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

Q: disaster films have a tendency to be very formulated and very cliched .
to see a disaster film with actual originality , or at least a decent plot twist , would definitely be a welcome surprise .
unfortunately , folks , it 's not likely .
dante 's peak is cliched , and at times corny , but also pretty decent . to be honest , i was n't very interested in seeing this film , and word of mouth , as well as several reviews , did n't make it sound promising .
so
i was pleasantly surprised that to find that this movie was n't bad at all .
it 's pretty run of the mill , but it 's not something i would say is merely " ok " to watch .
in case you do n't know , dante 's peak is about a volcano and the city which lives in it 's shadow , dante 's peak ( who would 've guessed , eh ? ) .
pierce brosnan plays the volcanologist sent to study the volcano and , perhaps more by hunch than actual scientific proof , is determined that the volcano will be arupting in the very near future .
due to the lack of more substantial evidence , nobody warns the small town , and when they finally do , it 's in the middle of the town meeting that the volcano finally blows .
brosnan , all around good guy , will , of course , save the day .
. .
or at least the mayor of dante 's peak ( linda hamilton ) .
naturally the two will become infatuated with one another .
( if you think i just ruined a plot development , you have n't seen very many movies ! )
there 's also the virtually neccessary kids and pet dog to tug at your heart strings .
and of course , the kids or the dog ( at least one or the other ) will do something heroic . . .
but hey , i do n't want to ruin all the surprises !
if there was a part of you that was hesitating seeing dante 's peak merely because it was rumored to be a waste of time ,
i urge you to watch it and decide for yourself .
it 's not brain food , but it succeeds at what it 's meant to be . . .
an enjoyable , suspenseful movie about the fury mother nature can unleash !

A: P
****
Q: an unhappy italian housewife , a lonely waiter , a goofy masseuse , lots of love , and gorgeous scenery all come together in bread and tulips , which proves charming despite its covering of predictable , well - worn material .
the story concerns the aforementioned housewife , rosalba barletta ( licia maglietta ) who accidentally becomes separated from her immediate family while on vacation .
instead of waiting for a ride home , rosalba opts not to go home to her italian town , but to instead hitchhike to venice . upon arriving , she tells her self - centered husband , mimmo ( an excellent antonio catania ) that she 'll be home in a few days .
of course , that does n't happen , as rosalba quickly gains a level of independence that has been unattainable in her past life of scrubbing floors and buying groceries .
in what seems like days , she moves in with lonely , suicidal waiter fernando ( bruno ganz ) , gets a job as a florist , learns the accordion , and befriends her neighbor -- a wacky holistic masseuse named grazia ( marina massironi ) .
rosalba , who is first seen wearing a gaudy stretch pants outfit , starts wearing sexy dresses and getting closer to fernando .
i can think of at least five other ( american ) movies ( including fried green tomatoes and an unmarried woman ) that are more than similar to bread and tulips .
but maglietta and ganz , who act with restraint and care , help bread and tulips from becoming a tired retread .
ganz plays the suicidal waiter role with a solemn , sometimes playful dignity that is a joy to watch , while maglietta never overreacts to her growing comfort with the outside world .
throughout the movie , maglietta has an easygoing , confident demeanor , which makes it very easy to root for her and her growing attraction for ganz 's character .
the gorgeous scenery of moonlit town squares and sparkling rivers provides a perfect love story backdrop
-- you just might want to ask the attractive stranger in the seat behind you for coffee after the lights come up .
director and co - writer silvio soldini must get credit for sprinkling the movie with effective goofy humor .
the cheap mimmo , desperate to find his wife ( after all , he needs his shirts ironed and his mistress wo n't do it ) , hires a job applicant ( giuseppe battiston ) at his bathroom supply firm to do the job .
the reason ?
mimmo discovers that the prospective plumber loves detective stories .
the novice detective 's various misfortunes , including him saying goodbye to his weepy mother , are very funny .
