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

[EX Q]: james l . brooks , one of the developers of the simpsons and director of broadcast news , returns to the big screen with this entertaining , if slightly flawed comedy .
nicholson plays melvin udall , probably the most horrible person ever on the screen .
he 's racist , homophobic , and never has a good word to say to anyone .
so , nobody talks to him , except waitress carol conelly ( t .
v sitcom star hunt , who was last seen in twister , 1996 ) .
naturally , udall , conelly and gay neighbor simon bishop ( kinnear ) who nicholson hates , all hit it off in the end .
like good will hunting ( 1997 ) and titanic ( 1997 ) , even though the outcome is completely obvious , as good as it gets is an enjoyable , funny and warm comedy .
nicholson is hilarious as melvin , churning out insults with superb relish .
only nicholson could get away with the lines that melvin delivers .
hunt is also good as waitress carol , and easily rises to the challenge of nicholson .
there 's also ( thankfully ) a bit of chemistry between them .
kinnear , as the gay neighbor , seems to have a slightly underwritten role , he 's more of a plot convience than a character .
although his performance is good , his character just seems to exist to help melvin and carol come together .
in fact , the scene stealer is simon 's dog , who is funnier than nicholson .
but then again , pets are always cute on screen .
providing solid support is cuba gooding , jnr ( jerry maguire , 1996 ) and yeardly smith ( who is the voice of lisa simpsons in the simpsons ) although gooding is n't as good as is character in maguire , he is still fun .
he overacts a little , but not so much as to be annoying .
smith is also good , although she has a fairly small role .
even director lawrence kasdan ( body heat , 1981 ) makes an appearance as a doctor .
but this is primarily nicholsons film , and
every scene he 's in , he 's steals it .
he 's character is so hateful , though
, it 's amazing that anyone talks to him at all , especially carol .
and this is the films main problem .
it 's totally unbelievable that carol would ever consider liking melvin .
she does n't fall in love with him naturally , the film forces her to fall in love with him .
also , melvins character seems to go too nice , too quickly .
i would doubt anyone with a character like melvins would be able to turn back to a nice , loving person .
it would take a helluva long time , much longer than this film would like to make out .
brooks direction is good , though , if a bit average , but he usually manages to get an emotion out of the audience .
he handles the comedy scenes better than the sentimental ones ( he tends to pile on to much schmaltz ) but
generally he 's good .
there 's also a nice soundtrack by veteran composer hans zimmer .
but , generally , as good as it gets achieves what it sets out to do , which is to make the audience feel good by the end of the movie .
the movie is a bit overlong , but nicholson is such good fun that the running time passes by pretty quickly .
overall , as good as it gets is a fun movie , even though it may be unbelivable , and certainly worth seeing
( if just for jack nicholsons performance . ) not quite as good as it gets ( pardon the bad joke ) , but still good fun .
[EX A]: P

[EX Q]: if you 're into watching near on two hours of bored , foul - mouthed florida teens having sex , doing drugs , having sex , listening to eminem , having sex , playing video games , having sex , and killing one of their peers , then " bully " 's for you .
based on jim schutze 's novelization of a true - life event , " bully " charts the story of a handful of disenchanted teenagers who , in 1993 , murdered their high school bully in cold , calculated blood .
the film could have provided fascinating insights into what turned these aimless kids into premeditated killers .
in the hands of controversial director larry clark ( " kids " ) , however , it has less to say about its subject matter and more to say about the filmmaker 's pornographic proclivities .
in terms of the incident and what provoked it , " bully " stirs up nothing new .
the high schoolers are presented as a uniformly screwed up lot -- bored with life , not much ambition , promiscuous , profane .
the bully in question , bobby kent ( nick stahl ) , is certainly an unpleasant piece of work
but he does n't exactly tower over his colleagues in the pathological department .
he hounds and harries and humiliates his " best friend " marty ( played by brad renfro ) and marty 's girlfriend lisa ( rachel miner ) does n't care for it at all and comes up with the idea of killing bobby .
simply remove him from the equation .
marty and lisa and a handful of their promiscuous , profane , and stoner friends , plus a recruited hit man ( ? ) , lure bobby to a swamp one night , stab him , beat him over the head with a baseball bat , and dump him into the canal where the sand crabs and the gators , presumably , finish him off .
there 's no remorse --
the next day they 're talking about it as openly as a homework assignment .
they did it because they wanted to , and because they could .
what 's most troubling about the film , however , is n't the unsettling subject matter and the matter - of - fact way these young people go about eliminating one of their own but the way in which clark is constantly distracted by his own material
.
not only is the nudity plentiful and graphic in " bully
" but there 's also an uneasy , exploitative feel to it .
gratuitous crotch shots abound ( one of which makes the zipper cut - away in " there 's something about
mary " look like the height of subtlety ! ) .
clark is so pre - occupied with his female ( predominantly ) leads that
you forget , at times , what this movie is supposed to be about .
the stripping bare , literally and figuratively , of these actors ( who are , after all , playing underage teenagers ) becomes harder to watch over time , as you begin to feel for them and question the motives of the man behind the camera .
the conclusion of " bully " offers up literal snapshots of information about the sentences imposed on each of the protagonists for their involvement in the crime .
it 's a short sequence of stills -- heather : 7 years ; ali : 40 years ; lisa : life imprisonment , for example -- but it 's infinitely more telling than the 110 minutes of rampant unpleasantness that precedes it .
"
bully " aims for truth , exploits it shamelessly , then bludgeons it to death .
[EX A]: N

