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

[EX Q]: writing a screenplay for a thriller is hard .
harder than pouring concrete under the texas sun . harder than building a bridge over troubled waters . and incidentally , a whole heck of a lot harder than writing a movie review .
thrillers are all variations on a theme .
you have a smart , resourceful , and powerful bad guy , who has a goal he has to meet .
you have a noble and brave good guy , who has to protect the innocent , kill the bad guy , and not get killed himself in the process .
the trick of thriller writing is doing all of this in an interesting and novel manner .
this simple formula can lead to classic movies like north by northwest , high noon , or silence of the lambs , or big summer blockbusters like men in black , the fugitive , or air force one , or it can lead to utter dreck like masterminds , event horizon , kull the conqueror .
.. . is anyone else getting depressed here ?
point is , it 's not enough to follow the formula .
you 've got to throw in something extra , something good and new and better than the last version .
something to surprise and move all of us people who buy the tickets and the popcorn and the happy meals .
this is a hard thing to do , but it is absolutely necessary in every way .
without that something extra -- whether it 's a great plot or a well - written screenplay , or great special effects or great locations or great casting or great performances or great big hungry dinosaurs -- the movie fails .
that 's why the jackal , with all its starpower , with all its budget , with all its hype , gets a big fat f. bruce willis is the bad guy , the jackal , a legendary killer for hire .
richard gere is the good guy , a former ira assassin with a vendetta against the jackal .
the jackal is trying to kill someone .
gere is trying to stop him .
will gere be able to stop the assassination in time and kill the jackal ?
( i 'll give you three guesses , and the first two do n't count . )
there are no surprises awaiting the audience in the jackal , no moment when you say to yourself , " i wonder what happens next ?
"
the script for the jackal is n't ripped straight from today 's headlines .
it 's ripped off , straight from an episode of millennium .
throughout the movie , we learn what the jackal 's plans are and how he intends to accomplish them .
no surprise .
the fun of a movie like this should come from richard gere figuring out what the jackal 's plan is and developing a clever plan to foil the bad guy .
instead , we get two ( count 'em , two ) scenes where gere is sitting in an fbi conference room somewhere and instantly divines the jackal 's plan just as if he 's frank black ( or more likely , just as if he 's been handed a copy of the script ) .
and we never get more than a superficial clue as to why gere has had this flash of insight .
it 's like gere 's character is psychic , but neither he nor the fbi ( or the screenwriters ) seem to know it .
and just like in millennium , the bad guy has an overwhelming need to go after the people the good guy cares about , whether or not they are important to what he 's trying to do or not .
what 's more , in the last half of the movie , the jackal , supposedly a super - smart professional terrorist who never makes a mistake , comes down with a major case of the stupids .
as for the performances .
.. bruce willis manages to get through the whole movie without a wisecrack , which is a major achievement , but not enough reason to see the movie .
his disguises are good , but not as good or as interesting as val kilmer 's in the saint .
richard gere is made to talk the entire movie in an irish accent , which detracts from his otherwise lifeless and dull performance .
sidney poitier is probably the most disappointing element in a overwhelmingly disappointing movie -- not that his performance is bad or anything , it 's not , but it is sad that hollywood wo n't use this talented actor in any part other than an fbi agent ( shoot to kill , sneakers ) .
writing a good plot and a good screenplay , like i said , is hard , but it can be done .
it was n't done here .
it is our job as consumers to reward good screenplays and to denounce bad and uninteresting ones .
do not go see this movie .
you 'll only encourage the producers to make more just like it .
instead , stay home and rent day of the jackal , or in the line of fire , or a fire safety video , for crying out loud .
anything other than the jackal , which lives up to its name by gnawing the dead bones of other , better movies .
[EX A]: N

[EX Q]: well i 'll be damned .
.. the canadians can make a good movie .
the world is coming to an end .
we do n't know why or how , but apparently there is no way to stop it .
the world has had this information for months , as most of the rioting and other assorted chaos has passed and governments have shut down operations .
yet for a handful of toronto citizens , life goes on .
they are n't going crazy or attacking people in the streets .
instead they are simply preparing themselves for the end .
.. some engaging in activities they 've always wanted to do , some gathering with family and friends , and others just seeking to be alone .
these people 's lives however all intersect during their final six hours .
writer - director - star don mckellar has crafted a highly unique and emotional film .
all of the main characters are compelling as they try and do whatever it is they need to do on their last night on earth .
craig ( callum keith rennie ) tries to fulfill all his sexual fantasies , a gas company employee ( david cronenberg ) calls every customer letting them know the gas will be flowing until the very end and thanks them for their business , and patrick ( mckellar ) just wants to be by himself but is n't having much success .
even minor characters keep popping up where you least expect them to , tying everyone even closer .
things seemed a little hokey towards the beginning of the film , but ultimately everything comes together nicely
( although it 's not a happy film .
.. some moments are understandably gut - wrenching ) .
the story is enhanced by some unexpected humor and very realistic performances , particularly from sandra
oh , whose character is just trying to get home to her husband before
the end .
i have absolutely no problem that the reason for the end of the world is never given , nor does it bother me that the world is ending at exactly 12 midnight ( in toronto anyway ) .
but i do wonder why the sun never sets .
come midnight , the sun is still shining brightly .
maybe the sun is crashing into the earth .
.. who knows .
also , it 's comforting to know that in mankind 's final moments on the planet , people will still gang up on the street for the sheer purpose of pushing over a car or a bus ( that 's not a shot at this film mind you .
..
i know people are just stupid and truly would be out in the street tipping over cars ) .
last night is available on dvd from universal home video .
it contains the film in fullscreen format and includes the original theatrical trailer .
[ r ]
[EX A]: P

