instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
capsule : earthy , experimental , difficult , shockingly frank ( even for 1997 ! ) , and ultimately refreshing story of a black man on the run from the cops .
the first few minutes of sweet sweetback 's baad asssss song ( yes , i checked --
that 's the correct number of ss )
are without dialogue , just eerie montages of sounds .
a young boy , obviously malnourished , is taken in and fed up by several loving mother - surrogate figures .
then one of them takes the boy to bed for a sexual initation ( underneath the title credits ) that 's far more confrontatory and shocking than any ten basic instincts -- probably because it has the directness and clumsiness of real life , something we 're not used to seeing on screen .
this is one tough movie to swallow , no matter who you are , but that probably reflects more on how pallid and unchallenging movies have gotten lately .
( i suspect the sex scenes in movies like el topo and salo would probably melt the synapses of most modern audiences . )
the plot is simple but not simpleminded .
sweetback , hassled by two white cops who are apparently just looking for an excuse to beat up on a black man , breaks his bonds and runs like hell .
along the way he moves through a good many of the kinds of environments that we are only just now being seen in a more serious light in the movies -- or at all , for that matter : the slums , the missions , the ghetto .
in other , lesser , movies , sweetback would be machine - gunning everything in sight and the end credits would roll over a pile of bodies ; in this one , we get taken on a kind of a tour of the depressing and anarchic world that sweetback takes for granted .
ssbas first appeared in 1971 and was promptly rated x ( " by an all - white jury " , as director melvin van peebles crowed in his legendary ad campaigns ) , and it 's hardly surprising why .
there 's a good deal of sex in the movie , but it 's handled in a way that 's unsettlingly frank -- a frankness that spills over into the rest of the movie .
in one scene , sweetback visits a friend 's house in the hope of getting sanctuary there , and the other man chats him up while on the toilet .
we 're not used to coming this close to people in real life , let alone in the movies -- especially not people who are not made out to be glamorous .
the movie is also full of experimental stylistics that are relatively unused today , but probably because of that seem curiously fresh and new in van peebles ' hands .
one scene , in which a man is interrogated by the cops , is loaded full of menacing energy as they fire off a gun inches from his ears , and suggest his deafness through a cleverly edited soundtrack .
another note : ssbas is not so much anti - white ( that would be too easy ) as anti - authority , and as the movie goes on to demonstrate , authority exists in many forms -- governments , churches , and even the paranoid inside of one 's own mind .
ssbas is ultimately about thirsting for freedom -- and it looks like we could use a little more of that in our movie diet , god knows .
answer:
P


question:
you do n't need to have seen the original " species " to appreciate how utterly lousy
" species ii " is .
with few exceptions , sequels tend to be worse than the films that spawned them , but the fact that " species ii " is a follow - up is n't the only reason
it 's so miserable .
it 's the predictable storyline , the cardboard characters , the banal dialogue , the failed attempts at humor , the revolting special effects , the gratuitous nudity ( all female , of course ) , the bad acting , and the bland direction .
the plot , simply geared at getting the alien species back on planet earth so that it can reak some more havoc , involves three astronauts landing on mars and inadvertently bringing some alien slime in a soil sample back aboard their shuttle .
the slime , well , sort of jumps out at them and the screen turns black .
that should have been the end of the movie right there .
back on terra firma , at least one of the crew is now a carrier of alien dna and , as you 'll remember if you saw the first movie , driven by a strong urge to procreate .
on a parallel track , government scientists have cloned a version of sil from the first film ( now called eve , again " played " by natasha henstridge ) and are keeping her around for some testing .
this , apparently , includes observing eve 's reaction to " the dukes of hazzard " tv show , which she appears to enjoy .
eve 's bio - rhythms go off the scale each time one of her kinfolk " mates , " which we are forced to witness in gross - out detail , but otherwise there does n't appear to be a whole lot of reason why henstridge is in this film , unless it was written into her contract ( let 's hope it cited one sequel and one sequel only ) .
eve finally breaks free of her confines -- and her bra -- for the finale , but the effects are so messy you ca n't really see what 's going on .
peter boyle is totally wasted as an institutionalized scientist who screams " i told 'em not to go !
"
at the top of his lungs , referring to the mars mission but more likely aimed at the makers of this piffle .
michael madsen reprises his role of press lennox ( so that he can enter high security areas , flash a badge and claim to be press , maybe ? ) , as does marg helgenberger as dr .
laura baker , the one subjecting eve to the tv reruns .
they 're both unbelievably wooden .
what 's a talented filmmaker like peter medak ( " the ruling class , " " the krays , " " let him have it " ) doing directing this tripe
, i wonder .
it 's an unfortunate trend ,
this : once - talented directors throwing in the towel and lending their names to unchallenging horror flicks like " species ii .
"
last year peter hyams gave us " the relic " ; no thanks necessary there .
and the first " species " was helmed by roger donaldson who , although certainly no genius behind the camera , had demonstrated much better judgment with his previous choice of projects .
is it just that there are no better offers out there ?
" species ii " is worthless . worse than that , it 's also exploitative , offensive , and insulting to the intelligence at every turn .
it 's not that there is n't anything positive to say about the film .
there is .
after 92 minutes , it ends .
answer:
N


