was just as bad a guy as jack carter .
so ultimately " get
carter " fails for pretty much every selling point it has
. carter is not a likable character and you really do n't care if he gets revenge or not .
the action sequences are not at all exciting or original .
the enemies and their massive conspiracy are not threatening at all ( c'mon , you know who 's going to win every brawl and shoot - out and car chase ) .
in the end you do n't feel nearly satisfied with the results .
the filmmakers did a good job in doing everything as unoriginal as possible .
*
the city is never mentioned by name
but i assume it 's seattle since all the cars have washington license plates
and it 's always raining .

A: N
****
Q: porter stoddard ( warren beatty ) is a successful architect married to successful fabric designer ellie ( diane keaton ) for twenty - five years .
they and best friends mona ( goldie hawn ) and griffin ( garry shandling ) are about to face marital crises in a film most well known for its torturous path to the screen , " town and country .
" " town and country " has a pedigree befitting it 's title with an all star cast photographed by oscar nominated cinematographer william fraker and mouthing the words of screenwriter buck henry ( " the graduate " ) under the direction of peter chelsom ( " funny bones " ) .
after years of reports of budget overruns and reshoots and the racking up twelve different release dates , the media has been prepped for beatty 's next " ishtar .
"
so , is it that bad ?
the answer is no .
but it 's not very good either .
the major problem with " town and country " is that it 's unstructured and random .
stoddard is immediately established as a philanderer , having just bedded a flaky cellist ( nastassja kinski ) .
next scene finds him and ellie celebrating their anniversary in paris with mona and griffin .
then mona spies griffin hustling a redhead into a motel and begins divorce proceedings ( buck henry cameos as both couples ' divorce lawyer ) .
ellie thinks she 's overeacting , but sends porter to support mona on a trip to check out her family 's mississippi manse .
the two childhood friends end up in bed together , making us wonder why they 'd never become a couple to begin with . back home , their second coupling is interrupted by ellie bursting in to tell mona
she thinks porter 's cheating on her .
porter goes off on a trip with griffin to sun valley , idaho to have more comic misadventures with wacky women as griffin attempts to tell him that he 's gay .
the four friends , along with every woman porter 's dallied with , all end up back in new york city somewhat happily ever after .
although the film begins promisingly , resembling a woody allen take on new york city wasps , too many strands drift off into nowhere .
the stoddard household is huge , containing two adult children ( josh hartnett , " the virgin suicides " and tricia vessey , " kiss the girls " ) , their colorful bedmates and a maid who 's just imported her shirtless boyfriend from the rainforest back home .
after an amusing early scene that has porter overhearing three bouts of lovemaking while in search of a nocturnal snack , the six supporting players are dropped except for an out - of - nowhere appearance by the formerly forgotten son .
porter 's romantic misadventures with women ( other than mona ) are equally mishandled .
once the marital discord begins , the film seems as if it was editted with a machete , stopping and starting , never regaining its rhythm .
while beatty gets off a few tart observations , his character is mostly passive and bemused .
maybe we 're supposed to feel sympathy for an adulterer who does n't initiate his own sex romps ?
keaton 's ellie has a trusting nature that 's a result of her own self involvement resulting in an unlikeable character .
hawn smartly recycles her mature sex kitten wives of " the out of towners " and " the first wives ' club " while shandling 's relegated to true second banana status .
kinski is bland and unmotivated .
andie macdowell takes a weirdly unappealing role and does what she can with the screenplay 's most bizarre subplot , which finds charlton heston as her rifle toting , billionaire daddy and marian seldes as her alcoholic , wheelchair - bound , foul - mouthed mother .
heston and seldes are fun , as is jenna elfman as a sun valley bait and tackle salesgirl who brings porter and griffin to a halloween party .
oscar nominatored cinematographer william fraker gives the film a nice look , but director chelsom shows none of the quirkily and blackly humorous depth
he brought to films like " hear my song " and " funny bones .
"
the script is this film 's weakest link - it 's telling that most of the ( few ) laughs come from old - fashioned physical slapstick and the sight of beatty in a bear suit .
while " town and country " is n't exactly painful to sit through , it mostly just lays there .