unfortunately , there are flaws that somewhat spoil bread and tulips ' cheery tone .
rosalba is bothered by several surreal dreams during her time in venice , which bring the movie to a halt .
it 's like putting a gunfight in a nora ephron movie .
several details in fernando 's life also never get proper closure , including his suicidal tendencies .
early in the movie , he nearly hangs himself before rosalba knocks on his apartment door .
after that , fernando 's step towards death is never made reference to , probably because soldini wanted to include a lukewarm , underdeveloped subplot about fernando 's stormy past .
it seems more like a desperate attempt to pump up the drama in a plot that does n't need any .
but there are n't a lot of overwhelming negatives in bread and tulips .
the movie is fun and romantic , with beautiful scenery and characters whose lives we 'd like to live if we had the nerve . . .
or if our passports were n't missing .

A: P
****
Q: after hearing reviews for woody allen 's upteenth movie in history , " celebrity , " range from terribly boring to just so - so , my heart lept when the opening images of the film closely resembled that of " manhattan , " my personal favorite from my personal favorite director of all time .
woody allen 's films almost never rely on visual flair over textual flair , so when one of his films closely resembles the one time that these two entities fit hand - in - hand ( " manhattan " really is one of the best - looking films i 've ever seen , beautiful black and white photography of the city 's best areas , etc . ) ,
a fan ca n't help but feel visibly moved .
the film opens up , with the usual credits with plain white font over black backgrounds , and an old ironic standard playing on the soundtrack , but then the screen fills with a gorgeous dull gray sky , with the word " help " being spelled with an airplane .
beethoven 's 5th blasts on the soundtrack .
the city seems to stop to take notice of this moment , and it 's all rather lovely to look at .
and then we cut to a film crew , shooting this as the film 's hilariously banal key moment in the film , where the lead actress in the film ( melanie griffith , looking as buxom and beautiful as ever ) has to realize something 's wrong with her life or whatever .
it 's a terribly stale scene for a woody allen film , with the great opening shots or without , and my heart sank
and i soon got used to the fact that once again , a new film of his was not going to be as great as his past works ( though , for the record , last year 's " deconstructing harry " came awfully close ) .
what the hell has happened to him ?
the man who once could be relied on for neurotic freshness in cinema has not become less funny , but his films have become less insightful and more like he tossed them together out of unfinished ideas .
" bullets over broadway , " though wonderful , relies on irony to pull a farce that just never totally takes off .
" mighty aphrodite " is more full of great moments and lines than a really great story .
"
everyone says i love you " was more of a great idea than a great film .
even " deconstructing harry " is admittingly cheap in a way , even if it does top as one of his most truly hilarious films .
if anything , the reception of " celebrity " by everyone should tip allen off to the fact that this time , it 's not the audience and critics who are wrong about how wonderful his film is : it 's him .
" celebrity " is , yes , a good film , but it 's only marginally satisfying as a woody allen film .
instead of creating the great woody allen world , he 's created a world out of a subject he knows only a bit about .
and he 's fashioned a film that is based almost entirely on his uninformed philosophy of celebrities , so that it plays like a series of skits with minor connections .
it 's like " la dolce vita " without the accuracy , the right amount of wit , and the correct personal crisis .
woody , becoming more insecure in his old age , choses to drop the woody allen character in on the world of celebrities , and then hang him and all his flaws up for scrutiny , and does this by casting not himself but brit actor kenneth branagh in the lead .
much has been said about his performance - dead on but irritating , makes one yearn for the real thing , blah blah blah - but to anyone who actually knows the woody allen character knows that branagh 's performance , though featuring some of the same mannerisms ( stuttering , whining , lots o ' hand gestures ) , is hardly a warts - and - all impersonation .
branagh brings along with him little of the woody allen charm , which actually allows for his character 's flaws to be more apparent .
woody 's a flawed guy , and we know it , but we love him anyway , because he 's really funny and really witty and really intelligent .
