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

Q: according to popular film opinion , a film 's greatness is determined by time .
take for example " casablanca .
" great film , even today .
it 's still as powerful as it was when it came out and still as romantic and tragic .
another example would be " star wars , " which had a very , very healthy box office gross despite the fact that we had all seen it about 3 billion times before .
but as i rewatched " independence day " when it came out on video after being the number one hit of 1996 , i kinda felt like it was n't as cool as when i had first seen it .
i had liked it when i saw it the first time (
*
* * was my original view ) and basically saw it as a good " escape film .
"
but when i rewatched it , i felt cheated .
thus , the curse of the " event film . " " independence day " is like that kid who come out of nowhere and makes everybody happy at once ( except for a couple kids - the critics , in this situation ) .
but after a while , this kid becomes annoying and you just wait for the next one .
well , this kid is the " event film " in my little analogy .
and when i rewatched " independence day , " not only did it not look cooler at all on the big screen , but i felt insulted the whole time .
there are too many gaping craters in the plot and you just are n't sure if it 's comedy or hokey drama .
one scene , you 'll see a hilariously nebbish scene between jeff goldblum and judd hirsch ; the next you 'll see a bunch of military uptight guys walking around , saying corny lines .
the worst is a scene between brent spiner and bill pullman where spiner is sayinig something innocently funny but is barked like a junkyard dog by bill pullman who gives him the most unitentionally funniest speech since the end of " glen or glenda ?
"
now this annoying kid 's problem is that in the process of trying to make everyone like him all at once , he shows he has no balls .
and " independence day " has no balls .
it plays it safe everywhere .
it throws in a ton of action that is borrowed from other superior films .
the chase scene between the alien ship and will smith is straight out of " star wars .
"
i mean , is n't that devil 's den ? and
the aliens are about as anticlimactic as demi moore 's breasts in " striptease .
"
they 're these octopus men , boring freaking octopus men .
i mean , come on .
the aliens in " 2001 " were more interesting and you did n't even see them !
basically the plot is straight from a b - movie from the 50s : aliens come to earth and we wonder if they 're hostile or peaceful .
okay , it 's an interesting topic , but it 's not handled greatly .
now they are n't and somehow a computer geek , jeff goldblum , figure out they 're using our satellites as a countdown to destruction .
yep .
these aliens are not only heavily armed , they 're stupid too .
they also use the same kind of computer as we do , but that comes about later .
the president ( bill pullman ) , who 's under attack for being a wimp , decides this would be a nice time to be belligerent , and he decides he 'll stay in the white house which the aliens have covered .
i do n't care if it 's bob freaking dole in the white house , get him out of there .
i do n't care if you have to inject him with sodium pentathol , just get him out of there .
later on , he 's stupid and wants to fly in the attack on a big alien ship .
i think it 's time for impeachment for this guy .
he 's more senile than reagan on pot .
then there 's a cocky pilot ( will smith ) who is the only person to survive the counter - attack on the second day and becomes moses in leading his children to the elusive area 51 ( the film 's only sign of being brave ) .
his girlfriend 's a stripper sharing a subplot with " striptease " in that she has to do it for her son .
come on , she has a fighter pilot boyfriend / soon - to - be fiance .
i think she can quit that job and get a more respectable job at long john silvers .
she 's also the few , the proud , the lucky to survive the igniting of l . a .
( as well as her dog , who narrowly survives ) .
there are some bright spots .
they tossed in enough old film homages to keep me laughing .
the best one is when jeff goldblum ( nicely named david ) turns on his computer and a picture of hal comes up and says , " good morning , dave .
"
and they even played r .
e . m .
's
" it 's the end of the world as we know it ( and i feel fine ) at the beginning .
and judd hirsch steals the film by actually acting great ( he 's a stereotype ,
but i just loved the man anyway ) .
but there are no real subtle comic moments .
will gets way too many one - liners and he has no one to play off of
( execept jeff towards the end , and the two do great ) .
as i said , this film has no balls .
it is just aiming for a crowd pleaser
and that 's what it is .
but after a couple months , we all move on to the next " event " film while intaking little films and a couple indy ones for good measure .
but at least the indy ones last for a lifetime .
this one 's short on batteries .

