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

i do n't appreciate it when a thriller manipulates the viewer into thinking the plot is interesting , when in fact it 's ludicrous .
in the case of the general 's daughter , the plot is more than capable of intriguing you to a certain point .
but at this juncture in the story , the movie begins to fall apart like a crumbling cookie .
this predictable summer thriller is only sporadically involving , and that is unfortunately not enough to compensate for all of it 's detailed flaws .
get past one moment early on where john travolta exercises his southern accent , and you 're likely to survive this entire movie .
travolta plays criminal investigations divisions officer paul brenner , who 's working undercover at a military base when another situation arises : the apparent rape and murder of a young female officer ( leslie stefanson ) .
it turns out that the victim is the daughter of general joe campbell ( james cromwell ) .
let the investigation begin .
with the assistance of fellow cid investigator sarah sunhill ( played rather on - the - sidelines by madeleine stowe ) , brenner uncovers what appears to be an intricate and bizarre homicide case .
things begin to get marginally engrossing when we meet colonel moore ( james woods ) , a former commanding officer of the deceased who has a few secrets up his sleeve .
woods submits another scene - stealing performance here as he oozes authority , surrounded by clouds of smoke emitted from his cigar .
with echoes of his supporting role in true crime , in which he duked it out with clint eastwood in enjoyably profane verbal exchanges , he makes every moment believable .
here though , the intense dialogue comes care of confrontations with travolta , as the two send mindful , knowing glares across the room .
there are many scenes such as this in the general 's daughter , in which the veteran cast performs splendidly under pressure , but the circumstances that tie these meetings together are difficult to absorb .
director simon west ( con air ) , shows a watchful eye of delivering a stylish looking thriller , but he fails miserably when it comes to the intellectual part of it .
the general 's daughter is , more often than not ,
a predictable and unexciting mess .
it does not help matters that the plot is virtually actionless , dragging it 's heels all the way at a mind - numbing snails pace .
a few brief action scenes , marvelously handled in the editing department , show that the movie could have delivered such a more proficient package .
from a director who does such a great job of staging explosions and miraculous stunts , i suggest west should stick with mindless , rip - roaring action features and attempt to avoid future projects like this .
still , the movie is certainly not without it 's merits .
the acting is very good from the majority of the experienced cast .
the performances range from commanding ( travolta ) to electric ( woods ) to stiff - as - a - board
( cromwell , who does n't show off his real talents here ) .
madeleine stowe manages to hold her own for a while , but as the female lead in an action - thriller , she does n't pull through sufficiently .
one of the problems with the execution is that it 's very predictable .
>
from minute one , i had few doubts about the identity of the killer in question .
the script even unwillingly points him out for us , using familiar techniques to hide his guilt until the unmasking toward the end .
in all fairness , we 've seen many of the devices used in the general 's daughter put to greater effect in other films .
the secrets behind the girl 's mysterious death are explained gradually , but by the resolution we have tunneled through so much malarkey that it feels unnecessary and surprisingly silly .
the general 's daughter is not a terrible movie , and it is involving enough to sustain a viewer 's attention span for a certain period of time .
but it just could have been so much better .
N

" take a number , fill out a form , and wait your turn .
"
starring kati outinen , kari v ? ?
n ?
nen , sakari kuosmanen , elina salo ; written & directed by aki kaurism ?
ki
; cinematography by timo salminen it might be possible to call drifting clouds a satire or a black comedy , but that would imply a sense of anger , of vitriol , of energy ; drifting clouds is what you get when the rage and vitality are gone .
it is the sad , slow story of lauri and ilona , a married couple caught between the wheels of capitalism as it grinds inexorably onward .
he loses his job as a tram driver , because everyone drives cars nowadays .
within a couple of months , she loses her position as a head waiter , when her restaurant is bought out by a chain and the entire staff replaced .
a conversation early in the film reveals a lot about their situation .
lauri has surprised ilona by buying her a tv , which she greets with little enthusiasm .
she notes that they have n't finished paying for the bookshelves or the couch yet .
he says that in four years the payments will be done and then they can buy some books for the shelves .
it would pass as deadpan humour if it was n't spoken with such resigned weariness .
this sets the tone for the rest of the movie .
there is humour and idiosyncracy at the periphery , but at the centre there is frustration and futility , and sorrow for the ways in which the logic of profit reduces people , until their worth is equated solely with their earning capacity .
there is an element of political commentary in this critique of the mechanisms of capitalism and the stultifying social environment it creates , but in drifting clouds the political is subsumed by the personal : the movie is about two people and what happens to them , and nothing else matters .
lauri and ilona live lives starved for friendship , respect , culture , passion .
they go to the movies , and walk out past old posters for l'atalante and l'argent , but the movie they have just seen is a pointless , violent , unfunny comedy .
their house and workplaces are uniformly unpleasant , painted and upholstered in lifeless colours ( ugly greens , dull reds , insipid blues ) , full of inelegantly functional objects and appliances .
the art design is impeccable in its tawdriness , and director aki kaurism ?
ki often matches the colour of characters ' clothes with the background colour and/or lighting , so that it seems as if they are almost physically fading into the environment .
there is no suggestion of sexuality in the relationship ; ilona and lauri sleep in separate beds and their gestures of affection lack the heat of desire ; their lives are now bound by something more complex and desperate than love .
their downward , downsized , downtrodden lives have a momentum that is almost comic , as one setback succeeds another , bottoming out when lauri stakes all their remaining money on the spin of a roulette wheel .
it must have been tempting to play the story for more laughs , more farce , more deadpan wit , but the film 's great strength
is the sober , empathic manner in which it observes lauri and ilona 's misfortunes .
irony would be an injustice .
situations and settings are broad and exaggerated -- this is not realism -- but they are not distorted .
the emotions are authentic .
if it is difficult to laugh at anything that happens , despite the droll performances , the laconic humour , that 's because kaurism ?
ki brings such compassion and understanding to the manifold indignities that are suffered .
he shows us how humiliating it must be for a woman of thirty - eight , who has worked long and hard to win a respectable position , to be forced to accept a job as a dishwasher in a two - bit restaurant ; how humiliating it must be for a man nearing 50 to confront his wife 's former employer , demanding the rest of her wages , only to have the crap beaten out of him , unable to land a single punch , when the employer and his cronies refuse to give him the money .
all this is observed keenly , with great economy : every cut , every line of dialogue , is judicious .
if most films are novelistic in their telling , this one brings the focus and concentration of a short story to bear .
but what is gained in nuance and acumen is rather undermined by the sense that the material barely accommodates the 96-minute running length .
i have seen many movies far less profound , less humane , less necessary than drifting clouds , but they filled me with an urge to watch them again , and this one did not .
it does not need to be seen twice : its every detail and implication can be absorbed in one viewing .
it is not a movie that will be seen by a large audience , because it can not be pitched to one .
there is no selling point .
it is all understatement , restraint , melancholy .
the characters are unremarkable , their best years behind them , their dreams dissipated ; it takes all the effort they can muster just to pay the bills .
this does not make them less fascinating , merely less marketable , which is a shame , because this is a movie which should be seen , precisely because it pays attention to people and emotions that most movies prefer to ignore .
it engages us and touches us and resolves -- surprisingly , and movingly -- into something resembling a happy ending .
the only thing greater than the ill - luck that governs the characters ' lives is their refusal to give in to despair .
their persistence is rewarded with what might be called a " feel - good " ending elsewhere , but not here , because this ending differs in kind from most such endings : this one has truly been earned .
P

" 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

