instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
i am starting to write this review before going to see strawberry and chocolate , cuba 's oscar nominee for best foreign film , directed by tomas gutierrez alea ( who also directed the sometimes and in some circles critically acclaimed memorias del subdesarrollo-- " memories of underdevelopment " .
i saw memorias as part of a cuban cinema class back in the late ' 70s ; it merged the politics of the cuban revolution with mundane elements of the human condition .
i knew then that memorias was probably a state - sanctioned political missive , and now expect strawberry will follow suit .
fellow internetters , primarily in the newsgroup dedicated to cuba ( soc . culture .
cuba ) , have mentioned that strawberry is a harsh criticism of the revolution and its current state of affairs .
i have jumped to the conclusion that strawberry is nothing more than a veiled attempt at espousing the party line -- it probably looks like political criticism , but it ai n't so .
having some first hand and extensive anecdotal knowledge of castro 's repressiveness , i ca n't conceive of his tolerating honest and adversarial criticism of the revolution , and i ca n't imagine his letting anyone even suggest his failure as a leader of a failed movement .
as kids say these days , duh ! , the revolution 's current state needs no criticism ; its physical and spiritual crumbling is self evident .
the proper questions to put relate to castro 's legitimacy .
i bet the film takes castro 's power for granted , and that this or any other movie , produced under cuba 's state control , can not question his right to run cuba 's political show ( ongoing now for more than 36 years ) .
that 's why i just ca n't believe strawberry is an honest criticism of the regime .
let 's see what happens after the room goes dark and the screen lights up .
i saw the film -- twice .
i was right ; castro remained intact .
strawberry negotiates the relationship between a young " dialectic materialist , " as he describes himself , and a homosexual photographer ( diego ) in 1979 cuba .
the young man ( david ) is the son of peasants ; a symbol of the revolution 's reason for being .
grateful to the revolution for the opportunity to receive a university education , he studies political science instead of literature , his avocation , because he perceives it is his duty .
therein lies a likely unintended irony , since cuba has no need for political theoreticians .
cuba 's government is castro .
diego 's lifestyle is the antithesis of revolutionary life .
he enjoys the finer things -- tea , opera , art .
he does not do " voluntary work " for the revolution .
his small apartment is a sensual oasis .
the moniker " bourgeois " figuratively hangs over his head during the early parts of the movie .
however , he is a " revolucionario " in his own way .
the supporting roles are filled by : an aging busybody with a heart of gold and a troubled psyche ; david 's roommate , who rally takes the communist party line to its expected extreme ;
david 's ex - girlfriend , who dumped him for another guy , yet wants to bed him before she leaves for italy with her husband ; german , a gay sculptor whose work diego is attempting to exhibit , and who strikes a faustian pact with the government .
gutierrez alea and co - director
juan carlos tabio
do a fine job at almost showing that homosexuals can be revolutionaries too .
heck , towards the end of the film you begin to think the guy deserves a medal for his patriotic fervor .
he really loves the revolution ( as supposedly does everybody else in cuba ) and wants to make it better by exposing and correcting some of its flaws .
real criticism is missing though .
this movie is political window dressing .
luis aguilar leon 's op .
ed .
piece on fresa in the miami herald ( 10 march 1995 , at 21a ) did not color my judgment ; it presaged my intuition .
aguilar leon expressed my sentiment about this film 's political angle best : like many artistic manifestations in cuba , strawberry and chocolate sprang from a totally manipulated environment .
as art critic ivan de la nuez well states in the latest issue of the magazine postmodern notes , the silenced artists are those who refuse to accept " the charade in which artists can provoke up to a point , while the institutions legitimize themselves by forbidding them to go beyond that point .
" although terrible propaganda , this is otherwise a fine film .
answer:
P


