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

question:
go 's is a gloriously slick hip machine .
director liman ( who also photographed go ) and screenwriter august celebrate the drug / rave scene in l .
a .
, preferring to take ( comedic ) snapshots of troubled youth rather than critique them .
after more than ninety minutes of pill - popping , tantric sex , car chases , and attempted murder , go even has a happy ending .
this is the sort of film that gives members of the dove foundation splitting headaches ; as go wound down , i anticipated an anti - pill - popping - casual - tantric - sex - car - chase - attempted - murder sermon that ( blessedly ) did n't arrive .
a la tarantino 's pulp fiction , go is comprised of three separate but related stories .
the basics are as follows :
ronna ( polley ) is a bitter grocery store clerk facing eviction who turns to drug dealing for extra dough .
her co - worker , simon ( the improbably named askew ) , is a clubber from britain ecstatic about his first trip to vegas .
zack ( mohr ) and adam ( wolf ) are soap opera stars escaping a career - threatening conviction by assisting a peculiar cop ( fichtner ) in a drug bust .
perhaps because the innovative structure of tarantino 's non - linear masterwork is by now old hat , the id - fueled go delighted me but rarely surprised me ( with the exception of that mind - reading cat ! ) ; pulp fiction zigzagged down roads unforeseen , but we see go 's wheels turning from its first flash frame to the last .
torontonian polley ( of the sweet hereafter ) refused to do publicity for this picture on the basis that she was " not pleased with " her turn as the ill - fated cashier .
in go , she delivers , hands - down , her best performance to date .
here 's an ( overrated ) actress who agreed to appear on the poster , but not support her team at the junket or in interviews ; this sort of arrogance is commonplace for ms .
polley , as anyone who has read of her political agenda in the canadian press will tell you .
if she does n't want to be the ingenue of the moment , she should have said " no , " not go .
but i digress .
go is a fun film , so chipperly depraved one ca n't help but turn off his moral judgment for its duration and enjoy the ride .
in that sense , it 's a departure from liman 's last film , swingers , which at least lectured against self - absorption in the form of vince vaughan 's trent and his subtle comeuppance in the story 's clever epilogue ( which has been aped by mcdonald 's for their latest commercial ) .
i wish i cared more about go 's characters : like the techno music they listen to , the bands of anarchists on display here are at once absorbing and vacuous .
when the lights came up and stung my eyes , it was difficult to recall what about it entertained me . yet
entertain me it did
.
go is light and frothy , featuring compelling if not endearing work by polley , timothy olyphant ( scream 2 ) , and especially fichtner , whose homoerotic behavior is milked for effective laughs .
fichtner is a character actor best known for playing backstabbers ( in heat , armageddon , and others ) ; his previously untapped comic abilities shine in go .
unlike much of the film , fichtner is unpredictable .
answer:
P

question:
capsule : this is a harrowing look at a rarely dramatized chapter of wwii , life in a japanese prison camp .
to end all wars is a moving film about the struggle of prisoners to retain their humanity and their dignity .
the somewhat religious interpretation may not be to everyone 's taste .
,
+3 ( -4 to +4 ) more than any other people the japanese seem capable of acting with one goal and not letting any other consideration get in their way .
this may be a holdover from the code of bushido when loyalty to ones master was the only law .
during world war ii , of course , the one goal was winning the war .
this led them to do some very inhuman things in pursuit of that goal .
when the japanese had captured prisoners , they were very much treated in whatever way would be optimum for achieving the one goal .
minimum resources were to be spent in maintaining prisoners in keeping with maximal positive output .
while the germans , not known for their kindness in those days , had a 6 % mortality rate among captured prisoners of war , the mortality rate of japanese prisoners of war was 27 % .
the best thing for the war effort was working prisoners nearly to death on the thailand to burma railroad .
that railroad was needed if japan was to attack india as it planned to do .
the best thing for the effort was not to waste much food on the prisoners so short and amazingly wretched food was the order of the day .
and just being in the jungle without proper medical aid took its toll .
in the public mind japan has never been held as accountable for war atrocities as was germany .
filmmakers have been reticent to tell the story , perhaps for fear of offending the japanese .
there are comparatively few films about the japanese pow camps .
certainly there was david lean 's the bridge on the river kwai .
there were some low - budget british exploitation films and that was about it .
then there were tv series " a town like alice " and " tenko .
"
lest the experience be forgotten we have a new film to end all wars directed by david cunningham and written by brian godawa .
it is based on the account of ernest gordan who survived the horror of that world war ii prison camp and went on to become for 26 years the dean of the chapel at princeton university .
the film while realistic shows the conditions in the camp as being considerably more brutal and sadistic than bridge on the river kwai portrayed them .
the story opens with six or so soldiers being marched into the prison camp only to be immediately placed in front of a firing squad .
it turns out to be a grim joke , one of many that the sadistic japanese play to amuse themselves .
beating and torture are commonplace events .
men already imprisoned tell the new arrivals to enjoy the last of their health ; it will not last long with parasites and disease almost inevitable .
however , unlike as in kwai , the prisoners want to avoid going to the hospital , called by the prisoners the death house .
so goes a war within a war with the prisoners trying to maintain their humanity and with the japanese trying to make them interchangeable and highly expendable cogs in a rail - laying machine .
this is more than just a battle of who will win the war but a battle of ideologies .
the japanese believe that the individual is nothing , that conformity to group 's norms is all that gives a life meaning .
conformity is purpose .
before the film is over there will be some surprising revelations about the character of the prisoners and the character of those running the camp .
if this story showed nothing but sadism from the japanese it would be one kind of story .
if the british ( with one american , by the way ) and the japanese learned to respect each other it would be another kind of story .
it is neither .
it is a stirring and believable account of camp life .
the color has been distorted in the film to give a washed out yellow .
this serves a double purpose for cunningham .
it gives an effect of technicolor film that has been left in heat .
it also creates a distancing effect .
the only touch that seems a little out of place is the use of gaelic music .
this is a powerful and philosophical view of the prison camp experience .
i rate it a 9 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale .
answer:
P