A: N
****
Q: long ago , films were constructed of strong dialogue , original characters , memorable plot points , and solid acting .
one of the best examples that hollywood now completely ignore these qualities is found in the new film where the heart is .
this opus about the power of love and the redemption of family follows the tragic , and i mean tragic , life of novalee nation ( natalie portman ) .
hitting the road with her hick , guitar - playing boyfriend in a rusted - out gm , novalee dreams of the blue skies of bakersfield and sipping chocolate milk beneath a plastic umbrella with her unborn baby , due in a month .
stopping off at a nearby wal - mart for a quick rest , novalee 's boyfriend decides to take off and leaves her there .
novalee then decides to secretly hole up in the wal - mart ( because she 's not the brightest bulb in the stagelights ) .
a wacky librarian ( keith david ) comes to her rescue when she goes into labor one night while she is camped in the outdoors section of the store .
then the she moves in with a family , befriends everyone in town -- including ashley judd 's character ( who has five kids and still can work part - time as a nurse )
-- fights off religious freaks , survives a tornado , breaks the heart of the wacky librarian that saved her , receives an inheritance , builds a martha stewart - esque house , becomes an award - winning photographer , and manages to always look like she stepped out of a cosmo shoot , all while not once doing anything with her kid .
this film is terrible .
the directing is awful : it seems director matt williams had an index card with six angles written on it and used every one of them , over and over and over again .
we get pathetic and ugly acting by natalie portman , who can do good work .
a disjointed pacing of key scenes and a time structure so confusing that it would throw steve prefontaine off .
a subplot that actually validates the actions of the boyfriend who abandoned novalee in the wal - mart parking lot .
an embarrassing display of emotions by the characters , making the audience ill .
taking two great comedic screenwriters , babaloo mandel and lowell ganz , and forcing them to write drama on par with oprah 's book club .
altogether , it has the feeling of being trapped at home , watching a very bad television mini - series and wishing it to end , only the remote is broken .
however , the main problem with the film is that it never answers the most poignant question brought up : where is the heart ?
no one ever seems to find it in this piece of junk .

A: N
****
Q: tone alone can not sustain a film , but it can go a long way .
if i can find myself lost in the time and place of a story , it scores immediate style points .
when that tone is backed up by an outstanding story and great acting , the effect can be described best by an adjective i do not use lightly : " literary .
"
what 's eating gilbert grape ? is such a film .
it 's a rich , memorable and stunningly acted story of desire colliding with responsibility , staged in a manner which many viewers might find too prosaic , but which insinuated itself into my imagination with its confidence .
gilbert grape ( johnny depp ) is a young man living in rural endora , iowa , facing incredible responsibilities .
as the man of the house since his father 's suicide , gilbert must support the family by working at the local grocery store .
he also must watch over his mentally handicapped brother arnie ( leonardo dicaprio ) and help care for his extremely overweight mother ( darlene cates ) .
gilbert seems destined to spend the rest of his life in the small town until the arrival in endora of becky ( juliette lewis ) , a free spirit passing through with her grandmother when their truck breaks down .
as he spends time with becky , gilbert begins to think about all the things he is missing .
slowly his resentment builds , until he realizes that he can no longer live his entire life for other people .
director lasse hallstrom ( my life as a dog ) and
legendary cinematographer sven nykvist create a magnificent visual backdrop for peter hedges ' screenplay , based on his own novel .
endora is a town on the edge of the world represented by the giant foodmart , a tiny insular community where everyone knows everyone else .
the midwestern sunsets and sprawling fields are beautifully photographed , and the atmosphere of the town is intensely real .
minor characters , like crispin glover as the town 's mortician , are vividly realized , and there are echoes of the last picture show in mary steenburgen 's desperately unhappy housewife .
one of the most perfectly realized scenes focuses on the grand opening of a burger franchise , attended by the entire town and accompanied by the off - key high school band .
not a single note in the depiction of endora rang false .
the same can be said of the character of gilbert .
it 's testimony to the precision involved in his creation that he came together completely with one perfectly placed line , when becky responds to gilbert 's description of his father with , " i knew someone like that once .
"
gilbert is a man harboring an ever - growing bitterness about where he finds himself in life , a bitterness which reveals itself in moments of surprising cruelty .
in one scene , he allows local children to look at his mother through their window , displaying her like a side show attraction .
his entire life seems to be mocked by arnie 's repeated chants of , " we 're not going anywhere , " but instead of expressing his dissatisfaction he lets his anger simmer , and it becomes clear that he is following in his father 's footsteps in this regard .
johnny depp expertly demonstrates the tension central to gilbert by playing everything below the surface , but he never gives in to one - dimensional blankness or simply regurgitates his naif roles in benny & joon and edward scissorhands .
depp 's performance is overshadowed , however , by leonardo dicaprio 's astonishing oscar - nominated supporting work as arnie .
he puts to shame such big name actors as john malkovich and dustin hoffman , whose mentally challenged characters never seemed completely real .
dicaprio is perfect to the last twitch and squeal , and anyone who has ever spent time with mentally challenged kids will be hard - pressed to spot a flaw .
darlene cates , a first - time actor , brings real pain to her scenes as gilbert 's tortured mother , and laura harrington and mary kate schellhardt are solid as gilbert 's sisters .
only juliette lewis does n't quite click , playing a critical role with her now familiar dopey drone and too little genuine spark .
gilbert grape does seem to drift into its conclusion , but it never lost me .
thanks to a lovingly created setting and a marvelous cast , this 1993 release proves well worth the wait .

A:
P
****