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

[Q]: for about twenty minutes into mission impossible 2 director john woo ( the killer , hard boiled , face off ) appears to have made an exciting , elegant , charming spy thriller , kind of a post millennium james bond adventure with a strapping american ( read : unsophisticated ) hero more willing to drop kick villains than out fox them .
sadly , as the picture progresses , the final product begins to bear a closer resemblance to a souped up , two - hour long episode of magyuver .
and not a particularly good one at that .
what went wrong ?
mi2 begins flashily enough , that initial flash leading us to believe that it 'll soon give way to something of a plot , but it only gives way to more flash , then digresses further into a presumably unintentional parody of itself with much slo mo posturing and countless action set pieces wherein bad guys seem to deliberately leap into the way of tom cruise 's firing gun just so they can die really cool .
early on , during a car chase between soon to be lovers ethan hunt ( tom cruise ) and nyah nordoff - hall ( thandie newton ) , woo works some of his trademark magic .
in one hypnotic , though completely inexplicable sequence , the director slows the action down to a languid semi - stall as cruise and his stunning opponent stare into one and other 's eyes with come hither sexuality ? ? ?
just as their respective cars smash and spin in accordance , coming ever so close to toppling over a neighboring cliff .
prior to this we see the famed trailer opener of cruise climbing a steep mountain , sans scaffolding , then leaping from one jagged rock formation to another .
why ?
i have n't the foggiest .
i doubt even john woo could provide you with a logical reply .
with mi2 woo has become a slave to the summer movie machine , the one that jettisons logic for gravity defying effects and story for more gravity defying effects .
it 's possible that these " spies " could be adrenaline junkies climbing mountains and crashing into each other as means to get off , though of course this is never explored .
the scenes i 've described are really only included to titillate , not to give any insight into character .
god forbid .
woo certainly knows how to make each set piece energetic , but they remain individual set pieces never connecting to form anything more than splices of beer commercial - like visuals .
still in terms of crackerjack eye candy , the opening has much to cherish .
cruise and newton first meet during a vigorous flamenco dance featuring several welcome woo devices ( the graceful slow mo artistry of synchronized movement juxtaposed against the stage 1 romance of two attractive individuals discovering how attractive the other is ) .
between the frantic dancing , woo trains his camera on cruise and newton as they make with some sensuous eye contact .
the scene is a little over the top in a bon jovi music video circa 1988 kind of way , yet it has style and something of soul , and woo casts a bit of a spell on us .
sure it 's all smoke and mirrors , but we can see that there happens to be a talented maestro behind this particular product .
thandie and cruise later meet in a bathtub in a scene that 's about half as playfully charming as the jennifer lopez \ george cloony trunk meeting in out of sight .
they flirt and exchange obvious double entendres .
newton bats her eyes flirtatiously .
cruise grins a little too slyly .
the cruise character , ethan hunt , has been drastically altered since the first film .
here cruise plays him more as a hip , sexual dynamo than the square jawed robot he impersonated in part 1 .
he 's cool and dashing , which is precisely the kind of role we want to see cruise in after watching him sleep walk through eyes wide shut ( which might just be the longest episode of red show diaries ever committed to film ) , and blustered his way through magnolia ( quite possibly the most overrated performance of the 90 's ) .
sadly as the film progresses we see less of cruise 's initial " i 'm the man !
" charm and more slo - mo close - ups of his preening mug .
mi2 falls apart on nearly every level during its repetitious third act , which is essentially one hour long action sequence that just wo n't stop .
the whole thing commences with an utterly generic gun battle ( the first gun fight in the film ) , which really should be unheard of in a john woo film , but alas this particular battle could 've been staged by anyone from renny harlin to joseph merhi ( of course excepting the " symbolic " pigeons who seem to find their way into every john woo picture ) .
we 've all seen guys slide across the floor in slo mo while firing a gun in each hand .
it is n't done any differently here .
the action is pure hard target \ broken arrow theatrics with nothing to propel it but the apparent need to see tom cruise drop kick face less villains while his hair whips stylishly in the wind .
he 's cool for sure but
he 's made to be as empty as the movie .
the actor is n't used so much for his boyish appeal as for his chiseled looks ; he smiles narcissistically into the camera at literally any moment , be it during a gunfight , before one or after one .
when he 's not beaming away , he 's staring into the lens with cold eyes trying to look mad as hell , but woo 's editing seriously undermines the effort .
he fetishizes cruise 's angular face with such glee that it turns into a naked gun style spoof .
i half expected cruise to peel off his facemask and reveal that he 's really austin powers .
