instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
john carpenter makes b - movies .
always has ( " halloween , " " escape from new york , " " the thing " ) and , by the looks of it ( " they live , " " escape from l . a . , " " vampires " ) , always will .
carpenter 's latest horror opus with a science fiction bent ( or science fiction outing with a schlock horror bent ) is the aptly - titled " john carpenter 's ghosts of mars " ( in case , i suppose , you went looking for someone else 's " ghosts of mars " ) .
like all those films prefixed by the very possessive " john carpenter 's , " " ghosts of mars " is an unashamed b - movie punctuated by a b - movie plot , b - movie actors , and b - movie special effects .
in category one , above , we have a storyline that borders on idiotic
( and , at times , chaotic ) .
dormant martians ( i .
e . , swirling red gases ) awakened by meddling humans
possess the souls of hapless mining colonists rendering them testy marilyn manson lookalikes .
all this explained ( in flashback ) to some grand pooh - bah counsel by martian police official melanie ballard ( natasha henstridge , from the sub- " species " films ) , the only returnee on a silly - looking train .
officer ballard went in to bring back incarcerated felon james " desolation " williams ; what she found was not a pretty picture .
in the second category we have ms .
henstridge , her blonde hair pulled back tightly and awkwardly into a ponytail , ice cube ( as the appropriately - named " desolation " ) , pam grier ( briefly , oddly -- who wanted to work with whom i wonder ? ) , and a host of extras
all assuming that the story and special effects were going to carry this film and therefore they did n't need to try too hard
.
in category number three we have , in addition to those swirling red gases and the silly - looking train , a couple of bird's - eye - view shots of a sprawling martian metropolis ( reddish also ) .
state - of - the - art special effects have never been a carpenter trademark and once again the writer / director ( who seems to have no problem finding work , however ) does n't waste any of the film 's budget in that department .
"
ghosts of mars " is lock , laughing stock , and barrel
all your standard carpenter fare : dingy interiors , cluttered exteriors , inane dialogue , lots of leather , scarred , crazed - looking aliens , and lots and lots of weaponry .
the film often and always explodes into warfare without warning -- spontaneously , stupidly .
carpenter might like to think he 's made a western here
but it 's a western without any real heroes , villains , or border conflicts .
it 's just the shootouts minus a hissing snake plissken .
i never thought i 'd miss the guy
but i do .
it 's not
* all
* the same , however .
dubbed the " one - note wonder " for his minimalist music soundtracks , carpenter seems to have graduated from simplistic ( yet effective ) scoring by highlighting his action with loud , screeching guitar work .
fortunately this drowns out a lot of the dialogue .
the final exchange between henstridge and , er , cube though is both audible * and * priceless .
mars has proven an infertile breeding ground for hollywood in the last year or so , what with the stillborn " mission to mars " and " red planet " ( with val kilmer ) .
" ghosts of mars " sadly adds to those disappointing returns ( in its opening weekend it was overshadowed by a bunch of sequels , among them " american pie 2 " and " rush hour 2 " ) .
the irony is that the mars in carpenter 's film feels sadly absent .
there are occasional references to the red planet , of course , but the film might as well have been set in perth amboys than on earth 's closest neighbor .
two things keep " john carpenter 's ghosts of mars " from getting a huge slap upside the head .
1 . henstridge keeps her top on ( miraculously ) , and 2 .
the film does n't pretend to be anything it 's not .
what that means , however , is that fans of superior , intelligent , grade a sci - fi / horror are singularly out of luck .
answer:
N

question:
" living out loud , " is the type of motion picture we do n't often see : it is a film about mature , intelligent adults , instead of the usual american film , in which children basically dress up in grown - up clothing and parade around acting like immature seven - year - olds .
judith ( holly hunter ) , a fortysomething living in new york city , has been having a difficult time with life lately .
she is extremely depressed about her recent divorce to her husband ( martin donovan ) , who had been cheating on her .
she can not sleep , haunted by terrible memories , often imagines off - the - wall things to try and make the world seem like a better place , and
the only place she can really go to feel happy is to hear one of her favorite singers , liz bailey ( queen latifah ) , perform at a local club .
judith 's life does start to brighten a little when , one night when she gets home to her apartment late , strikes up a conversation with the elevator operator , pat ( danny devito ) , a lonely man in his fifties whom has lost his daughter recently .
both of them create a sort of emotional connection with each other , seeking comfort with the other person , but while pat starts to form a deep love for her , judith only wants to remain friends . " living out loud , " which was written by richard lagravenese ( " the bridges of madison county " ) , who is also making his directing debut here , is a wonderful film from beginning to end , one that is honest , genuinely funny , and poignant .
the three central characters , that of judith , pat , and liz , are all written to be free - thinking , complex human beings , and are all likable , but flawed , people who are constantly interesting , as is the film itself .
one highly original element of the film is that judith occasionally imagines things occuring in her mind in the way she wishes they would happen .
sometimes it results in comedy , and sometimes it turns out to be subtle and truly touching .
one sequence that stands out is when judith is at a restaurant by herself , reading a novel .
an older woman comes over to her , mentions that that is a great book she is reading , and then goes over to join her own friends .
as the woman sits down , she looks over to see judith by herself , and motions for her to come join them .
instantly , we realize this was simply in judith 's mind , as we see the same woman just sit down at the table and begin talking to her friends .
