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

why do so many children 's films treat their target audience with utter contempt ? too many of those who write or direct for children 's movies assume that the kids just ca n't handle serious , thoughtful discussions on meaningful issues .
"
the iron giant , " which was directed and co - written by brad bird , late of such animated series as " the simpsons " and " king of the hill , " assumes that not only can children handle such discussions , but that they can do so while being entertained at the same time .
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the iron giant " holds absolutely no contempt for the young people in the audience , making it a film that 's enjoyable for both children and adults alike
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hogarth hughes ( voice of eli marienthal ) is a spirited young lad who lives with his hard - working single mother , annie ( jennifer aniston ) , in a small town in maine .
after staying up late and watching scary movies on a night his mother is away , hogarth treks out into the forest to investigate what has stolen his antenna and ruined his tv reception .
he comes across a giant robot ( vin diesel ) from space that eats metal for food .
after saving the robot , nicknamed the iron giant , from electric shock , hogarth befriends the creature and takes him in as a pet of sorts .
because of damage he suffered upon landing , the giant has forgotten what his original mission was , so he just follows hogarth around like a lost puppy .
realizing he ca n't just keep the giant in a barn all the time , and that the giant needs food , he takes him to a junkyard owned by dean ( harry connick jr . ) , an eccentric artist who assembles sculptures out of scrap iron in his spare time .
it soon becomes apparent that dean and hogarth ca n't keep the giant a secret forever , because a government spook named kent mansley ( christopher mcdonald ) has been brought in to investigate mysterious sightings in the surrounding forest area and considers the giant a threat to national security .
he suspects hogarth knows something about the giant , and takes up residence in hogarth 's house as a lodger .
meanwhile , the giant begins to exhibit ominous behavior that suggests he was built to be a weapon of some kind .
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the iron giant " is exactly what family films ought to be , because it doesn ' t talk down to its audience .
the story is simple , very simple , about an alien being that drops out of the sky and befriends a young boy .
it 's very similar to the spielberg classic " e .
t . , ' and such comparisons are actually deserved in the case of " the iron giant .
"
the film holds many of the better elements of spielberg 's film , such as the ability to be sentimental without turning sappy .
the film delivers several serious messages , the most important of which is one 's ability to choose one 's own fate .
hogarth teaches the giant to go against his programming and become what he wants to be : a hero .
the final sequence is touching and appropriate , though i wo n't give it away , i will say that very few will be disappointed .
the animation , while not up to disney standards ( what could be , after " tarzan " ? ) , is good enough to make you forget you 're watching a cartoon .
the giant is computer - animated , while the human characters are all hand - drawn the old - fashioned way .
the characters ' faces are done quite well , drawn realistically enough to make the personalities credible , but the features are exaggerated so as to allow for the cartoonish expressions that provide for comic relief .
fine voice work is turned in by young eli marienthal as hogarth , and jennifer aniston is surprisingly convincing as his waitress mother .
harry connick jr .
does a nice characterization as dean , and i really enjoyed the voice work of john mahoney ( of tv 's " frasier " ) as an army general called in by agent mansley .
unlike several cartoon features , each character is actually a developed personality , rather than a stereotype , and is actually integral to the plot , rather than being a superfluous comic - relief sidekick ( a clich ?
disney still has n't ditched ) .
dean , for example , could have been a stereotypical beatnik ( his character profile seems to suggest that ) , but he is presented as a character with real emotions , thoughts , and motivations .
even the heavy , agent mansley , is not a villain who does bad things simply because he wants to , but out of his own fear and paranoia .
a lesser animated feature would have drawn up paper - thin stereotypes and figure the kids wo n't mind , but " the iron giant " has clearly put a little work into making the characters real , and it pays off .
the film is n't only around to deliver heavy - handed messages , though .
it 's also very funny , and the humor is of the kind that both children and adults will enjoy .
the scenes in which hogarth teaches the giant to do certain things , such as dive into a pool , are handled well , and director brad bird clearly has a sense of comic timing , having worked on " the simpsons " for many years .
a sequence where hogarth and mansley attempt to " outlast " one another by trying to stay awake is very nicely timed , and also extremely clever .
the film even takes some jabs at america 's nuclear paranoia during the early stages of the cold war , satirizing the lame safety films shown to grade school students that tell them to " duck and cover " in the event of a nuclear attack .
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the iron giant " has much more of a satirical edge to it than most family films , and the edgy humor is actually quite refreshing .
instead of seeing people get bonked on the head , we get well - timed , clever gags that seem to have required some imagination to come up with
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when you get right down to it , " the iron giant " is no more than the story of a boy and his robot .
the story is so straightforward , so quaint , that it ultimately becomes charming .
though i enjoy the complex plotting of film noir as much as the next person , when it comes to family entertainment , simple is the way to go .
it 's akin to one of those bedtime stories your father told that had you hanging on his every word , but it 's not the story that sets the film above others of its kind ,
but rather the elements that go into the story , namely real characters and thoughtful dialogue , which " the iron giant " has in spades .
P

