TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: did i do something bad ?
i must have , because sitting through this movie was sheer punishment .
here 's the plot .
ricky ( jeff goldblum ) is producer of the good - buy network , one of those 24-hour home shopping channels .
the new boss ( robert loggia ) plans to can ricky 's behind if he does n't turn the previous months ' flat sales numbers around , and to add to his problems , ricky also has to work with kate ( kelly preston ) , the ivy league wunderkind whom the boss has brought with him .
kate and ricky do n't get along and do n't have any great ideas until they meet g ( eddie murphy ) , a spiritualist who sees something positive in everything .
his soothing voice and simple logic makes people feel good , and it 's this quality that will make g the new gbn television star and the key to the network 's success .
the first problem is a flaw in the plot .
sure , g makes people feel good .
sure , we 're told that most people feel guilty after buying an impulse item , no matter how wealthy they might be , and i 'll even believe that g talks a talk that allows people to feel good about what they 've bought .
but , hey , that 's after they 've bought it .
why do sales skyrocket the first time g is on camera ?
far from trying to sell the product , g instead blathers on about how you do n't even need the thing .
someone please tell me how this is supposed to move merchandise in the first place .
you might say that people feel good about what they 've bought , so they come back and by more , but due to the simple fact that the first round of sales in inexplicable , i 'm not convinced this is what the filmmakers had in mind .
the whole movie is therefore seriously undermined because the key point in the plot is never credible .
another problem is in the humor .
you know , if you see that eddie murphy is in a movie , i think it is not unreasonable for you to expect that the film is a comedy .
whoa , partner , are you in for a surprise .
holy man is not funny .
murphy , the one asset you 'd think this movie has ( remember how they brought him in at the last minute to save best defense ? - then again , maybe you do n't ) is seriously reigned in .
the script gives him almost nothing to work with , and it seems as though director stephen herek kept him toned down so that the other actors in the film would n't be left as window dressing .
there 's only one moment in the film where murphy is allowed to let loose , and it lasts for three shouted words , which seem totally out of place as a result . pathetic .
in all , there are about three jokes that work in the entire picture , and they 're not even that great .
as a side note , there are some cameo appearances such as dan marino pitching a contraption which allows you to cook off of your car engine , and james brown introducing a medic - alert device that shouts " help me ! "
just like the hardest working man in show business at the push of a button , but these never cause your personal laugh - o - meter to rise above the level of mild bemusement .
" well , " you ask , " surely there must be some convincing performances to make up for the lack of humor .
" think again , buckwheat .
jeff goldblum disappoints .
kelly preston is flat ( but not like that ) .
robert loggia , in the kind of role for which he has been virtually typecast , ca n't do anything with it .
the script is part of the problem , but these actors do n't even look like they believe in the move they 're making .
they look a lot like they 're bored .
just like the audience .
so what do you have when the humor is absent from your comedy , and the acting is like the siberian steppes ?
a film that drags more than a dropped anchor .
but wait !
as if these problems do n't make the film slow enough , the screenplay 's pacing makes the movie even slower !
it takes the entire first half hour to establish the movie 's premise , then more time as the film wades through
a tortuous ( and seemingly mandatory ) romance between ricky and kate , and a sub - plot involving a conniving pr man ( eric mccormack ) who wants to discredit g and take over ricky 's job as producer .
when the pr guy 's plan is foiled , the film is climaxes , we 're treated to that little epilogue , and then we can all go home ,
right ?
wrong .
the movie goes on for another half hour !
continental drift is the indy 500 compared to the pace of holy man !
the only thing holy about holy man will surely be the number of people exclaiming
" holy !
@#% that movie was awful !
" this one is for the truly pious .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: dr dolittle ( 20th century fox ) running time : 1 hour 25 minutes starring eddie murphy directed by betty thomas riding high on the success of the nutty professor ( 1996 ) , murphy returns in this abysmal comedy .
he plays doctor john dolittle , who as a child had the ability to understand animals .
however , after being ' exorcised ' he loses this ability , and we fast forward to see dolittle in a crummy job surrounding by crummy people ( most notably dr mark weller , played by oliver platt . ) however , with a bonk on the head his ability to understand animals returns , and ' comedy ' is ready and waiting to happen .
except comedy never does happen .
doctor dolittle , even with the excellent premise , rarely manages to raise a laugh .
poor old murphy looks bored stiff throughout the whole movie , and his performance suffers .
the manic murphy we saw in the 80 's is gone , his more mature ( and more boring ) twin appears to be getting all the work in the 90 's .