holly hunter and danny devito
both give the performances of their careers here .
hunter , of course , was brilliant in 1993 's " the piano , " for which she won an academy award , but in this film she is even better
, i think .
she finds the right note for each scene and holds it . and devito has never had such a humanistic role before , which i was surprised about
.
usually he is used as the butt of a joke , or as a caricature , but in this film , has a living - and - breathing , sympathetic person to play .
topping it all off is latifah , also a singer , who is quickly turning into a respectable actress herself , and has a juicy , natural supporting role
as , in some ways , judith 's role model .
another joy of the film is that it does not somehow form a contrived , " happy " ending , but , in staying with its realistic tone , manages to be upbeat , but truthful .
the last shot is an especially powerful image .
nothing is said , but just the image of someone walking down a sidewalk says it all .
the relationship that results between judith and pat is true - to - life and sincere .
as we watch these two people talk , and get to know each other , all that we wish for them both is to be happy , even if that does not include for them to become romantically involved .
and as , " living out loud , " which is one of the best films of the year , proves ,
sometimes a friendship is the strongest bond anyone could possibly ask for .
answer:
P

question:
you know , i never really wondered what the tarzan films would have been like had tarzan been an old man .
while watching instinct , i could n't help but acknowledge the way the film carelessly rehashes the well - explored themes of those earlier movies .
even beside the tarzan comparison , instinct just is n't a very good film .
it 's painfully idealistic , manipulative , and silly .
i did n't hate it -- it 's simply impossible for me to hate any film starring anthony hopkins ; furthermore , most of the acting is quite good .
but i can recognize instinct for what it is beyond my subjective admiration for the actors involved .
i can also recognize reasons for wanting to make instinct , and it 's pretty clear that this could have been a good film with a massive script overhaul and a director less interested in imitating movies like patch adams .
things start off in the predictable way , as director jon turtletaub introduces us to our hero , theo caulder ( cuba gooding , jr . ) , an ambitious , young psychiatrist under the supervision of an experienced , old psychiatrist ( donald sutherland ) .
caulder soon finds himself involved in the case of his life , the one he thinks will make him famous .
the subject is ethan powell ( hopkins ) , an anthropologist who has been living among gorillas in africa for the past two years .
powell has been charged with the brutal murders of several men in africa , and it 's now caulder 's job to find out of he 's mentally competent enough to stand trial .
through a series of short sessions , caulder tries to put together the complex psyche of powell .
even though it really is an old man version of tarzan , much of this central idea is rather interesting .
as i said , hopkins is captivating for every second he 's on screen ; he has a way of convincing us that he 's not acting , that he 's actually a man who has just spent two years of his life living with a family of wild gorillas .
the character himself is n't very interesting -- he 's just an anthropologist who really likes gorillas -- but hopkins makes him interesting with subtleties both in speech and action .
gooding jr .
does strong work opposite hopkins , playing caulder as an intelligent and flawed individual .
the screenplay , written by gerald di pego and " suggested by " a novel by daniel quinn , gives us no background information on caulder , but that seems to be the point
( he has no time for friends because he 's obsessed with his work ) .
nonetheless , these two actors are essentially the entire list of things that are good about instinct .
unfortunately , filmmaking this inept can mangle the effect of even the best acting .
turtletaub and di pego are both guilty of instinct 's artistic failure , for they work together to make the dumbest , most cliche - ridden environment in which their characters are to live , and they do so by means of brainless subplots .
first , we have the prison warden subplot .
the prison warden is evil and wants to stop caulder 's progress at any cost ; if this means taking caulder off the powell case , then that 's fine .
there 's also the prison guard subplot .
the prison guard is played by john ashton ; the prison guard seems to enjoy mercilessly beating upon the psychotics under his supervision , and he 's instrumental in helping the story along to its obvious conclusion .
then there 's the daughter subplot , in which maura tierney ( playing the daughter ) must look very upset a lot of the time ; after all , she is the daughter of a deranged man .
if some of this stuff sounds familiar , that 's because they 're all devices that have been used and reused in countless other films .
the evil doctor in patch adams is not unlike the evil warden here .
the offensive caricatures of mental patients lack the depth that the similar portrayals in one flew over the cuckoo 's nest had .
ashton 's evil prison guard pales in comparison to clancy brown 's in the shawshank redemption .
hopkins ' performance will undoubtedly remind audiences of his turn in the silence of the lambs .
and then there 's the whole tarzan thing , which is more than a little bit obvious through the entire film .
perhaps what irritates me most about instinct is the half - hearted attempt at philosophical depth .
the message powell brings back from the wild is not a subtle one : he thinks that humans are " takers , " that they expand and kill and that we should all just live like gorillas .
i can sympathize with that , but only when it 's in a compelling film .
this is the kind of stupid movie -- just like patch adams -- in which a big group of characters ( psychotic inmates , in this case ) rise against the evil forces oppressing them by tearing up playing cards .
what does any of this have to do with a man who has just spent two years of his life with gorillas ?
if all the subplots of instinct had been left on the cutting room floor , we would have had a thirty - minute movie far superior to the two - hour one that i watched today .
if the central idea had been developed beyond the old man tarzan premise , then we would really have had something interesting -- a movie that does n't rely on the strength of its actors .
answer:
N