in a classic woo action moment , ethan hunt struts past a fiery doorway glaring at the baddies within its frame like a pin - up boy angel of death .
the gunfight turns into a daring escape which turns into a reckless mission which turns into a motorcycle attack in which bad guys seem to angle directly for cruise to kill them like some kind of mass suicide ritual ( one dumb bastard even jumps his bike over the gun toting cruise , basically inviting our handsome hero to shoot him in mid air which he does ) .
the lead bad guy ( played by the appropriately british dougray scott ) and cruise face off in a mentally deficient game of chicken ? ? ? on motorcycles .
though instead of jumping off to the side at the last moment , the two grown men leap directly into the other giving each other a mid air bear hug , only to fly about a hundred feet ( still in bear hug position ) , land on a beach below and begin a mano - e - mano fist fight that ends with the bad guy pulling a " so you thought i was dead . . .
"
.
not to worry , cruise takes care of the problem without even breaking a sweat .
what a hero !
you may have noticed that i opted not to describe an iota of mi2 's plot .
my reasoning is simple : i 'm not sure of any good it would do .
the film itself has absolutely no concern with story , only with hurtling forth to the next " special " effect .
i was n't kidding when i told a friend of mine that mi2 has less plot than the average aerosmith video .
nobody will go to this for the plot , and if they do they 'll surely regret it .
as summer movies evolve ( or devolve ) character and plot have become increasingly whittled down to nearly nothing .
in mi , the plot seemed to be built around brian de palma 's ( that film 's director ) stylistic flourishes , while in mi2 the plot only serves to give us an intermittent breather from woo 's non - stop masturbatory pandemonium .
it 's irrelevant in every sense , as is character .
all that ultimately matters are those pesky smoke and mirrors .
[A]: N

[Q]: jay and silent bob strike back can rightfully be subtitled
" kevin smith 's greatest hits " for the film is comprised of numerous references and characters from smith 's earlier works including , clerks , mall rats .
chasing amy and dogma .
so , be advised : bone up on that cinematic quartet in order to achieve the maximum enjoyment from smith 's latest outing .
kevin smith must be a very likable person because several good sports took a ton of kidding in this feature , most notably miramax , the studio whose subsidiary , dimension films , is jay and silent bob 's distributor .
others deserving accolades include ben affleck , matt damon , directors gus van zant and wes craven and the mighty george lucas .
this is a laugh - filled , foul - mouthed road film with jay ( jason mewes ) and silent bob ( smith ) hitching to hollywood to sabotage miramax 's production of bluntman and chronic , comic book characters based on the two jersey slackers .
jay 's convoluted reasoning is that if the film is shut down , people on the internet will stop insulting him and bob , even though it is not him and bob the people are dissing , but rather their comic book counterparts .
no matter , the duo begin their long trek hitching rides across the country .
but first they get some tips from a veteran hitchhiker , played by george carlin , who tells them to follow " the book " - the rules of the road .
of course jay 's interpretation immediately gets the duo in trouble with a friendly nun ( carrie fisher ) who offers them a ride .
jay and silent bob contains enough laughs that the movie 's weaker aspects - which include a lame subplot about a girl gang of diamond thieves as well as a buffoonish federal park ranger played by will ferrell - can be easily tolerated .
really , how can you not laugh at a film in which our heroes are picked up by the mystery van , and jay has a pot - induced hallucination concerning velma and daphne .
the movie 's highlight , though , is near the finale .
in hollywood , jay and silent bob sneak onto the miramax lot where they crash the set and are mistaken for extras of the latest affleck - damon picture , good will hunting 2 : hunting season . here
we are privy to a hilarious conversation between affleck and damon in which the two put down each other 's careers and film choices .
and the laughs continue to grow .
next up is jason
( american pie ) biggs and james ( dawson 's creek ) van der beek , the actors chosen to portray bluntman and chronic .
the pair mistake jay and silent bob for their stunt doubles .
finally , comes a star wars homage featuring one of the stars of that legendary feature .
this bit will leave you howling .
smith 's obvious affection for pop culture icons is evident in the way he shoots these scenes and handles his performers .
he allows them to play it all tongue - in - cheek .
their fun comes through the screen to the audience .
it is too bad that this is jay and silent bob 's swan song .
the characters have grown since their supporting role debuts in clerks .
but smith realizes that times have changed , and he does n't want his creations to overstay their welcome .
so smith has provided them with just the right kind of exit , saving the best for last .
goodbye jay and silent bob .
at least you 're going out with a blast .