[EX Q]: there is a striking scene early in " city of angels , " where all the angels who live unseen in our midst , gather at the beach to watch the sun rise .
the camera moves above them , showing the endless rows of ethereal men and women , all garbed in black .
then the camera moves in on the face of seth , an angel played by nicolas cage , and as the sun rises , he smiles and his entire face lights up .
you see , the angels can hear music in sunrises and sunsets , but they can not feel a human touch .
it is an important scene for several reasons .
first of all , it is one of many instances in the film that make angels seem thoroughly plausible .
the film presents these fantastic beings as normal - looking people who drift amongst the inhabitants of earth , watching what goes on with little interference .
there are none of the standard , hokey angel references used in recent films like " angels in the outfield " ( 1994 ) or " michael " ( 1996 ) .
the angels here are stark and believable .
this early scene on the beach is also an important scene of juxtaposition , for its shows how god 's angels can enjoy aspects of the earth that human can not , and yet they are denied so many simple human pleasures , like feeling the sand on their feet or the waves lapping at their legs , or the smell of the salt in the air .
there is an inherent tragedy in being an angel , although there is much beauty in
it as well .
they eternally walk the earth , listening to our thoughts , touching us in our pain , and leading the dying to heaven .
like human existence , being an angel is often confused and unsure .
" city of angels " is essentially a love story , between seth and a human , a beautiful but sad heart surgeon named maggie ( meg ryan ) .
he first sees her when he is in her operating room , waiting to lead the soul of her dying patient to heaven .
maggie is distraught , doing everything in her power to stop the man from dying on her table , and seth is moved by her efforts and , more importantly , her overwhelming sadness when the patient dies .
angels have the limited power to soothe humans in time of misery and pain , and seth does what he can with his invisible touch , but it 's not enough .
he wants to be with her and share her pain , not just stand back at a distance .
he learns that the only way to fulfill his desire for human love and touch is for him to " fall " and become human .
he learns this from another fallen angel , played by dennis franz (
" n. y.
p. d. blue " )
in a touching and humorous performance .
sitting at a diner together , franz tells cage 's character about how wonderful it is to be human - to be able to taste food , feel another person 's skin , smell the air , and most importantly , have a loving wife and children .
of course , there is pain to go along with all this , but for seth , it will be worth it .
" city of angels " is something of a reinterpretation of wim wender 's haunting 1988 film " wings of desire .
" wenders ' film was more like a poem
- it was the feeling ,
the emotion that truly mattered over what actually happened .
the americanized version moves the location from divided berlin to broken los angeles , and the emphasis shifts onto the relationship between the immortal angel and the mortal human .
and , unlike most foreign films that are re - made into hollywood fare , it does n't suffer extensive damage .
this may be because director brad silberling ( " casper " ) and screenwriter dana stevens ( " blink " ) wanted to make " city of angels " its own movie - inspired by " wings of desire , " but not an attempt to copy it .
and yet , " city of angels " is not a typical hollywood movie .
it is beautifully filmed in lush colors by cinematographer john seale ( " the english patient " ) ,
whose sweeping aerial shots and golden lighting make los angeles into an almost unrecognizable new world .
seale creates many striking visuals
: in addition to the beach scene , there is a wonderful sequence in a circular library where all the angels appear at banisters all around , looking down at seth as he watches maggie walk by .
while the film travels along a charted plot , it takes time to develop its characters and situations ; it sheds light on the boundaries between what is earthly and what is heavenly , and shows just how thin those boundaries are .
both cage and ryan give soulful , soft - spoken performances .
ryan , who is usually so bouncy and energetic , truly embodies a sadness that can only be alleviated by a heavenly touch .
cage projects all his desire and longing to be human in simple , heartfelt gazes , and speaks with the comforting , knowing voice that only an angel could have .
what is most striking about " city of angels " is that stevens has added a new ending to the screenplay , which is both unexpected and challenging .
it 's not a formulaic hollywood ending , because it is both sad and uplifting at the same time .
it does n't give the audience what it thinks it wants at the end of a romance .
instead , it offers something much better , something that speaks to the depths of what it means to be human and alive .
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ visit " charlie do n't surf !
"
an eclectic collection of film reviews by james kendrick http : //www .
bigfoot .
com/~jimkendrick ||
e - mail :
jimkendrick@bigfoot . com
[EX A]:
P