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

tom dicillo directs this superficial comedy about superficial people in superficial careers , all searching for deeper meaning .
however , they wo n't find much meaning in the real blonde , and not enough real humor , either .
joe ( matthew modine ) is a struggling actor , or he claims to be one , even though he has no credits under his belt .
his girlfriend , mary ( catherine keener ) has no pretensions about her career : she 's a makeup artist , working for the eccentric fashion photographer blair ( marlo thomas ) and supermodel of the month , sahara ( bridgette wilson ) .
sahara , who has acquired a new age spirituality from repeated viewing of the little mermaid , has an on - again , off - again relationship with joe 's best friend , bob ( maxwell caulfield ) .
however , bob has gotten his biggest break yet : a starring role on a soap opera opposite the beautiful kelly ( daryl hannah ) , who may be that illusive woman he 's always pursued : a real blonde .
there are some moments of good humor in the real blonde , but not enough .
the best stuff is in throwaway details in the background , such as sahara 's perfume ads : " depression -
it 's not just a state of mind " .
but to find humor in the superficiality of models and actors is to shoot fish in a barrel . and ,
unfortunately , the film 's forays outside the realm of comedy are pathetic .
take for example the film 's framing device of an old lady and her dog .
the story serves absolutely no purpose , makes little sense , and is completely tangential to the main plotlines of the movie .
matthew modine and catherine keener have the most sympathetic characters in the film , but they 're stuck in the most boring plotlines .
modine whines and complains and would be completely pathetic if he was matched against someone stronger than elizabeth berkley , who appears as another struggling actor .
keener 's character has a stronger edge , but the insult self - defense class ( taught by denis leary , no less ) she is stuck in makes little sense .
the movie 's running time is under two hours , but it seems like it is well over it .
there 's just not enough humor to speed things along , and not enough meaning to propel any drama .
N

i 'm not really sure what to think about " crash .
" on the surface , it 's a cold , boring , unerotic porn with name starts , a name director , and some cool camerawork .
i mean , it left me completely bored , unsatisfied , and generally kinda weirded out .
but then again , not every film 's supposed to leave you
entertained .
" crash " is structured to play like a porn flick , but with significantly more plot and dialogue .
while we see several extremely taboo scenes of weirdo sex , we also have a skimpy little plot going on ( mostly towards the beginning ) , and maybe just a hair of characterization .
not to mention the acting is generally pretty good , and we do n't really see a lot of the actors completely exposed .
but what makes it supremely different from a porn is the fact that this is not an erotic experience .
this film does not posess the erotic hypnotism of " henry and june " or the just plain horniness of , say , " deep throat " ( not that i 've seen it ) .
if one was to be made completely hot by this film , it would probably mean they were also into the whole " auto eroticism " thing .
the film leaves you cold erotically ( and maybe in many other ways ) , but what it does is present a group of people who live on the edge .
the film opens up on a woman , catherine ( deborah kara ungar , of " the game " ) , pressing her bare breast up against a car in a public air hangar .
suddenly , a man enters the frame and begins to take her from behind ( the film does nt ' show all this though , even if it is nc-17 ) .
the next scene has a film director , james ( james spader ) , having sex with a camera woman ( alice poon ) in an office on the highly - populated set of his movie .
the next scene has the two coming together , revealing to us that they 're husband and wife , and them sharing in one another 's escapades .
while the two are arguably freaky people , we at least know they love to live on the edge .
soon afterwards , james is driving down the road at night , reclessly of course
( he 's reading something ) , when he drifts into the other lane , and then hits another car face on .
james is not killed , but the passenger in the other car flies into his seat ( obviously dying ) , leaving the driver , helen remington ( holly hunter - in a porn ? ) , also alive .
the two go through therapy together , and when getting out , they run into eachother again .
when james gives her a ride home , they almost get into another accident , and immeadiately afterwards , they go to an unbusy parking lot , and have a little quickie , as they were aroused by the accident .
you would n't think there would be many people who shared this same kind of fetish , but they run into a freaky guy named vaughan ( elias kosteas ) and his crutch - carrying girlfriend , gabrielle ( rosanna arquette ) , who are also into it .
vaughan is into living on the edge as they are , but he takes it to another level : he loves to recreate famous car crashes .
in one scene , he and a friend , colin seagrave ( peter macneill ) recreate james dean 's car crash without any padding or safety belts , and suffer some concussions , but nevertheless get a rush ( and the attention of the police ) .
soon , these five are all having sex with one another , be it straight , gay , or lesbian sex .
while this is admittingly all a bit comical ( the film is almost like a black comedy ) , the film does do a pretty awesome portrayal of people who 's main fetish is living on the edge .
i 'm sure somewhere there are people who get aroused by car accidents , but i personally do n't see a connection between car crashes and sex .
the main connection cronenberg shows us that both give a definite rush .
his car crash scenes are quick and exciting mini - masterpieces
: we 're at first not sure if they 'll take place , but everytime it looks like it may occur , we gasp .
then when it happens , we hold our breath .
the same thing happens with sex , although not in the same fashion .
these people are merely taking it to another level .
the only problem with the film is that it 's a tad redundant .
a normal porn lasts from an hour to an hour and a half .
this goes on for about 100 minutes , and it just seems a little too long .
the sex and car crashes are far between one another , and the time between them are a tad on the boring side .
there 's no characterization , although it could definitely be argued , that hey , it 's a porn , and we 're not here to sympathize .
but still , they coulda cut it down a bit .
but the film is saved with its presentation , as well as some other elements .
the atmosphere is very dark and forboding , creating a kind of cool weird feeling .
and there are several scenes
are just amazing .
one scene has catherine and james having sex , while she softly asks him questions about being with a man , which sounds almost erotic the way she says it .
a sequence involving one character 's death is filled with all the edgy disjointment that the film needs .
and the final shot is shot perfectly , creating an image of a car crash , and a couple having sex in front of it , despite the fact that she 's wounded .
the acting is also pretty good , especially for what is almost a porn ( ousting linda lovelace as best actress in a porn ) . while james spader is pretty boring ( he 's usually pretty intense ) , deborah kara ungar is amazing .
she speaks all her words in almost zombie - like hushes , and when she 's having sex , she has a blank look on her face , not showing the viewer whether she 's enjoying it or not .
in one scene , she actually looks dead while someone is having sex with her .
holly hunter , who gets extra credit just for appearing in something like this , is pretty good , and so is rosanna arquette ( who adds a kinda cool kinkiness to her role ) .
but the film is stolen by elias kosteas who plays his character so intensely that he almost upstages everyone .
he often speaks as he is out of breath , showing a definite affinity for his way of life .
he has a great deal of energy in several scenes , especially one scene where he 's taking photographs of a picture , and a later scene where he 's getting a freaky tatoo .
he and spader share sexual chemistry in several scenes , foreshadowing a later scene .
kosteas is a little known actor ( his biggest role was casey jones in " teenage mutant ninja turtles " ) , but here
he shows a deniro - like presence , hinting that he 's capable of bigger roles .
while i hardly enjoyed " crash , " it 's still a pretty intriguing portrayal of a group of people who , if the exist , are some of the strangest and most bizarre people in the world .
these people are able to share a rush between two completely different entities , and the film , which does n't exactly pain them in a negative light , is sucessful in bringing them to light , even if it leaves the viewer unnerved and generally freaked out .
despite the hardcore nature of the film and the subsequent nc-17 rating ( there 's also an r - rated version , but i would n't even go near that thing ) , anyone looking for a quick turn - on should just rent a regular porno .
P

