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

[Q]: steven spielberg 's " amistad , " which is based on the true story of a group of africans who revolted on board a slave ship , then were captured and taken to america where a legal dispute ensued over who " owned " them , is concerned with several different aspects of this story .
first , the film addresses the issue of the inherent evils of slavery .
second , it deals with the historical involvement of several american politicians in the case , including president martin van buren and former president john quincy adams ( anthony hopkins ) .
last , and most importantly , it examines the cultural confusion experienced by the africans who were forced into slavery and the damage done to their native culture in africa by the slave trade .
" amistad " succeeds at least partly with all three of these elements .
i have to admit that i was a little skeptical as to how much i could really get out of another " anti - slavery " movie .
having seen several other movies and documentaries about slavery , i doubted that there was much i did n't already know about it .
fortunately , i turned out to be wrong .
for one thing , spielberg 's camera never once gets near a southern plantation and instead sticks to the slave ships and the slave traders ' operations in africa , so " amistad " was dealing with a different part of the history of slavery from the very beginning .
and some of the images here are , in fact , much more harrowing than what we usually see in movies about slavery .
one scene in the middle , in which the crew of a slave ship dispose of some of their " excess " slaves by throwing them overboard to drown , has to be one of the most disturbing film images of the year .
spielberg digs farther into the evils of slavery than i was expecting he would , and in fact he probably goes about as far as a movie director can without getting an nc-17 rating .
the stark suffering of the africans is contrasted sharply with the shallow luxury of the politicians , such as president van buren and queen isabella of spain , whose naval officers were involved in the legal dispute and who was only a small child at the time .
exposing politicians as narrow - minded , opportunistic hypocrites is fairly standard stuff , of course , but spielberg and writer david franzoni
do it well enough that it still comes off as something more than just a simple exercise in audience manipulation .
the film also examines the contentious nature of the slavery issue at the time , such that john quincy adams ( and probably other politicians like him ) , who clearly disapproved of the practice , was reluctant to get involved in the case until it was appealed all the way to the supreme court .
the biggest success of " amistad " is probably the characterization of cinque ( djimon hounsou ) , who emerges as the de facto leader of the kidnapped africans and struggles to communicate with baldwin ( matthew mcconaughey ) , the lawyer who represents them in court .
through cinque , we are given a window into the native culture , as he and the displaced africans try to explain to the prison guards what they need for a proper burial of a dead tribe member , or find an illustrated version of the bible and try to understand the story of jesus christ .
cinque sees the dispute with a clarity and simplicity that , again , contrasts with the technicalities and mechanics of the legal process and of the political squabbles .
"
what kind of country is this , where laws ' almost ' work ?
"
he asks baldwin in bewilderment , when he learns that the case must be re - tried before the supreme court .
spielberg 's direction tends a little bit towards the manipulative side at times , such as when he adds a heavy orchestral swell to cinque 's angry outburst in the court room .
still , there is n't enough of this for it to be a serious problem .
the main flaw in this film , which prevents it from earning four stars , is that it seems like spielberg and franzoni ca n't quite handle all of these issues at the same time , so instead they settle for addressing each one separately and simply editing the results into the same movie .
this summer 's contact , for example , dealt with several issues at once , but each of them was somehow present in almost every scene and , most importantly , all of them were resolved at once .
" amistad " tries to pull it all together in the end with a speech from adams , but it somehow feels a little forced , and in any case the speech itself , which lasts almost fifteen minutes , wears out its welcome about halfway through .
perhaps the best way to describe it is this :
" amistad " is three four star films edited into one .
almost every individual scene works , but the final product is lacking the necessary focus and coherence , and thus is less than the sum of its parts .
however , i ca n't honestly say how it could have been done differently , and in any case the story comes through with enough raw emotional power that it is still a very good film , and thus
i recommend it to anyone who can handle the disturbing imagery .
[A]: P


