instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
plot : derek zoolander is a male model .
he is also very dumb and impressionable .
for that reason , he is secretly hired and trained ( so secret , that even he does n't know about it ) by an underground fashion syndicate to assassinate the prime minister of malaysia , who wants to abolish child labor in his country .
will zoolander fulfill the dirty deed ?
will zoolander ever grace the world
his new " look " ? is this a funny movie ? find out below . . .
critique : there 's a place in our world for " stupid comedies " .
films which do n't pretend to take themselves seriously , are based on idiotic premises and filled with dumb jokes .
there 's also a time for them and many would argue that this difficult period of our history , might be an ideal circumstance during which to " relax " by watching something so completely frivolous .
well , if you 're in the mood for some seriously mindless entertainment , ben stiller and his cast of many have assembled one of the more original dumb comedies in some time .
of course , comedies as such are usually very subjective and i could see how some will see this film simply as stupid and unfunny , while others will grant them the " stupid " , but consider it funny instead .
i personally enjoyed it for the most part , cracked up loudly during a couple of specific sequences and loved the derek zoolander character and the unrestrained whipping they released upon the fashion industry . snap !
it was also nice to see several real - life models with small roles in the movie , not taking themselves too seriously .
and if you 're the type of person who likes celebrity cameos in films , well , do n't look any further because dozens of famous faces show up here including vince vaughn , billy zane , winona ryder , christian slater , david duchovny , natalie portman and many , many others .
i especially liked andy dick 's complete make - over as the masseuse .
hi - larious !
but with all films of this type , there is bound to be some stuff that simply does n't work .
a few particulars which did n't strike my fancy included the bulimia and " orgy " sequence with christine taylor , the break - dance fighting , and i also never get why they use real countries in plots like this ( why not just " make up " a country , instead of zeroing in on a certain people ? ) .
i also could have done with less of the taylor character in general , since she was n't all that interesting and seemed to slow things down every now and then ( more zoolander , dude ! ) .
but those few missteps were nothing compared to some of the more memorable scenes which definitely did work for me !
i almost pissed myself during the " gas station " disaster , absolutely adored the " walk - off " contest ( with david bowie as the judge , no less ) and appreciated
many of zoolander 's moronic one - liners ( " i was a merman . . . a merman ! ! " ) .
and i dare you to get his " monkey " photo shoot out of your head after seeing this movie
( " you 're a monkey , derek . . .
a monkey !
" ) i also really liked the soundtrack and the pace of the film , both of which zipped and zagged , and established a nice rhythm to it all .
again , it 's to note that this movie is dumb and not for everyone , but my guess is that if you laughed at the trailer , you will likely enjoy many of the quips in the actual picture as well .
if you thought the trailer was dumb , skip this dodo bird and go rent austin powers again or something , a film from which there is an obvious influence here .
blue steel , baby .
. .
yeah ! ! !
where 's joblo coming from ?
austin powers ( 7/10 ) - austin powers 2 ( 7/10 )
- deuce bigalow ( 7/10 )
- dude , where 's my car ( 7/10 ) -
freddy got fingered ( 5/10 ) - jay & silent bob strike back ( 8/10 ) - joe dirt ( 5/10 )
- meet the parents ( 8/10 ) - say it is n't so ( 3/10 )
answer:
P

question:
at first glance , it appears that the home alone movies are brainless slapstick intended for those with minds of 8-year olds .
that 's true of home alone
2
and i 'd bet money that it 's true of home alone
3 ( opening soon ) .
but home alone
actually has a lot going for it , and the cartoon slapstick does n't get in the way .
the mcalisters , all 15 of them , are going to france for the holidays .
four adults and eleven kids are spending the night together before heading to the airport en masse .
the littlest kid , kevin , is the victim of the older kids ' cruelty .
kevin 's patience runs out when he learns that his plain - cheese pizza has already been eaten , and he 's going to have to starve .
he attacks his big bully brother buzz , who had been teasing him .
the fight disrupts the already - chaotic dinner , spilling milk and soft drinks all over the table , a few cousins , and an uncle .
the knee - jerk reaction is for everyone to blame kevin .
nobody came to his rescue when he was being teased , but they all point their fingers when he fights back .
the ultimate punishment comes from mom ( catherine o'hara ) who sends him up to the spare bedroom in the attic for the night .
on his way up the stairs , he tells her that " families suck " and that he hopes never to see any of his family again .
that night the power goes out , knocking out the alarm clocks , so the mcalisters wake up in a big hurry to get to the airport .
in a surprisingly plausible setup , kevin is mistakenly accounted for , and the family heads off without him .
it 's interesting that , in a subtle way , his parents never noticed him missing because of their deliberate desire to separate themselves from their children .
first they delegate the headcount to an older sibling , and second , they put all the kids in coach while they fly first class .
they 're two - thirds of the way across the atlantic before they realize they are missing a child .
meanwhile , kevin believes that somehow his wish has come true .
he 's finally rid of his family !
life is a dream come true .
he can jump on the beds , watch r - rated movies , eat gobs of ice cream and potato chips , and dig through his big brother 's secret box .
slowly , the novelty wears off and he settles into the mundane .
he grooms himself , he does the laundry , he goes shopping ( " i bought some milk , eggs , and fabric softener " ) .
he also starts to miss his family , not just for their company , but for the security they bring .
the furnace in the basement is a scary monster , the old man next door is a snow - shovel murderer , and two crooks are trying to break into his house .
macaulay culkin is cute but he is n't much of an actor .
still , we can see that kevin 's character grows , thanks to some good direction and editing
.
for example , acting has little to do with the emotional impact of the scene where kevin searches out a seasonal santa at night , just as " santa " is getting in his car .
kevin asks the man to pass on his request - he wants his family back - to the real santa .