question:
it 's probably inevitable that the popular virtual reality genre ( " the matrix , " " existenz " ) would collide with the even more popular serial - killer genre ( " kiss the girls , " " se7en " ) .
the result should have been more interesting than " the cell .
"
as the movie opens , therapist catharine deane ( jennifer lopez ) treats a catatonic boy ( colton james ) by entering his mind through some sort of virtual reality technique that 's never fully explained .
after months of therapy sessions in a surreal desert , catharine has no success to report .
meanwhile , killer carl stargher ( vincent d'onofrio ) has claimed another victim .
his particular hobby is to kidnap young women , keep them in a glass cell overnight , and drown them .
he takes the corpse and soaks it in bleach , then suspends himself over the body and jerks off while watching a video tape of the drowning .
although carl 's been doing this for awhile , he 's recently become sloppy , and fbi agent peter novak ( vince vaughn ) is closing in fast .
not fast enough , though , to keep carl from sticking another woman ( tara subkoff ) in the cell or to catch him before he suffers a schizophrenic attack that leaves him in a coma .
from the videos in carl 's house , peter can see that the drowning cell is automated and will fill with water forty hours after the abduction .
to save the kidnapped girl , peter has to find the cell before the end of the day , and comatose carl 's not talking .
so off they go to catharine in the hope that she can go inside carl 's mind and find out where the cell is in time .
the focus of " the cell " in on the ornate interior of carl 's mind , but the universe director tarsem singh creates seems more an exercise in computer - generated spectacle than an exploration of the psychotic personality .
for the most part , it 's style without substance .
in his own mind , carl is a decadent emperor in flowing robes , ming the merciless , as well as a frightened boy ( jake thomas ) abused by his father .
all in all , the mind of a psycho killer turns out to be a strangely dull place , and i kept wishing i could fast - forward to the next development .
singh is best known for directing music videos , particularly rem 's " losing my religion , " and " the cell " seems very much like a really long , really slow mtv video with the sound deleted .
singer lopez seems to think she 's in a video as well ; she devotes more time to posing in elaborate costumes than she does to acting .
the premise had great promise .
the computer - generated world within carl 's mind could have been a bizarre , surreal universe governed by insanity and symbolism rather than logic .
the first room catharine enters in carl 's head shows this promise .
she finds a horse standing in center of the room ; suddenly , sheets of sharp - edged glass fall into the horse , dividing it into segments .
the panes of glass separate , pulling apart the pieces of the still - living horse .
this scene is twisted , disturbing , and thought - provoking , because the psychological importance of the horse and its fate is left to the viewer to ponder .
another element that should have been developed is the effect on catharine of merging with the mind of a psychopath .
their minds begin to bleed together at one point in the movie , and this should have provided an opportunity to discover the dark corners of catharine 's own psyche .
like sidney lumet 's " the offence " or michael mann 's " manhunter , " " the cell " could have explored how the madness of the killer brings out a repressed darkness in the investigator .
however , catharine 's character is hardly developed at all , and lopez has no depth to offer the role .
bottom line : do n't get trapped in this one .
answer:
N


question:
*
* * * * * minor plot spoilers in review
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
no major spoilers are in review
*
* * * * * the previous two " alien " films have each had their own unique styles to them .
the ridley scott 's alien was very much a stylistic suspense film .
james cameron 's aliens was much more of an action film .
and i liked each film separately for which it was .
now alien 3 is out .
and it is it 's own film in the same right that alien and aliens were .
unlike aliens , alien 3 requires that you have seen aliens .
this is very important as the story picks up exactly were aliens left off .
the survivors of the expedition to lv-426 are returning home after battling and beating the aliens .
the climactic fight scene between ripley and the mother alien on the sulaco in aliens left behind one item , an egg .
in the opening sequence we see the egg hatch , find its quarry , which leads to a fire aboard the sulaco when the facehugger is injured , an leads the sulaco to jettison the hypersleep tubes in an escape vessel .
this vessel crash lands on fury 109 .
everyone in the vessel is killed , except ripley .
the facehugger is jettisoned with them and survives the crash .
fury 109 is an ex - mining / maximum security prison .
when closed down , some of the lifer prisoners decided to stay and live out the remaining years on the planet .
all the prisoners are men who have not seen a woman in many years .
ripley 's arrival sparks a problem with the inmates .
as for the new haircut that ripley and the prisoner 's sport , there is an infestation of lice on the planet . being an ex - prison means that there is no way off the planet and no weapons .
so the prisoners and ripley are off to face the alien on their own .
i will not go into detail , but you can guess what happens here .
the alien is loose and no one believes ripley 's outstanding story .
she finds comfort in the arms of the colony 's doctor .
yes , after 57 years ripley has sex .
it is not gratuitous , in fact , we do n't even see them kiss , but it is just as well .
a sweaty sex scene would not have worked in the context of the film .
there is a lot more gore in alien 3 .
in fact i would guess to say that there is more in alien 3 than either of the earlier two .
it also sports a new alien with 4 legs !
i wo n't say how , but it leads us to believe a few new things about the alien and its cycle , which i am sure will be explored in alien 4 .
sigourney weaver is back as ripley and
provides another excellent performance of this character .
her scene during the autopsy of newt is enough to garnish her another academy nomination .
the rest of the cast is also quite good .
notably , charles dance as the doctor with whom ripley finds momentary escape from fury 109 .
alien 3 has a very distinct look .
this is due largely to its director , david fincher .
mr .
fincher , who until now has only directed music videos and commercials , has done an incredible job here .
his direction is excellent and makes this film come to life in ways no " alien " film has before .
for mr .
fincher
, i see a long prosperous career ahead of him .
the music was also done by a newcomer to the film industry .
elliot goldenthal has created a deeply moving score which lends itself to the claustrophobic setting that the " alien " series been set in .
this time the score is not so much a rip off of star trek ii ( james horner 's aliens ) .
this score has a choral back up at times and even lends itself to the old style of ennio morricone scoring .
this is a great score .
the ending to alien 3 is quite good .
there were times i thought that hollywood would come in and screw it up , but it played very nicely .
i will not ruin the ending for you .
go see the film .
i consider it to be a much more involved film than any of the other films released so far this season .
alien 3 is a worthy successor to aliens and alien .
and when they make alien 4 , perhaps they will be able to find yet another new direction to take it in .
answer:

P