the voices of the animals , which include albert brooks , chris rock ( the ' new ' eddie murphy ) and norm mcdonald as ' lucky ' the dog are marginally better , and at least they put enthusiasm in the movie .
sadly , most of their lines are pretty dumb .
and they 're not ' funny ' dumb , like dumb & dumber ( 1994 ) , but just boring dumb .
the film even succumbs to fart jokes halfway through , in a desperate attempt to raise some laughs .
there are a few good jokes in the script , but they are few and far between .
if i had to choose a favourite performance , it would probably be albert brooks tiger , who has a certain charm about him .
sadly , he 's barely in the movie , and rock 's really annoying hamster is given far too much screen time .
joke wise
, we are thankfully , spared the mocking and insulting type of jokes that featured heavily in the nutty professor .
the director , betty thomas , has , well , done better films .
she bought us private parts ( 1997 ) and the brady bunch movie ( 1995 ) which were , sadly , much better than this .
the scenes lack any charm
, she just gets the job done .
the animals themselves , are reasonable realistic , although most of them are obviously puppets .
there 's an impressive looking tiger , however , and the lip sync is pretty good .
you 'd have no problem guessing that most of the close up 's are puppets , however , with their jilted movement .
i was hoping jim hensons workshop , who created the furry friends , would have done a better job .
doctor dolittle , in the end , is a disappointment for everyone involved .
murphy has done much better movies
( i .
e trading places )
the director has seen better days , and even the creatures are n't that good .
the target audience , aged between 7 - 13 , who are undemanding , will probably like it however , thanks to it 's dumbed down humour .
everyone else , however , should give doctor dolittle a miss .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: boy , what a great movie ! !
keanu reeves and morgan freeman acting together , the director of the fugitive ( andrew davis ) back again to give us another thriller , and the beautiful rachel stealing beauty weisz thrown in to boot .
how could this not be a blockbuster ?
all die - hard keanu reeves
fans , read on .
ol " much ado about nothing
" plays eddie kasalivich , a machinist studying at the university of chicago .
to help pay for the rent , he takes on this job making the machinery for a hydrogen project being conducted by the university .
by happy coincidence , he also happens to stumble on the solution to the final problem and thus is the only one who knows the key to performing this feat of miracle physics .
this project holds great promise : taking hydrogen from water and giving out more energy than is put in .
a potential solution to the earth 's energy problems without the pollution cost .
surely nobody could have any problems with that ?
morgan freeman is paul shannon , the project 's sponsor .
he works for a very powerful organization that disagrees with the paternal project leader as to how quickly technology should be released to the public .
he figures the world will disintegrate into anarchy if the results of the project are released too quickly .
so he murders the project leader , blows up the project ( great but short scene here , sort of like a mini id4 city - devastation thing ) and tries to simulate the experiment at some other hi - tech hush - hush location .
unfortunately , our intrepid machinist and an english physicist ( weisz ) manage to get away and now follows a fugitive - like chase using a not too dissimilar rehash of that movie script .
this movie is just dying for a comparison with " the fugitive " .
both movies use chicago as the main city and since the place does n't change much , i guess we ca n't really blame the setting for the paucity of atmosphere .
the trouble here is that where the fugitive had harrison ford and tommy lee jones , chain reaction only has keanu reeves and fred ward .
credit to them , but we are n't really given much of a chance to empathise with the characters .
where ford was able to work within the confines of the movie to evoke sympathy , eddie kasalivich
just doesn9
t seem very believeable and reeves ' character is never given the time to develop .
it might have been a better investment in film to give the characters more depth and spend less time on the chase sequences , which frankly , get quite boring after a while .
harrison ford was " the man against the world .
"
he was alone in a world where he did n't know who to trust and it came across real well .
in chain reaction , keanu reeves is n't alone .
now that would be fine if the fleeing couple had some chemistry and could really portray some paranoia , vulnerability and confusion .
we do n't get this .
we get him thinking he 's still in speed , only
now our sandra bullock has an english accent , probably does n't drive a bus , and hardly contributes anything to the movie .
the producers here probably thought , " hey , what if keanu and rachel do n't hit it off too well ?
let 's rope in that morgan to help us out .
"
well , keanu and rachel did n't hit it off well on the screen , and most unfortunately , morgan freeman does n't help much either .
the only thing we come to really know of paul shannon is that he always has a full load of cigars in his cigar holder .
it 's not really his fault .
once again , andrew davis just does n't take the time to build his characters .
someone must have convinced him that this time round , cinema dollars are best earned by making the movie run like a headless chicken .
the flying inkpot rating system :
* wait for the tv2 broadcast .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .

SOLUTION:
N