TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: the happy bastard 's quick movie review analyze this how does one do a comedy focused on the mob ?
well , a few years ago , there was a sly little comedy called the freshman , which had marlon brando doing a romp of a send - up of his famous don corleone character and , recently , the utterly stupid ( in a bad way ) movie mafia ! failed to really get the joke .
this time around , however , warner bros .
may have gotten it right with analyze this , a movie that hits its targets
more than it misses .
. .
and for plenty of reasons .
the story goes like this .
a mobster ( robert deniro ) finds himself receiving several panic attacks as of late , fueled by the stress of an upcoming mobster meeting and a near - death following a drive - by shooting .
it 's these attacks that prompt him to hire a psychiatrist ( billy crystal ) who 's mostly reluctant to take the mobster 's case for two reasons .
first , of course , he 's a mobster , but secondly , he 's trying to get married and enjoy a quiet honeymoon with his wife ( lisa kudrow ) and kid .
and , of course , he ca n't rest worth for a moment because the mobster 's goons are always needing the shrink for something , be it a quick consultation or dream analyzation .
fortunately , the movie is played out for plenty of laughs .
director harold ramis ( who also helmed the comedy multiplicity , which was n't half bad ) keeps the tone peppy and light , even if it 's sometimes sprinkled by slight dramatic moments ( shootings ca n't always be taken for laughs , you know ) .
deniro
does some of his finest comic work since the king of comedy , giving off a somewhat similar performance to his role in goodfellas , but with a bit of a lighter heart .
( a scene where he tries to display his anger over the phone and fails miserably is hilarious . )
crystal plays an excellent straight man to deniro 's character , uplifting him from such bombs as father 's day and my giant .
kudrow is also a hoot as crystal 's wife - to - be , who 's on the verge of a breakdown thanks to deniro 's presence .
is the movie perfect ?
not really , thanks to a simplistic ending and some slightly wasted moments with a character portrayed by chazz palminteri
( he 's a comic actor , too , come on , give him some more ! ) , but
it is an enjoyable romp
that lets deniro do something different but same for a change , taking his dramatic act to a new field of comedy . kudos to crystal and kudrow for not just making it his show , either .
line of the movie : crystal :
" when you said you needed family therapy , this is not the family i had in mind ! "

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: " virus " is a monster movie without a monster .
any movie with a hurdle that large to overcome had better be pretty damn good
otherwise .
sadly , " virus " does not deliver , on any level .
the movie opens with the russian space station mir about to transmit something ( we never find out what ) to a big boat with lots of satellites on it .
sudddenly , a wave of colorful lightning comes flying through space , and winds up destroying mir and using it to transmit itself to the aforementioned big boat .
cut to seven days later , we meet donald sutherland and his band of seafaring vultures .
see , they spend all their time sailing around looking for dead - in - the - water ships to rescue , and then collect the reward money .
at least , i * think
* that 's what they do .
along with many other things in the film , their reason for being out in the middle of the ocean is n't really explained .
so , they stumble upon this big boat with lots of satellites on it , and decide to haul it back to russian waters .
the only problem is , the crew starts disappearing one - by - one and turning into borg .
yes , borg .
complete with the red laser beam in place of an eye .
apparently , this alien lifeform can only survive if inside something electrical .
so , it creates make - shift machines and uses humans for " spare parts " .
blah , blah , blah .
i could go on forever describing the ludicrous so - called plot , but i wo n't .
suffice it to say the most original thing about this movie is having donald sutherland play an irish man ( !
) . everything else in this movie has been taken from other ( better ) movies .
for example , many of the machines resemble those found in the little - seen japanese movie , " tetsuo - the iron man " .
and the plot is right out of " aliens " .
the funny thing is , i was actually expecting to enjoy this movie .
i have a soft spot for cheesy monster movies , like last years under - appreciated " deep rising " .
but " virus " , as i mentioned earlier , does n't even have a monster .
it just has a big pile of circuits and wires and expects the audience to fear this ridiculous looking contraption .
" virus " is the type of movie that really makes you wonder what the screenwriter was thinking about when he wrote it .
besides the lame " monster " , it 's chock full of dialogue that no real person would ever say , and situations that no real person would ever allow themselves to get into .
for example , there is a scene late in the movie in which one of the characters actually attempts to * negotiate * with the alien !
now , i do n't know about you , but if i came upon a lifeform that viewed mankind as a virus to be eliminated , i doubt that i would attempt to reason with it .
that makes about as much sense as a baby squirrel calmly asking a fierce predator to spare his life .
finally , " virus " is n't scary .
the least the filmmakers could have done was to make the movie just a little scary .
as it is , it 's about as frightening as a box of cookies .
skip " virus " .
if it 's a cool monster movie you want , rent the far superior ( and the granddaddy of this genre ) " aliens " .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: if only austin powers : the spy who shagged me had been just half as original , zany , silly and totally enjoyable as its predecessor , it would have easily been one of this summer 's biggest pleasures .
if only .
in fact , the spy who shagged me is the exact opposite of the original ; instead of refreshing the audience with one clever parody after another ,
the filmmakers bombard us with used - up , tired jokes taken directly from the first one . take the scene where austin powers ( again played by mike myers , but with only a fraction of the giddy enthusiasm he displayed previously ) confronts a henchmen on the side of a cliff .
after being pushed off the ravine , the bad guy is of course assumed dead .
but suddenly , we hear a pleading voice coming from down below ; he 's only injured .
a similar scene played very well in the original international man of mystery , but here i was insulted by it .
did the filmmakers really believe the audience would laugh at a rip - off ?
apparently i overestimated the intelligence of the average movie - goer , considering that the film has pulled in over $ 200 million in domestic theatrical grosses alone .
do i hear the sound of a franchise heading our way ?
having said that , though , i still can not deny the film its merits .
the basic plot was delightfully silly enough to sustain my interest somewhat ; dr .
evil ( mike myers , in the second of his three roles ) , having constructed a time machine , goes back to the year 1969 in an attempt to snatch austin power 's " mojo
" ( do n't you just love that word ? )
whilst he is cryogenically frozen .
when austin gets wind of this ( after a great intro explaining the absence of elizabeth hurley 's vanessa kensington ) , he too travels back in time to re - claim his sexual drive , accompanied by the hot - to - trot felicity shagwell , played by heather graham .
this sounds stupid , i know , but in the movie it starts to make some kind of weird , off - the - wall sense , and it worked for me .
then there 's mini - me ( verne troyer ) ,
a . . .
petite clone of myer 's dr .
evil , exactly 1/8 in size .
troyer 's persona alone gains the film
an extra half - star , contributing to one particularly hilarious scene where he attempts to nibble on his own mini - mr . bigglesworth .
just try to ignore the fact that , at 2'8 ' ' , he would make dr .
evil 's height rise to just over 21 feet .
no matter .
however , there are only about four hearty laughs throughout the entire hour and a half (
the most notable being the now infamous tent scene ) , and that just is n't enough to warrant even a minor recommendation .
if there is in fact an " austin powers 3 " , they should just kill off secret agent powers and put the emphasis on dr .
evil and mini - me .
unconventional , yes ,
but there 's no denying that it 'd make for a better movie .

SOLUTION:
N