TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: a cop with a troubled personal life .
a ruthless villain .
a friend of the cop .
a _ dead _ friend of the cop .
a quest for vengeance .
a new partner .
a romantic interest .
a chase scene .
a chase scene
_ in san francisco _ .
a woman in peril .
a confrontation .
an explosion .
the end . yawn .
yawn .
yawn .
the preceding has been the plot of approximately twelve thousand and six action films ; this one just happens to be called metro .
i have learned to expect little from films like metro , and consequently i am bored by them more often than i am genuinely disappointed . with eddie murphy on board , however , you hope for something extra , some kind of spark .
when a film makes watching eddie murphy a tedious experience , you know it is doing something terribly wrong .
murphy stars as scott roper , a hostage negotiator for the san francisco police department who is exceedingly good at his job .
with his personal life , he is considerably less successful , facing an unhappy ex - girlfriend named veronica ( carmen ejogo ) , a gambling problem and a mountain of debt .
then his professional life gets a jolt as well when a friend and colleague ( art evans ) is murdered while investigating suspected jewel thief michael korda ( michael wincott ) .
finding korda becomes very personal to scott , and he joins with new partner kevin mccall ( michael rappaport ) to foil korda during an attempted heist .
but all is not well even with korda in jail , as scott , veronica and kevin all continue to face life - threatening danger .
metro ( the title , in case you are wondering , means absolutely nothing ) is so badly put together that even the most casual viewer may notice the miserable pacing and stray plot threads .
in the first place , korda 's rage over being discovered before he can make his big score is rendered completely pointless when he proceeds to hit the target anyway ( and , incidentally , to screw it up ) .
a reference to payoffs in the police department , followed by a conspicuous decision to keep scott off the korda case and a couple of pointed glances , is dropped abruptly with no resolution after about forty - five minutes ; even the relationship between scott and new partner kevin is so perfunctory , with kevin disappearing entirely after taking a bullet for scott , that you may yearn for bickering buddies .
worst of all is a plot structure which places the main villain ( the always menacing michael wincott ) behind bars for far too long , leaving a lot of time to kill with the tedious reconciliation of scott and veronica .
you ca n't blame murphy for being unable to muster any enthusiasm for the scenes with his bland leading lady , but he should have known better than to take this role at all .
scott roper exists in an uncomfortable middle ground between the kind of street - wise fast - talker murphy has built a career on and an actual three - dimensional character , and murphy is never able to reconcile the two .
the script seems to have been doctored for him , with a gambling problem turned into a bit of character color and his supposed inability to form relationships turned into a cause for gags rather than actual conflict , yet there is still too little comedy for murphy to work with .
for much of the film , he walks around with an intense frown , and it is over 90 minutes into metro before you hear that trademark laugh for the first time .
murphy is stranded with too few solid punch lines , and nearly all of the ones he does have bounce of ejogo and fall to the ground limply
.
i suppose i should give director thomas carter credit for taking the obligatory san francisco car chase ( how much do you want to bet on the likelihood of seeing a car soar over a hill ? )
and doing a few interesting things with it .
as vehicles are sent flying and passengers sent sprawling by a runaway cable car , it is possible at least for a moment to take some pleasure in a goofy spin on a familiar situation .
carter does an even better job by taking that old suspense stand - by -- the medicine cabinet mirror which will close to reveal a killer standing behind someone -- and using it to defuse tension not once , but
_ twice _ .
the fact that carter was able to demonstrate even that much recognition of cliches , and a willingness to subvert them , makes his involvement in the rest of the disaster
that is metro all the more puzzling .
an action film like this plods so relentlessly and obviously from point a to point b to point c that you might find yourself shouting out " point c ! " while they 're still getting to point b , or getting up with the rest of the audience after the big explosion which signals that nothing else of any consequence is going to happen .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: when the film features richard lynch in the role of chief villain , you know that you can expect nothing more than a b grade action movie .
