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

Q: it is easy to label something sentimental or tear jerking when one has not experienced the heartache of losing a child ? whether that may be in life or in death .
after having said that , i will also say that this movie does all of the above very well .
one gets that choking sensation in the throat ( because of grief ) when one brother forgives another for a costly mistake , or when a husband hugs his wife after a long estrangement .
there is no ocean , no drownings
and it does not conjure up memories of yet another ?
ordinary people ' .
in fact the only thing remotely connected to the ocean is probably tap water and the toilet flushing ( not that this literally happened in the movie ) .
so what are the lessons learnt :
1 . do n't take your children to class reunions .
2 . do n't leave them alone in the lobby , not even for a second .
michelle pfeiffer once again plays the role of a highly - strung wife and mother , a trend that started with ? a thousand acres ' and ?
one fine day ' .
my comment is that she is exceptionally fine strung in this movie , so much so that when she has a nervous break down , the veins on her temples bulge impressively .
whoopi golberg also puts in an understated performance , playing a lesbian cop , with a name that makes one want to reach for a lollipop .
lastly , who are the ideal companions for this sort of movie ?
my grandmother comes to mind .

A: P
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Q: with his last two films - shine and snow falling on cedars - australian director scott hicks has proven his cinematic flashbacks to be some of the best out there , and his latest , hearts in atlantis , is no different .
its structure - beginning and ending in present day with one long flashback in the middle - is similar to the green mile , which is a bit ironic considering both were based on stephen king books .
the parallels do n't end there , either .
atlantis was adapted by william goldman , who had previously penned the big - screen version of misery and is in the process of working on the script for king 's dreamcatcher .
even the film 's content is a bit reminiscent of mile .
in fact , it 's the perfect blend of the feel - good ' 60s nostalgia of stand by me ( also by king ) and mystical power hokum of mile .
king 's atlantis is a book comprised of five related short stories , but the main focus here is on the first ( and longest ) tale , called low men in yellow coats ( the film 's title comes from the second chapter ) .
it 's set in 1960 harwich , connecticut , where 11-year - old bobby garfield ( anton yelchin )
lives in a boarding house run by his cold , self - centered mother elizabeth ( hope davis , joe gould 's secret ) , who seems to care more about her wardrobe than her son .
bobby spends his time with his two closest friends , john sullivan ( will rothhaar ) and tomboy carol gerber ( mika boorem ) , who become something like the kevin , paul and winnie of harwich .
when a new tenant moves into the vacant room , the fatherless bobby finds a male role model in ted brautigan ( anthony hopkins , hannibal ) , a mysterious stranger who is vague enough about his past to make bobby 's mom suspicious enough to at least momentarily turn her head away from the mirror .
ted teaches his young neighbor about the wonders of literature ( after his cheapskate mother gives him a library card for his birthday ) , dispenses prophetic words of wisdom and even pays bobby one dollar a week to read him the local newspaper and keep his eyes peeled for the low men , a group of people chasing ted to exploit his special powers .
i wo n't go into what these powers are , but they 're considerably toned down from the book ( and do n't involve black stuff flying out of ted 's mouth , a la mile ) .
atlantis ' present - day setting which bookends the film is based on the novel 's final chapter , titled heavenly shades of night are falling , and features david morse ( in yet another connection to the green mile ) as a married , middle - aged bobby who learns of the death of both of his childhood friends and returns to the dilapidated boarding house in which he spent his formative years .
atlantis is nowhere near as flashy as hicks ' cedars , which is disappointing but understandable considering the switch from the completely amazing robert richardson to the occasionally amazing piotr sobocinski , the oscar - nominated cinematographer behind krzysztof kieslowski 's red .
the acting is solid from everyone , including hopkins , who never once makes you think of dr .
lecter .
most impressive are youngsters yelchin and boorem , who both had tiny parts in along came a spider .
while i did n't really have much of a problem with goldman 's screenplay , i do need to point out at least one inconsistency .
goldman , for those of you who do n't read premiere , writes what seems like an annual criticism of everybody else 's films , carefully explaining why they all suck , make no sense and insult their audiences , while somehow failing to mention the crap that he 's penned ( like the general 's daughter ) .
it 's mean - spirited but fun to read , mostly on account of nobody else in hollywood having the balls to say anything remotely negative about anybody else in the business ( including michael jackson , o .
j . and robert blake ) .
in atlantis , which is supposed to be told through the eyes of young bobby , one would assume he would have to be in each scene in order to have the memory to which to flash back .
well , he 's not , and it does n't make sense .
1
: 41 - pg-13 for violence and thematic elements

