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

the most interesting thing about virus is that the title of the film does not refer to the clunky robotic animals that try to kill our heroes .
alas , it refers to our heroes !
as it turns out , the alien race that sends a computer virus to earth ( via the mir space station ) thinks of the human race as a virus -- perhaps even a cancer -- that needs to be eradicated before it spreads any further .
after all , we have taken up this entire planet , and if they let us live for another billion years or so , we might advance beyond our solar system and into the next one .
but the human race does n't have much to worry about .
after all , there 's a woman named foster ( jamie lee curtis )
out there stopping the computer virus .
she 's the chief navigator on a sea vessel ; travelling with her is captain everton ( donald sutherland ) , steve baker ( william baldwin ) , woods ( marshall bell ) , squeaky ( julio oscar mechoso ) , and richie ( sherman augustus ) .
they 're all sailing in a typhoon one lovely evening when they stumble across an enormous , abandoned russian satellite ship in international waters .
lucky for us , we already saw that the computer virus has taken over the ship and eliminated everyone on board .
the evil captain everton thinks he 's going to take the ship in and get a reward ; he convinces his crew that there 's going to be big money , so they try to salvage the ship .
soon , however , when it 's apparent that no one is on board and that the ship has no power , they realize that something bad must have happened .
finally , they meet nadia ( joanna pacula ) who explains their situation : a computer virus has taken over the ship !
it 's creating bio - mechanical life - forms to eliminate the human race !
virus is a truly dumb action thriller , one of negligible intelligence and innovation .
when considering the entire film , you will realize that it lacks a single original scene .
it 's a direct rip - off of nearly every james cameron film ( aliens , the abyss , and the terminator films are the most plagiarized ) ; more importantly , it 's basically the same movie as last year 's deep rising .
i liked deep rising simply because it 's funny
-- it knows it 's silly and derivative .
virus takes itself seriously .
and , in the most serious manner possible ,
it steals from every good and bad film of the genre , showing you countless familiar scenes , and sporting a cookie - cutter plot that any film of the sci - fi / horror genre could fit with a little trimming .
but what is so amazing about virus is how poorly the whole thing has been thought out .
okay , let me get this straight --
the alien race ( which is never really explained ) is basically sentient electricity .
they need to make themselves physical , so they use a space station to get onto a ship ( which is surrounded by water , but who cares about that ) .
on the ship , they make a bunch of clunky , immobile robots that somehow kill three hundred people .
after that , they start using the dead people to create half - human , half - machine creatures that look like the terminator but are much worse at walking around .
the leader , of course , is a big creature .
every film like this has a big creature at the end , but the big creature in virus is so big that it has to tear down the walls to move around .
virus is indeed a cliched film , but the central flaw lies in the fact that the computer virus just is n't very threatening .
it 's established that they can simply turn off the power to stop it , but the virus has sealed the power room by the time our heroes get there .
on one level , virus is almost passable fun .
it 's really gory , and a few of the scenes have interesting camp appeal ( the director , john bruno , worked on a lot of cameron 's films ) .
there 's also a nice array of actors , even though none of them do any acting
( except for donald sutherland , who does a lot of very bad acting ) .
the bottom line , however , is this : virus is a bad movie .
it rips off a lot of good movies that are worth seeing .
in that order , i recommend that you rent any one of the alien films , simply to admire the qualities of a creature that actually threatens our heroes .
N

you 'd think that after awhile hollywood would stop trying to make movies out of video games .
it has n't worked so far .
" street fighter ? "
" super mario brothers ?
" " wing commander ?
" " mortal kombat ? " not a watchable film in the bunch .
still i held out some hope for " tomb raider .
"
after all , the game 's premise is heavily influenced by the indiana jones trilogy and all the mummy movies , so there are cinematic elements imbedded in the concept .
however , despite the potential of the project , " tomb raider " proves to be yet another bomb .
the plot is a convoluted accumulation of nonsense probably borrowed from a dozen bad movies .
there 's a once - ever-5000-years alignment of planets coming up , and the illuminati have to find both halves of an ancient triangle that controls time in order to take over the world .
of course , the ancient folks who divided the triangle buried the halves in tombs on opposite sides of the world .
our heroine , lady lara croft ( angelina jolie ) , finds the key that opens the tombs in relics that her dead father ( jon voight ) dug up .
she figures that if she gets the triangle , she can bring her dad back from the dead .
of course , no one was expecting much of a plot from this movie anyway .
in both video games and action movies , the plot is just an excuse for the action sequences .
however , the action in " tomb raider " shows little style or originality .
there 's lots of shooting and some kung fu fightin ' , but none of it progresses beyond the level of a cheap direct - to - cable flick .
the other goofy archeologist flick of the summer
, " the mummy returns , " was much better ; it had its flaws , but its action was creative and large - scale .
since winning her academy award for " girl , interrupted , " jolie has n't taken any projects that would display her acting talents .
"
tomb raider " seems to be more interested in displaying her breasts ; so much attention is drawn to them that it 's a shame
there 's no oscar for best performance by a wonderbra .
while we do n't see much of her acting ability
( with the exception of a wonderful upper - crust british accent ) , we do get a hint of jolie 's less savory side .
considering the rumors of incest that hang over jolie and her supposed obsession with death , having lara be obsessed with resurrecting her dead father ( and uninterested in any of the living males around her ) seems a poor choice .
having jolie 's real life father jon voight play the dead dad makes it even creepier
.
i have n't decided what to make of director simon west yet .
his first feature was the star - studded disaster " con air , " but my opinion of him improved with " the general 's daughter , " which was thick with sultry atmosphere .
now this train wreck .
i hope he improves again because his next project is the big screen version of the cult tv series " the prisoner .
"
hollywood has already screwed up " the avengers , " and " the prisoner " represents a chance for redemption .
( by the way , speaking of british tv , " red dwarf " fans should look for chris " rimmer " barrie in his first major film role ) .
N