[A]: P

[Q]: if there were a subject just screaming to be made into a film , it was studio 54 , the late steve rubell 's infamous new york discotheque , which came to symbolize the taboo - smashing excesses of the disco era 's heyday : easy drugs and even easier sex between everyone , all set to a thumping dance beat .
so when miramax started production on _ 54 _ last year , the buzz of hype and resulting anticipation began : an edgy film as down - and - dirty as the club itself , written and directed by a promising first - timer ( mark christopher ) and starring some hot young talent ( salma hayek , neve campbell , newcomer ryan phillippe , and
mike myers in his dramatic debut ) .
my , how easily does the worm turn .
hype turned into damage control when word got out about 11th - hour reshoots
( wrapped only a month ago ) , a rash of studio - imposed edits that left virtually the entire cast and crew ( especially christopher )
unhappy , and the very likely possibility that miramax would not screen the finished film for critics .
at the last minute , though , miramax did decide to screen the film ( so hastily scheduled was the screening that myers 's last name was misspelled on the invitation , not to mention the numerous typos in the press notes ) for a media audience that came away noticeably less than impressed
, myself included .
and with good reason -- somehow , some way , the supremely disappointing
_
54 _ has made the historically hip haven of hedonism . . .
boring .
although christopher has distanced himself from the finished film , he still must shoulder some of the blame for _
54 _ 's lifelessness .
_
54 _ focuses , for the most part , on a tight - knit trio of employees at the club : coat check girl / aspiring disco diva anita ( a wasted hayek ) ; her busboy husband , greg ( breckin meyer ) ; and , most prominently , the fresh - from - jersey shane o'shea ( phillippe ) , who enjoys a quick rise from busboy to head bartender .
these characters are about as generic as those descriptions .
in focusing on the hired help , christopher really missed the boat .
with the exception of the flamboyant , always - woozy rubell ( myers , in a well - modulated turn ) , the meaty stories to be told at studio 54 are not the workers ' but those of the people who went there to party ; not necessarily the numerous vip guests , but the wild eccentrics who managed to be picked from the crowd by the club 's famously hard - ass doormen and dance ( among other things ) the night away with the rich , famous , and infamous ( the only taste of the crowd comes by way of ellen dow 's feisty dottie , a disco- and drug - crazed granny , but she 's a peripheral character at best ) . as such , aside from the expected overhead crowd shots , there is precious little actual _ dancing _ in _
54 _ .
what is a disco film -- especially one about the pinnacle of the movement -- without the dancing ?
even whit stillman 's _ the_last_days_of_disco _ , which was n't so much concerned with disco as it was witty dialogue within a group of hip - to - only - themselves club - hopping preppies , featured at least one extended dance scene .
dancing is n't the only thing glazed over in _ 54_--so
is the sex , but that may not be entirely christopher 's fault .
from what i 've heard , his original vision was something considerably more dark and daring , starting with the shane character : he was conceived ( and actually filmed ) as a wild , morally ambiguous bisexual , which would have made an efficient springboard to cover the pansexual pleasure palace aspect of studio 54 's legend .
but somewhere between principal photography and the final cut , shane was defanged and quite literally straightened out ; consequently , so was the film .
aside from a brief glimpse of erotic encounters toward the beginning of the film , shane 's fleeting dalliance with seductive socialite billie ( sela ward ) , and an abbreviated bedhopping montage , the sexual dimension is just about ignored .
shane , in this incarnation , is sanitized to the point of blandness ,
an idealistic do - gooder who pines for a frequent guest at the club , julie black ( campbell ) , a worldly soap star with , yes , a heart of gold .
this tacked - on " romance " would have been slightly less tedious if either campbell or phillippe made some connection with each other or the audience .
they fail on both counts .
ultimately , _ 54
_ 's failure comes down to three letters : f - u - n . as in , there is n't any to be had for the audience .
too much time is spent with the boring shane , and too little is spent on the club floor , where all the action took place .
anyhow , though , whatever time is spent on the 54 floor is not used very effectively .
when anita finally gets her big break and perform onstage at the club , it should be a euphoric height , for her , the crowd , and the audience ; however , the moment does n't get a chance to reach that level , for it is cut short by a moment of forced sentimentality , which also mars the film 's conclusion
( one of the last - minute reshoots ) . strangely upbeat and wistful , the resolution is wholly unconvincing and unsatisfying .
there is an interesting portrait of studio 54 out there -- two of them , in fact --
but _ 54 _ is not one of them .
they 're on cable tv :
a couple of documentaries produced by e ! and vh1 . these two fascinating looks at the club and all the sordid goings - on within it show that there 's still a great disco movie to be made .
the problem is , after the critical and certain box office failure of _ 54 _ , the subject may have run its hollywood course .
[A]:
N