A: P
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Q: devotees of robert a . heinlein , be forewarned : paul verhoeven 's starship troopers is less an adaptation of heinlein 's novel than it is a literary satire .
the author 's jingo - all - the - way militarism and his tendency to create plastic characters with plastic conflicts had me expecting a soulless , faceless parade of carnage from the film version .
and i suppose that 's exactly what verhoeven delivers , with sometimes hilarious results .
heinlein 's basic motifs are so faithfully rendered that their flaws become a source of amusement , while their strengths become the stuff of high - energy entertainment .
outlining the plot of starship troopers is a fairly silly endeavor , since it 's basically a big bug hunt . . .
aliens in broad daylight .
sometime in the future , humanity is threatened by giant , malevolent insects which have evolved into twenty - foot - tall action figures ( arachnids with super - impaling spikes , beetles that spew forth lava , dragonflies with guillotine legs ) .
among those who sign on to save the earth are a group of high school classmates from buenos aires : conflicted rich kid johnny rico ( casper van dien ) ; his math whiz girlfriend carmen ( denise richards ) ; dizzy ( dina meyer ) , who secretly carries a torch for johnny ; and carl ( neil patrick " doogie howser " harris ) , who not - so - secretly carries a torch for dizzy , and also has a talent for speaking telepathically to ferrets .
while carmen heads for flight school and carl joins military intelligence , johnny and dizzy become mobile infantry , their various battles intertwining with romantic sub - plots out of a third season episode from " beverly hills 90210 .
"
so if starship troopers is another movie where one - dimensional characters wade through trite situations on their way to killing a bunch of aliens , what makes it any better than , say , independence day , a movie where one - dimensional characters waded through trite situations on their way to killing a bunch of slightly different aliens ?
for one thing , you sense that the film - makers are aware of the pulp nonsense they have as source material .
the very absence of major stars in the cast feels thematically appropriate , not just fiscally prudent .
if starship troopers had been turned into a tv - movie , aaron spelling would have produced it .
it 's a story which requires emoting , not acting ; it 's a prime time soap opera with big guns , played for all the dopey melodrama it 's worth .
the no - name cast also plays into verhoeven 's treatment of heinlein 's most controversial conceit .
in this society , we learn , one can only be a full citizen after completing some sort of federal service , military for most .
verhoeven pays the notion plenty of lip service , then proceeds to skewer it with brilliant mock recruitment ads ( named after the world war ii - era " why we fight " series ) in which youngsters are indoctrinated into the joys of firearms , or the pleasures of stomping cockroaches .
these characters really are just " fresh meat for the grinder , " as one character puts it , which makes their lack of familiarity all the more fitting .
it 's not that starship troopers is anti - military , because it never treats the true horror of war as anything but a great big , violent video game .
in fact , the characters are living the propaganda ( particularly johnny , who receives so many field promotions he may not remember his own rank by the time the film ends ) .
verhoeven is actually having it both ways
-- he 's making fun of gung - ho boosterism even as he fires his fresh - faced recruits into battle on a gung - ho booster rocket of visual effects .
if that makes starship troopers hypocritical , at least it 's enthusiastically staged hypocrisy .
there may not be a person worth caring about in the whole film , but it moves like nobody 's business .
verhoeven stages
some thrilling action sequences , sending swarms of bugs after the anonymous grunts then having various body parts strewn about the screen like landscaping .
it is that rare special effects blockbuster which demonstrates a sense of pacing to match its budget ; i was caught up in the action enough of the time that i was n't perpetually groaning over the absence of real human beings .
i wish i could find it in myself to work up more outrage over the callous way humans are dispatched in starship troopers , but it did n't work out that way .
that would be punishing verhoeven for getting to the heart of his material .

A:
P
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