question:
a backdrop of new year 's eve in 1981 would seem to lend itself to a great party movie .
the decor possibilities are endless - disco balls had yet to migrate into the dark corners of the attic , big hair was worth its weight in aquanet , and the louder the fashion , the better the look .
but despite this setting , these details and a soundtrack that includes some 40-plus irresistible hits from the early days of the me decade , something is inherently wrong with " 200 cigarettes .
" a better title for this nostalgic mess would be " 50 missed opportunities .
"
what is it that makes this retro - comedy such a downer ?
it 's certainly not the cast , which includes enough hot , young talent for several movies .
there 's courtney love , cementing her reputation as a serious actress ; christina ricci , hot off her shoulda - been - nominated turn in " the opposite of sex " ; paul rudd , who gets even more appealing with every role ; kate hudson , inheriting some fine acting genes from mom goldie hawn ; and affleck brothers ben and casey , two of the best things about " good will hunting .
"
perhaps the question is this : what drew these and other immensely talented actors to such a dreary project ?
maybe it looked good on paper .
"
200 cigarettes " is composed of a series of vignettes , as various characters make their way through new york 's festively decorated east village to a holiday bash thrown by a jittery bundle of nerves named monica ( martha plimpton , all dressed up in her best cyndi lauper ) . among the potential guests are likeable cad kevin ( rudd ) and his best friend lucy ( love ) , busy bickering over his recent break - up , and a clumsy but seemingly charming bartender ( ben affleck ) who opens his mouth only to spew forth bad pick - up lines .
more subplots -
_ many _ more - dot the big picture , but those listed above are the only ones worth noting in a positive light .
all the other story tangents are as frazzled as a cokehead trying to solve a rubick 's cube .
ricci and gaby hoffman grate as two ronkonkoma gals ( the kind that have trouble pronouncing hard consonants ) out to have a high time in the big city .
infamously acerbic comedienne janeane garofalo is wasted in what amounts to a several - scene cameo .
hudson , as a pretty - in - pink klutz recently devirginized by a reprehensible ladies ' man ( jay mohr ) , trips , pukes and gets smeared with dog poop .
are we laughing yet ?
the film boils down to a mixture of the good , the bad and the gaudy , with the latter two overtaking the former .
game performances - especially by love , rudd and plimpton - are almost shot down by the bizarrely colorful parts and a constantly roving focus , here a combination that mostly sputters when it should crackle . too many sidetracks rate as uninteresting and have little payoff until a lengthy final montage where we find out many of the performers served as one night stands for each other . if this is " 200 cigarettes , " then get me 200 nicotine patches .
answer:

N