[Q]: this is crap , but , honestly , what older american audience is going to be able to resist seeing jack lemmon and james garner as bicker- ing ex - presidents ?
especially when their supporting players in- clude dan aykroyd as the current commander in chief , lauren bacall as a former first lady , and john heard as the dan quayle - ish vice president .
yup , you 're talkin ' pre - sold property here and , for warner brothers , the perfect fit into their now - ritual grumpy old men holiday slot .
for the non - discriminating viewer , my fellow americans is fine .
the raw star power alone will have audiences applauding this atrocious political- thriller road - comedy .
( they did in mine , heaven help us . )
for the rest of us , the movie is immediately tiresome .
the tone is terrible and the banter is worse .
forget
wit-- lemmon and garner merely exchange profanities through most of the movie .
( has anyone counted the number of first penis references ? )
sure , some of the bits are absurdly funny , including a men 's room macarena joke , the appearance of an elvis impersonator on a trainload of tarheels , and an all dorothy marching band performing " over the rainbow " at a gay men 's march .
the get there from here , though , you have to submit to one of the most offensively overbearing musical scores of all time .
judas priest , is there a single moment of silence in this film ?
even the dialogue gets drowned out .
what a waste .
[A]: N


[Q]: the yet - to - be - released krippendorf 's tribe is being marketed as a family comedy , but buyer beware .
this movie ca n't make up its mind .
is it a family comedy with vulgar references to both the male and female bodies , menstruation , circumcision , and sex that would make any parents squirm at the thought of having their child next to them ?
or is it an adult comedy approached with such immaturity that only adolescents will appreciate the effort ?
either way ,
" unbalanced " is the word to stamp on this hit and miss and miss and miss effort .
the premise is catchy - widowed anthropology professor james krippendorf ( richard dreyfuss ) has spent the past two years " getting over " the death of his wife , neglecting key research and squandering grant money on personal living expenses .
now it 's time to show what he 's achieved in those two years , and he has absolutely nothing to show for it .
with a fabricated tale of studying a previously undiscovered tribe in new guinea , krippendorf petitions for new funds while hiding the fact that the previous $ 100 , 000 grant was spent on trips to mcdonald 's .
but when his " discovery " becomes the latest craze among colleagues , the professor finds he must do more than talk about the tribe - he must create it .
with the aid of his three children , the headstrong teen shelly ( natasha lyonne of everyone says i love you ) , the slightly younger mickey ( gregory smith ) , and the nine - year - old edmund ( carl michael lindner ) , the " shelmikedmu " tribe ( named from the first half of each child 's name ) is born , and videos quickly produced in krippendorf 's backyard are passed off as stunning documentary footage of the newly found new guinea tribe .
despite the professor 's wishes , the buzz surrounding his discovery only grows , due in greatest part to veronica micelli ( jenna elfman ) ,
an overly vivacious ( and voluptuous ) anthropologist who barges her way into the discovery and basically deems herself krippendorf 's main assistant .
hungry for recognition , micelli sets up interviews , lectures , etc .
in an effort to make this the biggest sociological event in history , a sure fire way to go down in the history books .
krippendorf
, on the other hand , is seeing himself go down a jail cell corridor , not in history books , and with each new lecture , he must come up with something impressive to unleash about the tribe - mating habits , domestic structure , etc .
thru fumbling improvisation , and often some quick thinking from his oldest son , krippendorf makes it thru each new lecture , but only creates more and more interest in the highly unique tribe .
on the opposing end is krippendorf 's arch rival , ruth allen ( lily tomlin ) , an arrogant professor whose jealousy drives her on a mission to disprove the existance of the non - existent tribe .
it 's a cute idea , and approached with a more subtle ( and mature ) style , krippendorf 's tribe could 've been a real winner .
sadly , the mostly - misfired toilet humor , overly comical musical score ( by bruce broughton ) , and sugar coated sentiments ( all the key ingredients of a " family comedy " ) just are n't the right tone for this film .
cut that crap out , add some razor sharp dialogue and witty sociological perceptions and you 've got a good start .
at the state it 's in now , you 've got something along the lines of medicine man meets mrs .
doubtfire meets dumb & dumber , and that 's not a concoction anyone should be overly anxious to try .
the overall product here is a highly forgettable cup of " average " , with a few laugh - out - loud moments and a great big gap in between them .
most of the characters are surprisingly two - dimensional , and the only one who seems to exhibit any real acting effort ( lyonne ) seems to go greatly unappreciated
. director todd holland has gone about making this film in all the wrong ways .
it 's stuck in limbo between disney family fare ( jungle 2 jungle ) and potentially hilarious adult comedy ( a fish called wanda ) .
it 's this unbalanced structure that really knocks it down a grade , and it 's a brutal drop .
a strong warning to parents
: forget the impression given by advertisements , do you want to take your kids to a film that has a woman asking a man if he finds her attractive merely because she 's holding his penis ?
yes , it 's put that bluntly !
just be warned -
this is merely one example of the many shocking subjects to be brought up in the film , and others might not be as tame .
[A]:
N