i have little against remakes and updates of older films and tv series .
if there 's a will , there 's a way ; and i believe that anything , no matter how great or revered can be effectively improved upon .
this is the reason that i responded so well to gus van sant 's universally panned update of psycho ; i thought it to be not only an intriguing cinematic experience , but also very on - par with an original .
but i do have a big problem with remakes that are blatantly bad .
you see , the point of a remake is , or at least it should be , to iron out the original 's flaws and bring the work that much closer to greatness or even perfection .
but what if the source material on which the remake is based is n't any good to begin with ?
that is the only cinematic question pondered by the bland actioner the mod squad .
i 've only seen a couple episodes of the late 60s tv series on which it is based , and to be honest , i did n't like it all that much .
it has a concept that -- and still is -- interesting ; a group of corrupt young adults ,
all in their early 20s are given a choice : they either go to jail for the various crimes that they all have committed , or they can become undercover cops , helping the police get into places that they normally would n't be able to access .
obviously , all 3 opt for the latter option and become undercover policemen ( and policewomen ) .
the three main characters here are played by claire danes , omar epps and giovanni ribisi .
of the three , only danes has a real character .
ribisi 's dumbass 20 year old is played exclusively for laughs ; epps ' slightly more intelligent one is used to create various chase scenes .
when the squad 's superviser gets killed off and his reputation dirtied in death , the three of them , sure that their beloved master was framed , go off and investigate on their own , discovering corrupt cops , lots and lots of expensive whores and very lucrative drug operations .
all kinds of good stuff !
the only times that the mod squad comes even close to working is in its comedic moments .
although ribisi is a trite actor and his characters repeat movie after movie , his man here is really rather amusing , when the script gives him a chance .
epps ' straight man is effectively played against ribisi 's clueless spontaneity .
but the rest of the film is dull , boring and singularly uninteresting .
a drug - op action plot is no longer anything new , not even with teenage action heroes , and the way it 's executed here , it 's also nowhere near exciting or suspenseful
.
claire danes ' character has potential , but it is buried under heaps of cliches and her performance is too restrained .
she could have been a tour - de - force , but instead director scott silver puts shackles on her and simply does not allow her to do anything really significant with her role .
epps and ribisi fare slightly better and do as well as can be expected , although their characters are n't nearly as rich as danes ' could have been .
the mod squad is a mind - numbing marketing plot of a film , and teens will jump all over it .
it 's full of bad dialogue , scenes and concepts that make no sense and -- get this --
drug dealers that like to tango with other guys in their spare time .
nothing is remotely intriguing or worth paying for .
claire danes is no longer alluring -- mainly because she 's got a horrible hairdo , so that draw is out .
there are , however , cool explosions , guns and chases which may lure a viewer into thinking that he or she is about to experience an exciting thriller of some sort .
do not be fooled .
some may call this escapist fare -- i call it escape - as - quickly - as - you - can fare .
N