[EX Q]: call me crazy , but i do n't see saving private ryan as the film of the summer . a good movie , yes , with chillingly realistic battle scenes and emotion to spare .
an utterly riviting movie on par with steven spielberg 's best work , no .
personally , if i was spielberg , i would n't go back to the world war ii era one more time after schindler 's list and the indiana jones movies .
i 'm guessing steve has a thing for nazis ; i really would n't be surprised if a velociraptor ate one of the swastika - wearing dudes in the next jurassic park movie .
all lofty pretenses aside , saving private ryan is the goriest movie this side of a 1980s slasher flick .
the difference is , it 's easy during friday the 13th to laugh off a spear sticking out of kevin bacon 's chest while blood spurts like crazy , but it 's damn hard to sit and eat reese 's pieces while soldiers suffer machine gun bullets to the head and have their intestines spilled out onto the battlefield .
and believe me , there 's plenty of it .
a 30-minute sequence at the beginning of the movie has an army captain ( tom hanks ) and his soldiers landing at omaha beach to join countless other americans who are already under fire .
lives are lost in seconds as the purposefully confusing and jarring scene goes on and on , and all the young men in the audience find themselves never , ever wanting to be drafted .
cut to some bureaucratic defense office , where a hundred women pound out sympathy form letters to the families of the casualties .
one woman happens upon an interesting detail -- three brothers in different platoons were killed in combat , and their mother is getting the telegram today .
i guess it 's an interesting conversation piece to everyone but the mother , so the army chief ( harve presnell ) sends hanks on what is essentially a public relations mission , to find the fourth ryan brother and send him home .
that way , the army saves the postage on yet another telegram to mrs .
ryan .
one good thing about saving private ryan is that the soldiers who are headed to rescue ryan know it 's a mission designed to make the army look good .
they question the worth of risking eight soldiers ' lives to save one , and hanks ' character admits he does n't give a damn about ryan ; he 's just following orders .
if this was a john wayne movie , things would be different .
there 'd be a phony , " let 's go get that boy , gosh darn it !
" attitude that would sugarcoat the reality of war .
by doing things this way , spielberg admits the instincts of self- preservation and complacency that every normal person has .
it makes saving private ryan a lot more powerful than an testosterone - driven stallone movie mission .
the movie 's pattern is to have long battle scenes followed by quiet scenes of semi - introspective conversation among the soldiers .
hanks is painted first as a nails - tough army man careful to hide his true self from the other men .
it 's not that way for long .
edward burns , the guy you get for your movie when ben affleck is n't available , is the impulsive one .
jeremy davies plays the translator who is seeing combat for the first time , and so on .
none of the characters are fascinating or natural born heroes , but was spielberg 's obvious intention .
i wondered when i heard saving private ryan was three hours long , how were they going to fill three hours ' time searching for one person and still make it interesting ?
there are a few false starts ; hanks finds one private ryan in ted danson 's company ( apparently , danson joined the army after " ink " was canceled . ) and breaks the bad news before learning it 's the wrong ryan .
and of course the movie 's far from over when hanks does locate ryan ( matt damon ,
the other guy you get when affleck is n't available ) .
that 's when the movie turns into more of a conventional war flick , although body parts and limbs still fly like never before .
saving private ryan is worth your time , but it 's definitely no schindler 's list .
the battle scenes are intense and realistic , but some of the attempts at sincere emotion are n't .
the movie 's bookends are particularly cheesy and out of place , when an old private ryan goes to the cemetary with his family and bawls his eyes out , whining , " tell me i 've led a good life .
tell me i 'm a good man .
" spielberg was apparently following the james cameron line of thought that any three - hour movie about the past should be framed by a self - contained prologue and epilogue that takes place in the present .
much more effective are subtler scenes , like the one where several of hanks ' men are rifling thrugh a bag of dogtags from dead soldiers , and they make light of what they 're doing by pretending they 're playing poker .
this while an airborne division marches by , their eyes full of that mound of dogtags .
by not explicitly pointing out that it symbolizes the random poker game that life and death can be in war , the audience gets the message .
and even if it 's not a classic , saving private ryan is definitely one of the better war movies out there .
[EX A]:
P