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

question:
trailing the success of brit humour in the movie industry with the likes of the semi - dramatic the commitments and the nearly slapstick a fish called wanda , the full monty is one film which delivered the depth of the former and the humour magnitude of the latter .
the film opens with a narrated documentary reel showing the improving economic and living standards of sheffield in the 60 's , then cut to the harsh reality of the present .
sheffield has become some sort of a semi - slum with the only visible increase in anything was the amount of layoffs from steel - factories ;
a once flourishing industry .
gaz ( carlyle ) spends most of his time in the worker 's club , a sort of place where jobless people sit around to wait for job offers .
he and his ' plump ' friend dave ( addy ) as well as their former foreman gerald ( wilkinson ) have been sitting around the club for months without any ' call for duty ' .
what seemingly was just a passing hard time for gaz suddenly transformed itself into desperation when he can not afford the 700 pounds of child - support money to his ex - wife .
suddenly finding himself facing the possiblity of losing custody of his son , he goes on to concoct an enterprising wild - idea to get the money he desperately requires .
dave and gerald too have problems of their own .
on top of his lack of employment , dave is also faced with the paranoia of his wife leaving him because of his current financial state as well as
his'plump ' appearance while gerald have been cheating on his wife by not telling her of his layoff for as long as 6 months , leaving home for ' work ' when he was actually a long - standing member of the worker 's club .
there we have it ; people with real problems and a not - so - practical solution for them .
gaz manages to get the support from them and sure enough they managed to get a few other poor jobless blokes to join in their gag : to perform a strip - act at the local pub .
in gaz 's own words while looking at an add for a strip - act featuring hunky ' beautiful ' men , ' if women are willing to pay for this , they sure as well will pay for real - men ' .
the full monty is very simple in nature and not a trace ambitious at all .
it is a small film which delves in the harsh - reality of unemployment and the desperation it drives people to .
it also is a very light movie to watch despite the theme it delves in because it has a lot of human - factor going for it .
never for once , was it trying to be manipulative at all , the full monty was true to itself all the way .
while the hilarity level of this film soared unexpectedly high , audience will find that they are in no way being cheated of a laugh , something lacking in many comedy films ( wannabes ? ) from hollywood .
other than carlyle , who acted as the psychotic begbie in trainspotting , the rest of the actors were definitely very new to me on - screen . however ,
the acting presented in this film is more than satisfying .
carlyle 's work here is a stark contrast to his character in trainspotting , implying real acting skill and flexibility on - screen
. kudos to the people involved in this film , especially to director peter cattaneo for being able to put together an excellent film which is has so much potential in ending up as your just - another - striptease .
already a critical and financial success for such a small film , the full monty is a humble film which deserves applause throughout .
while titanic managed to feast the eyes and soul in an epic way , the full monty gives one the same satisfaction ? ? . in half the time .
answer:
P

question:
this is crap , but , honestly , what older american audience is going to be able to resist seeing jack lemmon and james garner as bicker- ing ex - presidents ?
especially when their supporting players in- clude dan aykroyd as the current commander in chief , lauren bacall as a former first lady , and john heard as the dan quayle - ish vice president .
yup , you 're talkin ' pre - sold property here and , for warner brothers , the perfect fit into their now - ritual grumpy old men holiday slot .
for the non - discriminating viewer , my fellow americans is fine .
the raw star power alone will have audiences applauding this atrocious political- thriller road - comedy .
( they did in mine , heaven help us . )
for the rest of us , the movie is immediately tiresome .
the tone is terrible and the banter is worse .
forget
wit-- lemmon and garner merely exchange profanities through most of the movie .
( has anyone counted the number of first penis references ? )
sure , some of the bits are absurdly funny , including a men 's room macarena joke , the appearance of an elvis impersonator on a trainload of tarheels , and an all dorothy marching band performing " over the rainbow " at a gay men 's march .
the get there from here , though , you have to submit to one of the most offensively overbearing musical scores of all time .
judas priest , is there a single moment of silence in this film ?
even the dialogue gets drowned out .
what a waste .
answer:
N