jean - claude van damme movies tend to be , if nothing else , a lot of mindless fun .
his latest film , " knock off , " skips on the fun part leaving a wildly incoherent exercise that is , well , simply mindless .
you ca n't really blame van damme .
no one , i suspect , has ever expected " the muscles from brussels " to contribute a heartfelt performance brimming with introspection and delicate shades of gray .
and even his sidekick co - star , " saturday night live " alumnus rob " makin ' copies " schneider , does what 's expected of him , although neither appear to want the role of straight man .
no ,
the problem with the film is its direction .
the first five minutes of the film are incomprehensible . . .
and it goes downhill from there !
five hundred characters , it seems , are introduced within the first fifteen minutes .
van damme does n't land his first kick until after thirty -- too late for most action fans -- and by the time the hour mark has rolled around ,
your jaw will be on your cup holder and you 'll be wondering why you elected to spend seven dollars on this mess
.
director hark tsui , whose previous film was the van damme / dennis rodman teamed " double team , " films at such a frenetic pace that it 's hard to know what 's going on
, who 's on whose side , and what the point of all this is .
faster than you can yell " fruit stand !
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we 're watching a crazed rickshaw race with schneider being bounced along by an energetic van damme .
when schneider starts whacking van damme in the behind with a four - foot eel while enthusing " move your beautiful big ass , " the movie takes an unprecedented turn to the bizarre .
every now and again " knock off " will deliver some truly ingenious directorial flourishes -- inventive camera shots and angles , wild rides down gun silencers and from the tops of buildings to the sprawling street below , revealing cut - ins within the frame -- but they all happen too quickly , and within such a furious frame of reference , that they 're wasted . if only hark could have slowed things down just for a minute . if you 're interested in the plot , you 're better off reading a capsule review than trying to extract any meaning from the on - screen shenanigans : " jean - claude van damme plays a shady bluejeans manufacturer who uncovers a russian mafia plot to terrorize the world with " nanobombs " hidden in cabbage patch knock - offs .
maybe .
with paul sorvino .
"
a more accurate summary would be " jean - claude van damme bums around hong kong failing to avoid large , blatant coca - cola product placements .
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the fact that the film is staged during hong kong 's last days under british rule gets some lip service but does n't figure in at all .
perhaps " knock off " 's most intriguing credit is that ron and russell mael composed the frenzied music score .
some of you might remember the mael brothers as the ' 80s synth pop duo sparks ; their contributions here are as confused as the accompanying action-- " kimono my house " indeed !
like the cheap jeans and " pumma " sneakers manufactured in hong kong , van damme 's latest is a real phony .
N

note to screenwriters and self : when you hit the big time , and the studios come knocking for those scripts that are sitting in your bottom drawer , tell ?
em all to hit the road .
gilligan wrote the arbitrarily - titled home fries ten years ago ; it was shelved until he found success as one of " the took a second look at gilligan 's " comedy " - they read it again wearing rose - tinted glasses .
drew stars as sally , a dim ( but sweet ) , pregnant waitress at a small town burger joint located somewhere in the southern united states .
the father of her child is dead , the victim of a severe heart attack brought on by sadistic torture from his two stepsons - these flyboys scared him with their low - flying helicopter .
dorian ( wilson ) and angus ( busey ) were getting even for his philandering ways on behalf of their anguished mother ( o'hara ) .
trouble is , sally picked up some interference on her drive - thru headset , and angus worries she may have heard conversations that took place in the helicopter prior to the accidental killing .
so dorian goes undercover as a burger - flipper ; before you can say " with cheese " he falls for the mother - to - be . too bad mom and angus have homicidal plans for sally .
does this sound like a movie you want to see ?
without a doubt , the best thing about home fries is barrymore ; at the risk of sounding sexist , she 's never looked better than here , as a curly redhead with twinkling eyes .
she is winning in a role that requires her to do absolutely nothing except look apple - cheek cute and gawk at wilson , her real - life boyfriend .
but the plot and the situations are so off - putting that nothing could save it .
this movie desperately wants to get mentioned in the same breath as the coen brothers , but home fries ' brand of laboured hipness would be foreign to geniuses like ethan and joel .
it 's raising arizona without babies , without charm , without laughs , without human characters , and without intelligence ; worst of all , it 's creepy .
what 's funny about threatening to gun down a pregnant woman with a machine gun ?
( unless the woman in question is a spice girl . ) take out the helicopters , the quasi - incestuous relationship between the mother and her sons ( it is absolutely illogical , within the movie 's framework , that dorian still lives with his mother and brother ) , and the scenes of murder ( attempted and otherwise ) , and what are you left with ? the story of a single woman with child who works at a fast food joint ( but dreams of becoming a country singer ) . that could turn out to be the most boring movie ever made , but it 'd be better than home fries .
N