A: N
****
Q: this sunday afternoon i had the priviledge of attending a private screening at the sony astor cinema in new york city , of james cameron 's most heralded film , titanic .
postponed from last summer , with an escalated budget that makes it the most expensive movie in history , this was one film i was eager to preview .
so , is this movie going to sink or swim this holiday ?
my best guess .
. . . it will sink , though with many awards attatched to its hull .
no doubt , titanic is the most elaborate disaster movie ever made .
it boasts the most amazing effects that i have ever seen done to date .
to see a ship fall apart , with actual people running across the ship , flying across the deck , and falling to the water , is just amazing to look at .
the effects are so stunningly realistic , you would swear you were looking at actual footage .
but titanic is more than a disaster movie , and that 's where the problem lies .
there is a love story attatched that nearly ruins the entire premise .
i 'll give a capsule summary of the story without spoiling anything for you : the film begins with a modern day excavation of sorts of the sunken titanic .
we see actual footage of the sunken ship , as cammeron had set up special cameras to film the wreckage on the ocean floor .
bill paxton leads the expedition , in search of sunken treasure .
what he finds instead , leads him to a mysterious old woman who recounts her tale of the titanic voyage .
we meet rose ( kate winslet ) , a young woman , who comes from an upper - class family .
rose is to be we d to a man she does not love .
we meet jack ( leonardo dicaprio ) , a young man , who comes from a poor financial background , and wins a ticket aboard the titanic , in a poker game .
the two meet under interesting circumstances , and the love story begins .
add in a jealous fiance , and a not - so - nice law officer played by david warner , and you have a story that , well , gets a bit overplayed and oversappy .
i must add , at this point , that the most likeable character in the movie is played by kathy bates , as a woman with " new money " who is a lot less uptight than the other rich folk on the ship .
she is a pleasure to see on screen .
when the ship does hit the iceberg at exactly 1 : 40 into the film , and eventually sinks , you never really feel for any of these characters .
the film is just loaded with unlikeable rich snobs and other folk you never really get a grasp on .
the effects are tremendous .
from the roars of gears and pumps in the engine room , to a doomed ship cracking at the seams , this is an effects picture that looks and sounds like no other .
we saw titanic in dolby digital surround , and by far , it is the best sounding movie i have ever seen .
my friend commented it was the best sound mix he has ever heard
.
when people are in the water , at film 's end , you are surrounded by the voices of lost soles .
titanic runs far too long .
the movie is 3 hours and 15 minutes in length .
and , while most of the first 2 .
5 hours runs very fast and well - paced
, the final 45 minutes almost comes to a sudden stop , and you realize that this sappy love story has to finish itself out before the movie finally ends .
do n't get me wrong about titanic . . . .
it 's not a bad as i am making it out to be .
it really is an exceptionaly well - made film .
the costumes and sets are incredible , and true to the time period .
the ship is painstakingly created exactly true to form , as we see actual pictures of the modern - day wreckage , transformed into the movie depiction .
this film will certainly win on effects , costume , set design and sound .
cameron has certainly made his best film to date .
unfortunately , titanic is not a best picture candidate .
it just does n't have a strong supporting story .
it 's an exceptional disaster film with sappy filler inside .
it just does n't have the emotional impact that i suspect mr .
cameron was shooting for .
i predict that titanic will open to likeable reviews .
it is a film worth seeing .
i predict that it will only do moderately well at the box office .
with its extreme running time , and lack of enough robust to get substantial word - of - mouth , i expect that it will do even better on home video .
this will certainly be the definitive ac3 movie for all you home theater enthusiasts .
titanic opens december 19th , and is released by paramount pictures and twentieth century - fox .
i give titanic 3 stars ( .
that 's not bad .
ron epstein riginally posted in home theater forum
= = =

A:
P
****