titantic , writer and director james cameron 's much anticipated and sometimes ridiculed $ 200 , 000 , 000 epic , arrives shortly into the theaters
so the question naturally arises , whether the film is worth it ?
as a business proposition , it seems hard to see how it can ever break even , but as a movie it is nothing short of wonderful . if you 've already neatly categorized it as yet another disaster movie a la volcano or the poseidon adventure , think again .
the movie is both a great love story told with the disaster as a backdrop and a portrayal of one of the world 's most memorable disasters made real and personal by seeing it through the eyes of two young lovers .
in either case , it is filmmaking at its best .
when we entered the press screening , my wife asked the publicity rep if there would be an intermission since the film runs three and a quarter hours long .
he said no
but that the time would go by so fast she 'd never notice the length .
amazingly , he was right .
titanic is one of the few long films that does n't suffer because of it .
the lush picture , filmed by russell carpenter in 70 mm , opens in the present with two diving subs exploring the wreck of the titanic on the bottom of the ocean .
fortune hunter brock lovett ( bill paxton ) leads the expedition looking for the world 's most valuable diamond necklace that went down with the ship , known back then as " the ship of dreams .
"
the necklace 's hundred - year - old former owner , rose dewitt bukater ( gloria stuart ) , finds brock to tell him her story .
although almost all of the movie happens in flashback , one of the engineers shows the elderly rose exactly how the ship was sunk .
using a computer simulation , the movie takes the time to explain what will happen later , which adds immensely to making a lucid story out of what would have otherwise been hopelessly confusing .
after twenty minutes , the story makes its jump to the past as the titanic leaves on her maiden voyage .
in a classic movie theme , the two parts of the ship , first class and steerage ( third - class ) exist in sharp contrast .
the strength of the script is the way it paints the differences between rich and poor without excessive moralizing .
entering the ship on its day out is rose along with her millionaire fiance , cal hockley , played with perfect snobbishness by billy zane .
and thanks to a last minute winning poker hand , an itinerant artist named jack dawson gets himself into a little shared cabin in third class .
even with her own promenade deck , rose feels trapped on the ship , what with an upcoming marriage to a man she loathes .
in contrast , jack can barely contain his euphoria at being on board .
after jack saves rose from committing suicide , they start a brief but impassioned love affair .
never tawdry and rarely explicit , their romance has the power to sweep the audience into the story .
leonardo dicaprio
in his best performance ever plays jack with confidence and charisma .
in so many ways , small and large , he makes all the right decisions in his approach to the part .
when he confronts cal , for example , he remains composed and polite and yet subtly undermines every one of cal 's supercilious put - downs .
kate winslet
gives a wonderfully captivating performance as young rose .
the chemistry between these two academy award nominees , him for what 's eating gilbert grape and her for sense and sensibility , is nothing short of astonishing .
from the scene where he embarrasses her by repeatedly asking if she loves her finace to the beautiful one of them hanging off the ship 's bow to the one where she embarrasses him by asking him to paint her nude , they dazzle the screen with a pair of mesmerizing performances .
if the film breaks after an hour and a half , which is how long cameron wisely waits to have the iceberg show up , you will still get one of the best films of the year .
peter lamont 's sets are more than authentic .
one scene , for example , starts with the planning - to - retire captain , played with insouciance by bernard hill , having his tea on deck .
it then shifts to the ship 's massive gears and then to the bright - hot boiler room filled with sweating muscular men shoveling in the coals .
the handsome interior common rooms of the ship resemble a palace more than an ocean liner .
easily the most fascinating part of the story is what happens after the iceberg hits and before the battle with the water begins in earnest .
at first , since the iceberg tears a series of little gashes in the hull , not some big gaping hole , the passengers view the hit as more of curiosity than anything else .
what a lark .
we 've struck an iceberg .
now let 's get back to our brandy and cigars .
the ship 's musicians play like troopers through it all , even after the panic sets in .
after all , they see it as their duty to calm the passengers .
when the musicians are about to die , they politely thank each other for the pleasure of being able to play together , and they mean it .
their civility borders on insanity , but it is touching nevertheless .
the story is so rich that my description has merely touched the surface .
there are more than enough characters to love and to hate , and all of the casting is dead - on . special effects work best when their presence becomes almost undetectable .
in titanic , for which he created a nine - tenths scale model of the entire ship , cameron strove for accuracy at all costs .
the most dramatic moment in the film happens when the ship breaks in two , and the front section becomes vertical in the water .
people are flung like ants either into the water to be shortly frozen to death or into other parts of the ship to be crushed immediately .
besides being romantic and dramatic , the script includes liberal doses of humor .
from the many deliciously subtle verbal put - downs to the physical comedy , as when jack teaches rose to spit like a man , the show elicits laughter in addition to perhaps a few tears .
"
it 's good - bye for a little while , " a less than confident father tells his little girl since it was indeed women and children first .
"
this boat 's for mommies and children .
there 'll be a boat in a little while for daddies .
"
basically there was a design decision to have fewer than half of the necessary life boats -- it made the decks look too crowded otherwise .
perhaps the sinking is best summarized by one of the guggenheim 's on - board the ship .
in the dining room with the lifeboats gone and the ship certain to sink , he is offered a life jacket by one of the crew .
"
no thanks , " the elegantly attired guggenheim replies .
"
we 're dressed in our best and would prefer to go down like gentlemen .
but we would like a brandy .
"
titanic runs 3 : 14 .
it is rated pg-13 for tastefully and delicately presented sex and nudity and would be fine for kids twelve and up .

P