he learned how to deal with the furnace .
you turn on the lights and it 's not so scary anymore .
he goes to a church one evening
and there he sees the snow - shovel murderer , who actually turns out to be a nice man .
they talk about their fears and kevin learns that age alone does not make you less afraid .
finally , in the last 20 minutes , kevin confronts his last fear - the bandits , head on ( literally ) .
this last act is full of violent comedic slapstick , and after the movie 's genuine dramatic setup , it is dessert .
it 's a lot of fun , and it does n't overwhelm the rest of the movie
.
on the whole , home alone is a great holiday movie .
john williams ' original score has the sound and feel of holiday music without the disadvantage of being overplayed at the malls , and the christmas setting can put you in the mood for those family gatherings .
but it does have its flaws .
the smallest problem is that culkin does n't act very well .
as i said before , he is cute , but repeated viewings reveal more about how columbus covered himself than about culkin 's insight into his character .
the biggest problem is that during the cartoony coda , the villains threaten kevin 's life about five times .
instead of " i 'm gon na get that kid
" they say " i 'm gon na kill that kid .
"
some might argue that the tone is the same , but i strongly disagree .
mixing comedy with specific and viable threats of murder is a sociopathic faux - pas .
i 'll probably never see home alone 3 , and i wish i had skipped home alone 2 , but i do enjoy home alone almost every year
.
do n't let your impressions of the others detract from the original , which has much more to offer than cartoon slapstick .
answer:
P

question:
you 've got to think twice before you go see a movie with a title like maximum risk .
the title is generic .
it 's meaningless .
and i ca n't believe it 's good business .
when you pick up the phone and dial 777-film , how in the world are you supposed to remember that the new jean - claude van damme movie , the one that looked kind of cool in the trailers and is directed by some chinese hot shot , is called , geez , maximum risk ? yuck .
the movie itself deserves your attention .
for sweet bloody thrills , this one beats the summer blockbuster competition hands - down .
only mission : impossible came close to delivering as skillful a thriller , and i 'll give maximum risk the edge simply because it 's not as slick as the tom cruise picture , and therefore more gratifying in its execution .
much to my surprise , van damme continues to develop as a pleasant , unpretentious action hero .
his track record is n't as solid as schwarzenegger 's , but he 's a hell of a lot more adventurous than arnold .
in 1993 , van damme worked with hong kong 's premier hardcore action director , john woo , on a fairly lame movie called hard target .
( if you can find a bootleg copy , woo 's radically different director 's cut is much better than what was eventually released . )
this follow - up is directed by ringo lam ( city on fire , full contact ) , whose hong kong films are distinguished action pictures that have consistently played second fiddle to woo 's more operatic offerings .
the surprise here is that maximum risk is a more effective hollywood action flick than either hard target or woo 's subsequent broken arrow .
here 's the rundown .
van damme plays a french cop named alain moreau who is shaken when a policeman friend ( jean - hugues anglade ) finds a corpse that 's alain 's exact double .
turns out alain was separated at birth from his twin brother , michael , who has been killed by some russian heavies ( and some strangely american looking cops ) .
alain does some investigating .
he finds that michael had booked a flight to new york city , and received a message from someone there named alex bohemia .
assuming michael 's identity , alain flies to new york and gets tangled up with michael 's girlfriend ( natasha henstridge ) , the fbi , and the russian mob in little odessa .
that 's as much as you need to know .
the story is adequate , but not overly involving -- and the major plot points are basically explained to you twice , just in case you go out for popcorn at the wrong moment .
there 's a love story , too , but i did n't find it terribly convincing , partly because ex - model henstridge is too high - strung in her high - profile debut
( she had precious few lines as the alien ice queen in species ) .
she 's great to look at , and she can certainly read a line , but what she does here ca n't really be described as " acting .
" of course , " acting " is n't really what she was hired for ( i lost track of whether her shirt comes off more often than van damme 's ) .
the movie is exceptionally violent , bordering on gratuity .
( keep that in mind when planning your date . )
the stunts are spectacular , and the fact that you can spot van damme 's stand - in makes his work no less impressive .
there 's only so much you can do with a car wreck , but this movie makes crisp , effective use of pile - ups in a handful of frenzied destruction derbies .
and lam has a surprising , innovative sense of exactly where the camera should go to catch any bit of action .
the main difference between lam and woo , i believe , is that while woo relies on sheer spectacle to gas up his action show pieces , lam has figured out more about using cinematic space and double - barreled points of view to make things run .
do n't get me wrong -- when chow yun - fat soars through space pumping bullets out of two pistols and chewing on a toothpick with glass and confetti littering the air around him in woo 's hard - boiled , it 's an amazing moment .
but it 's a moment that 's hard to reproduce in hollywood .
( for one thing , hollywood does n't yet have chow yun - fat ! )
while woo 's hollywood movies look like the work of a talented upstart , maximum risk is a surprisingly confident picture .
the very first shot of the film is an awkward overhead view of a chase through the streets of a european city , but lam 's use of odd camera angles becomes more efficient later on .
the film editing is a particularly savvy complement to lam 's shooting style , accentuating rather than amplifying the action .
the performances could have used some fine tuning ( in particular , there 's an annoying , overwritten manhattan cab driver in the early scenes who should have been toned down or jettisoned completely ) , and the movie does n't always overcome the limitations of its genre .
the story is a little mundane , although there are some effective moments involving van damme 's unrequited feelings toward the brother he never knew he had .
but it 's not often that hollywood cranks out a truly satisfying action picture
,
and it 's doubly surprising that this one should come with a mere whisper of publicity .
van damme fans should treat themselves to what may well be the man 's best movie , and international action buffs will no doubt savor this flavorful hong kong / hollywood hybrid .
answer:
P