TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: sam ( matthew broderick ) is an astronomer in a small american town and engaged to teacher linda ( kelly preston ) .
he is head over heels in love and lindas sudden departure to new york city to live with her new lover anton ( tch ? ky karyo ) comes as a complete surprise to him .
but as we all know love is blind and so sam leaves for new york as well to win her back .
he moves into an abandoned house across the street from anton 's apartment and installs a camera obscura to watch them .
suddenly anton 's ex maggie shows up , but she does not want her former lover back .
on the contrary , all she wants to do is vaporize him .
she may say that she does n't want to kill him , but the possibility does n't bother her too much either .
after all , people die every day .
in spite of their different motives the two team up and fall for each other as things move on .
the story sounds like something we all have seen a million times .
but we have n't .
griffin dunne brings us the most charming comedy
since " while you where sleeping " .
the camera obscura adds a " special something " to the movie and makes it an exceptional romantic comedy .
everything about the movie is perfect , from set design to casting .
the dialogues are inspired and the touches of black humor add a certain bite .
meg ryan , known from " when harry met sally " or " sleepless in seattle " , surprises in a role that may finally help her get rid of her sweet little girl image .
she impresses the viewer as a maneating biker girl .
even more surprising is the fact that the viewer believes her , much more so than in last years " courage under fire " where she played a gulf war pilot .
matthew broderick is the goodnatured and somewhat naive sam who has trouble accepting reality .
the viewer can tell that he does n't only watch the stars but also tries to reach out for them .
he has trouble keeping in touch with reality .
after all , who would leave everything behind to chase a lost love ?
his naivet ? that we do n't question for a minute throughout the movie clashes with maggies exaggerated wish for revenge .
she would do anything to harm anton .
she does n't hesitate to use sam for her plan and makes him understand right from the beginning that nothing will happen between the two of them .
that makes the scenes when they innocently share a bed , have potatoe chips and watch the action across the street like a saturday night show on tv even funnier .
tch ?
ky karyo is perfect as anton .
he is , well , repulsive .
that 's all there is to say about him .
you ca n't really manage to pity him , even after all his mishaps .
he not only took sam 's bride away from him , he is also a french chef .
worlds collide , i .
e .
the usa and france .
this can only go wrong .
even if maggies revenge schemes are at times shocking , you just ca n't sympathize with a man who plays " je t'aime . . .
moi non plus " on his tape deck .
not everyone is captured by the french charme that linda and even maggie fell for .
sam certainly is n't . too bad for anton .
for him things take a turn to the worse .
" addicted to love " is one of this year 's most pleasant surprises .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: much ado about nothing .
ah , how sweet the irony !
it 's accepted wisdom in some circles - among english literature nuts , mainly - that whenever a critic knocks shakespeare they are only doing so through ignorance .
he just does n't " understand " shakespeare , you will hear them say .
the bard 's work is apparently beyond criticism .
what a load of old cobblers .
if these arbiters of public taste think kenneth branaugh 's film of shakespeare 's " comedy " much ado about nothing is comedy in any modern sense of the word
, it 's time to get a life .
get monty python .
get woody allen .
get john waters .
whatever .
just get a real taste of some clever , witty , risky comedy . and banish this nonsense
to where it belongs .
drama and tragedy was shakespeare 's strength .
to my sensibilities - and i 'm no stick in the mud - much ado about nothing resonates with no spark whatsoever .
no kidding : this film ranks among the most embarrassing two hours i have ever spent in a cinema in my 20 years of movie going .
the only thing that stopped me walking out was loyalty to my lady friend , as this was our day out
and i had n't seen her in ages .
but boy , does she owe me one !
i wo n't spend too much time on the plot .
basically , we follow the trials and tribulations of two would - be couples - one young , the other older .
there 's some dark treachery amongst all this , but everyone is so awfully jolly that you 'd hardly know it .
mind you , there 's nothing wrong with the basic story .
good romantic comedies based on similar premises abound .
nothing wrong with most of the cast , either .
branaugh , emma thompson and denzel washington are all talented performers .
the problem is the script , or more accurately , shakespeare 's original text .
light comedy should n't be complex .
yet wrapped in elizabethan english , the dialogue becomes difficult to comprehend .
for this alone it will be a problem for modern audiences unschooled in shakespeare and in search of nothing more than a good , undemanding laugh .
the only laughs to escape my belly were brought on by the gloriously inept performance of keanu reeves , the actor once again miscast as a jealous half - brother or something .
but when dissected and understood , what it all boils down to is that this stuff is just so goddamn lame .
this is comedy so clean and nice and corny and so devoid of danger that it leaves this viewer
totally cold .
ho , ho ,
ho ,
boy likes girl !
ho ,
ho ,
ho , men are such klutzes !
ho ,
ho ,
ho ,
she 's so awfully clumsy !
oh please !
there 's wit in here somewhere , i 'm told .
i call it pretentious
.
something lightweight striving to be something sophisticated through clever wordplay .
in the end , it 's cringeworthy .
watching some of the cinema patrons around me collapse with laughter made much ado about nothing a very weird movie going experience .
comedy ?
bah , humbug !

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: birthdays often cause individuals to access their lives .
are we doing what we want to be doing ?
what happened to our dreams ?
with the new millennium , our collective big birthday , just around the corner , some people are sensing a certain dissatisfaction with their existence .
the old standbys of traditional religion and science are n't doing it for many anymore
and they 're looking for something else .
we 'll be seeing more and more films with a metaphysical theme over the next few years .
ricky hayman ( jeff goldblum ) is having a career crisis .
the programming director for the good buy home shopping network
, he 's going to be fired unless sales increase dramatically .
new producer kate newell ( kelly preston ) is supposed to whip things into shape .
when the two are fixing a flat , they almost run down new age pilgrim " g " ( murphy ) .
g wanders onto the television set and connects with the viewers by telling them that they do n't really want all that commercial crap . in
some unexplained manner
, this causes sales to sour .
ricky is saved .
the movie tries to be too much at once and fails at it all .
it 's not an over - the - top comedy or a heart - warming message of humanity .
it
_ is _ a mish - mosh of poorly directed scenes made even worse by insipid dialog .
i am willing to put up with preaching from a film , but the messages here are old hat .
you should take time to smell the roses .
selling your soul for cash is a bad idea .
golly .
i 'm glad i saw the movie .
i never would have thought of these .
the opportunity to poke fun at the goofy products is mostly missed .
when g takes a chainsaw to the set , there 's an obvious chance for murphy to be hilarious .
it does n't happen .
the bits are so subdued and overly - long that there 's only a hint of laughter from the audience .
murphy has changed his roles in recent years and not for the better .
there are hints of promise in this one .
the only time the film picks up even a little is when his shaved - headed character in the long flowing white caftan shows up on screen .
the others are horrendous .
goldblum has episodes of brilliance in his career ,
but here he seems to have been replaced with a lifeless pod from his " invasion of the body snatchers " .
his relationship with kate makes no sense .
they move from antagonism to love somewhere off screen .
preston is as uninteresting as she could possibly be .
somewhere hidden deep inside of this film is about ten minutes of value .
an attempt to satirize stupid television , we get a self - parody instead .

SOLUTION:
N