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

" idle hands " is distasteful , crass and derivative .
if an original thought found its way into this horror - comedy it would die of loneliness .
plus , you have to question the judgment and sensitivity of studio executives who would green light the release of a movie dealing with the slaughter of innocent teen - agers the week after the tragedy in littleton , colo .
the movie is insulting to horror film fans and teen - agers .
the plot , what little there is , deals with anton ( devon sawa ) , a high - school slacker who 's hand goes on a murderous rampage after becoming possessed .
along the way the hand kills anton 's parents and his two best friends .
the friends , also slackers , are so lazy that they return from the dead because the walk into the light was too far for them .
that is the level of this 's atrocity 's humor .
the movie treats death as a joke .
" idle hands " is gruesome and morbid .
the performances are stereotypical and cartoonish .
i realize this is supposed to pass for comedy , but recent events have surpassed what is on the screen .
it is not the fault of the filmmakers that real life has overtaken reel life .
and i can only presume that the writers of " idle hands , " terri hughes and ron milbauer , were trying to make some statement about today 's young people and their values in a satiric vein .
however , it 's hard to laugh at death these days , especially ones involving young people .
with the real horrors of the world put before us on television ,
a stale pastry such as " idle hands " should be held from release for a few weeks or months to give us time to catch our collective breaths .
" idle hands " is bad , no matter the circumstances in the world outside .
but the context of recent events only heightens its shortcomings .
the time is not right for this type of movie .
and as far as " idle hands " goes , the time may never be right .
this is a movie that shoud be consigned to the trash bin of cinema .
N

way of the gun is brimming with surprises , some good , most bad .
one of the good ones is ryan phillippe 's surprisingly halfway decent performance .
after the actor gained much attention by posing and preening through teen swill like i know what you did last summer , he hinted at a bit growth in last year 's cruel intentions with his amusingly contemptuous john malkovich meets james spader performance , though his acting in that film faltered around the third act mark , precisely when the screenplay made his character grow a heart ( presumably to appeal to his training bra wearing fans ) and start bellyaching about how he 'd fallen for his " target " .
it was a dramatic shift that neither phillippe nor the film 's director could negotiate .
but he seems to be trying and that should n't be overlooked ( or probably over praised ) seeing as how , at this point , he really is n't required to do much but look pretty .
here , phillippe has procured a five day growth of beard , his hair askew and his affect altered to sound something like james cagney in all his " look here , see " glory .
it 's tough to believe a pretty boy like phillippe as a hard ass , but his performance actually helps with the illusion .
unlike ben affleck 's puppy dog approach in reindeer games , phillippe is believable and not too bad at that .
as for the plot , well , that 's one of the bad surprises ; phillippe and the great benicio del torro play two moronic ( and not even remotely likeable ) criminals ( introduced to us in the parking lot of a rave where they stupidly pick a fight with about twenty people ) who hatch a scheme to kidnap a surrogate mother ( juliette lewis ) after overhearing that she 's carrying the baby of painter ( scott wilson ) , a very well connected wealthy man .
the kidnapping devolves into a laborious shoot out where much damage is done and many are killed .
but the anti - heroes escape with the woman while an aging hit man ( james caan ) and two scheming bodyguards ( taye diggs and nicky katt ) remain in pursuit .
directed by christopher mcquarrie , the screenwriter who won an oscar for his work on usual suspects , an overrated piece of crime noir in many circles ( this one included ) , way of the gun is a hodgepodge of crime thriller motifs that just oozes eye rolling familiarity .
unlike phillipe , mcquarrie does n't seem to be growing at all ; he fills his flick with a sprawling labyrinth of plot all snatched from movies
i know i 've seen before and worse , it feels like it .
the film lacks even a fresh approach ( like what soderbergh did out of sight or the limey ) to its clich ?
s , all of which are spewed before us in a picture that tries so desperately to be hip and gritty without bothering to notice how common it is
.
it features characters living by a code they seemed to have picked up in sam peckinpah 101 rather than any thing resembling life .
even attempts at emotional weight feel strained like in preposterous scene where enemies james caan and benicio del torro stop in their tracks to have a cup of coffee and pontificate on life , philosophy , etc .
i did n't like the bit much when it first appeared in heat ,
here , it 's even more self consciously " dramatic " .
usual suspects , which also featured a bunch of low lives that seemed to live by a code they learned from the movies , worked to some degree because of that astonishing twist ending .
nowadays an astonishing twist per ending is de rigeur , never mind if it deems all that transpired before it completely inconsequential .
thus , nearly every character in way comes with at least one dirty little secret ( most amateurishly projected before they appear ) and it too has an ironic little twist at the end ( nothing earth shattering , like in the usual suspects ) but i admit , i did n't see it coming , and i smiled .
however most of the movie feels exactly like the interrogation scenes between palminteri and spacey in usual suspects : a lot of faux huffing and puffing with no rhythm or reason .
or substance .
it 's just as overplotted as suspects , and often dull as any overplotted movie without interesting characters , a distinctive style , or a good script would be .
even the good stuff , most of which involves james caan ( doing a fine job ) , feels odd and out of place in a movie that thinks lines like " karma is only justice with out the satisfaction " are clever .
at one point caan laments " need is the ultimate monkey " a line so inexplicable he might as well have said " love is like hippo ass " .
i 've seen porno with better dialogue .
and some with better plot lines too .
but rarely has porn offered up such a talented cast ( i mean , can you even compare james caan to ron jeremy ) .
caan slips into this role with seeming ease , he could do this kind of soft - spoken tough guy in a coma , but he manages to give his character depth and weariness .
benicio del torro is always welcome , though here he plays it fairly straight ( rather than another oddball character creation like the ones the actor gave us in usual suspects and excess baggage ) , adopting a brad pitt - esque quizzical pout to go along with his heavy swaggering .
speaking of pitt , his ex , juliette lewis , is a weak link , either shouting her lines with ear shattering shrillness , or waddling about like a silly goose .
nicky katt was brilliant in a brief role in the limey , here his role is just as brief only
he seems wasted ; he 's only kept around for his cold presence .
taye diggs has a similar function , cool as ever , but never a character , though the guy has one helluva death scene .
for the most part way is incessantly talky with no reason to give a hippo 's ass about any thing that transpires since its characters are never more than simplistic pawns .
it 's vaguely tarantino - ish , but in a bad truth and consequences nm way , with phillippe , in one scene , leaping into a stupid rant about " faggots " migrating to los angeles .
you know the routine .
the final shoot out is pure bargain basement john woo ( who himself seems to be doing bargain basement john woo ) with interchangeable bad guys lining up to be shot at .
but those gun shots sure crack like thunder .
just the other day i was watching an old dirty harry movie on cable and was stunned to hear the weak elephant grunt - like sound that emanated from harry 's fetishized smith and wesson .
oh how far we 've come .
N