branagh 's allen is a bit more flat - out bad , but with the same charm so that , yes , we like him , but we 're still not sure if he 's really a good person or not .
his character , lee simon , is first seen on the set of the aforementioned movie , hits on extra actress winona ryder , then goes off to interview griffith , who takes him to her childhood home where he makes a pass at her , and she denies him . . .
sorta .
we then learn , through flashbacks , that lee has been sucked into trying to be a celebrity thanks to a mid - life crisis and an appearance at his high school reunion .
he has since quit his job as a travel journalist and become a gossip journalist of sorts , covering movie sets and places where celebrities congregate , so that he can meet them , and maybe sell his script ( a bank robbery movie " but with a deep personal crisis " ) . as such , he has divorced his wife of several years ( allen regular judy davis ) , and continues on a quest for sexual happiness , boucing from girlfriend to girlfriend and fling to fling over the course of the film .
after griffith comes his escapades with a model ( charlize theron ) who is " polymorphously perverse " ( glad to see allen is using new jokes , ha ha ) , who takes him for a wild ride not different from that of the anita ekberg segment of " la dolce vita .
"
following are his safe relationship with smart working woman famke janssen , a relationship that almost assures him success , and his continued escapades with ryder , whom he fancies most of all .
his story is juxtaposed with that of davis , who flips out , but stumbles onto happiness when she runs into a handsome , friendly tv exec ( joe mantegna ) who lands her a job that furthers her career to national status .
while lee is fumbling about , selfishly trying to ensure his own happiness , davis becomes happy ( " i 've become the kind of woman i 've always hated . . .
and i 'm loving it . " ) without doing a thing .
the result is a film of highs and mediums .
the mediums are what take up most of the film , with sitations and scenes which do n't exactly work
but you ca n't help but
pat allen on the back for trying .
but other places are really great scenes .
the opening .
the sequence with theron , which is so good that i wished it had n't ended . a banana scene with bebe neuwirth ( droll as ever ) . and , perhaps the best sequence : a romp with hot - as - hell teen idol , brandon darrow , played by none other than leo dicaprio , who is so un - dicaprio - esque that if any of this fans could sit through this film , they 'd never look at him the same way .
he ignites the screen with intensity , and spares nothing in showing his character as narcissistically tyrannical , and totally heartbreaking for lee , who comes to him to talk about his script that he has read , and finds himself on a wild all - day ride with him .
they go to atlantic city to watch a fight , they gamble , and they wind up in his hotel room , where darrow gets it on with his flame ( gretchen mol ) and he lends him one of the leftover groupies .
allen 's writing in these scenes are so good that just for them , i 'd almost recommend the film .
almost .
but what i really liked about this film is despite the fact that it 's a mess , despite the fact that what this film really needs is a good old fashioned rewrite by allen himself
, it 's still a smart and insightful film .
though some of the jokes are either stale or misplaced ( some seem too cartoonish , even for this environment ) , allen still manages to get across that this film is not exactly about celebrities , as it may seem to be ( if it were , it 'd be extremely out - of - touch ) , but about those who want to be celebrities , and how they equate celebrity - hood with happiness .
we never get close enough to the actual celebrities to see if they 're really happy ( they may appear to be on the surface . . . ) , but we do get close enough to lee and davis ' character .
lee is obsessed with the phenomenon , while davis takes is at arm 's length , and never gets too involved in what it is , and soon becomes one herself .
besides , it 's witty , and it does have the one thing that no other film has but allen 's : that great woody allen feel
.
it may be not exactly fresh and lively or totally brilliant in its depiction of its subject , and yes , as a part of woody allen 's oeuvre , it 's merely a blip ( no " annie hall "
but it 's no " shadows and fog " either ) , but it goes to prove that
no one can make a film like him , and only he and maybe godard could possibly take a totally horrible metaphor , like the one in the beginning , and make it work not once but twice .

A:
P
****