however , since this film also featured michael madsen , more than capable character actor , this time in the role of protagonist , the author of this review decided to give the film some benefit of the doubt .
however , the very first scenes show
clear b grade action credentials
- madsen plays richard montana , tough policeman who raids a drug warehouse and make life miserable for local crime lord mario gio ( played by lynch ) .
however , the raid was only partially successful , and montana is getting the rap .
so , he begins his own private war against gio , trying to penetrate his organisation pretending to be corrupt .
in the process , he meets gio 's mistress gina zamora ( played by rosie vela ) and starts relationship with her too .
although it does n't stink like many of the similar films can , inside edge is mostly forgettable b grade action routine .
nobody in this film actually puts much effort , including madsen or lynch , and this is especially case with uninspired screenwriter william tannen or director warren clarke .
the only not so forgettable element in this film is presence of former supermodel rosie vela , who , apart from showing her more than impressive looks , shows some of the singing talent too .
however , this is n't reason enough for viewers to spend hour and half watching a film that they would , in most likelihood , forget the next day .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: " knock off " is exactly that :
a cheap knock off of an action movie .
it 's also the worst movie i have seen thus far this year .
i figured it would be at least a couple of months before i saw the worst film of 1998 , but alas , it has already been found .
jean - claude van damme stars as ( i think ) a designer jeans executive who discovers his half - brother has been supplying him with cheaper goods .
rob schneider plays van damme 's partner , and rochon plays . . .
actually , i have no idea who rochon was supposed to be .
she just sort of popped up halfway through without an explanation as to why she was there .
many things are not explained in this film , but i do know that for some bizarre reason , van damme seemed to be doing a jackie chan impression throughout the flick .
where chan comes off as endearing in his " normal guy " character seen in many of his films , van damme
just comes off as a wimp .
we 're never given any clear explanation as to the basis for many of his actions .
to be more clear : i did not even know who he was supposed to be until about an hour into the movie , and even then , it was not made too clear .
the film has been directed in the style of some strange film experiment gone horribly wrong .
tsui hark ( who directed van damme 's last movie , the bad , but not nearly as bad as this , " double team " ) never lets the camera rest for a second , and that 's no exaggeration .
we are even treated to a five second shot from the point of view of van damme 's foot entering a shoe .
fabulous !
seriously , though , i have no problem with directors who want to play around with film conventions , as long as they do n't get carried away .
for example , look at sam raimi .
" army of darkness " , one of his best movies , features some of the most inventive camera work i have ever seen , but raimi never lets the special effects get in the way of story .
that 's a concept that tsui ca n't seem to grasp .
the special effects and outrageous camera angles * rule
* " knock off " to the point where the audience does n't have a clue as to what 's happening any more .
another problem with the film is that it looks cheap .
the film stock used is of such low caliber
that i thought i was watching one of those chinese films shown really late at night .
and for some inexplicable reason , everyone 's voice seems to have been dubbed .
even the stars .
and even the special effects , seemingly the only aspect of the film the director actually cared about , are inconsistent
.
for example , there is a scene in which van damme drives a car out of a window .
the car slams into the ground , and the left wheel is completely destroyed .
seconds later , the car drives off at full speed .
hey , i have no problem suspending my disbelief in an action movie , but a line must be drawn somewhere .
finally , the acting .
nobody gives a good performance in this film .
van damme , an actor i usually like , is way off the mark playing " everyman " . and schneider , here to provide comic relief
i assume , is totally unfunny and over acts his way through every scene .
even the usually solid paul sorvino gives a terribly over - the - top performance
as . . .
once again , i have no idea who he was supposed to be .
in case i have n't yet made it clear enough , " knock off " is the worst movie of van damme 's career and possibly the worst movie of the decade .
and it 's not even one of those movies that 's so bad
it 's funny .
it 's too inept to be funny .
there are no redeeming factors in " knock off " and i seriously hope that every print of this film is burned to a crisp and that somehow my memory of watching the film can be erased .

SOLUTION:
N