in ` enemy at the gates ' , jude law is a gifted russian sniper made hero by a political officer named danilov ( joseph fiennes ) who uses him in a propaganda newspaper to raise the hopes of the soldiers and people of stalingrad .
it 's world war ii , and the russian - german standoff in town could determine the outcome of things for the motherland .
law 's vassili is the russian 's top pawn to victory .
lots of war stuff happens .
an older , german version of jude 's character played by ed harris shows up halfway into the proceedings .
he 's equally talented , and the two men play a cat and mouse game trying to kill each other .
they constantly switch roles , as the war fades far into the background .
the cast also includes the terrific rachel weisz as a love interest for both vassili and danilov the set - up is decent , and so are the production values . boasting a wide range of grimy locales , greasy hair , and tattered costumes , the art direction prospers .
the actors , however , suffer the problem matt damon had in ` saving private ryan ' .
either their eyes , teeth , skin , or a combination of other features looked too white and clean .
with dirt and blood all around , the blinding teeth or bright eyes of these actors divert attention from the action .
that said ,
the players are mostly good in their roles , although i do n't think ed harris was really trying .
maybe he realized his role struck a difficult chord in one - notedom .
while the film is technically about snipers , there are far too many predictable sniping scenes .
director jean - jacques annaud expects us to view each tense situation with jude and some cohort in a tight spot as edgy and exciting , but after about the sixth time , in which we realize that jude is not going to die , it 's relatively pointless .
we get that he 's talented , okay , let 's move on .
that 's the problem with ` enemy at the gates ' ; it just does n't know when to stop .
witness the wasted seventeen minutes that could have been spent elsewhere . reestablishing his title as the most beautiful ( and often talented ) man on film , jude law carries the movie .
without him , this costly production would have gone into the ground .
the story and acting are of good quality , but there 's never a sense of authenticity or reality .
something about this war movie is undeniably modern , and it loses its feeling .
strange enough , the screenplay is based on the true story of a real russian sniper .

P

