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

"
the endurance : shackleton 's legendary antarctic expedition " in 1914 , as the great war descended upon europe , sir ernest shackleton began his third expedition to antarctica , this time to be the first to cross the ice - bound continent on foot .
28 men set sail on the brigantine endurance and they would not be heard from again for nearly two years .
director george butler , using film footage and photographs from the historic journey , tells their remarkable story in " the endurance : shackleton 's legendary antarctic expedition .
"
the expedition started out as a merely incredibly difficult quest to traverse , on foot , the vast wasteland of antarctica .
as the intrepid ship and crew entered the weddell sea , the entry to the cold , cruel continent , they did not plan on the dense pack ice bringing the voyage to an abrupt halt as the endurance became trapped within sight of land .
for months the ice thickened and compressed until the ship was crushed , stranding the men on the flow , propelling them away from their goal and , eventually , into their lifeboats for safety .
shackleton , faced with a desolate situation , made the decision to lead the three tiny boats to the relative safety of uninhabited elephant island .
once on this " safe " haven , shackleton next turned his sights to saving his crew and returning them to civilization .
he and five of his men leave the island in an open boat to make the 800 mile journey on the world 's roughest sea to get help from the nearest inhabited island of south georgia .
miraculously , the six land , after 17 days at sea , on the uninhabited side of the target island and are forced to trek across treacherous , snow covered mountains , covering 22 miles in just 36 hours .
this ordeal is followed by several attempts by shackleton to get back to elephant island to rescue the remaining crewmen .
in the end , he is successful and everyone made it back home alive , only to be swallowed up by the ravages of the war .
the title of this fascinating documentary , " the endurance , " is more than just the name of ship that carried the crew of brave men to the edge of the world .
it is also the description of the stamina and ability of every one of the men who survived 19-months of the toughest , most grueling conditions on the face of the earth .
the name of the film is a tribute to every member of the crew and to the ship that sheltered them for many month of frigid antarctic weather .
it also describes the focused mental state of shackleton who never gave up on himself or his men .
with astonishing foresight , shackleton brought australian cinematographer and photographer frank hurley along on the journey .
the filmed footage and photos are remarkable as they capture the ordeal of the men , day to day life , the affection all felt for their loyal sled dogs , the slow destruction of the endurance and the preparations to get off of the pack ice flow .
after the sinking of the ship , the remaining film stock , with the exception of a still camera and three rolls of film , had to be discarded so the continuing chronicle of the incredible journey gets less photo documentation as the ordeal plods on .
considering hurley was using relatively primitive photo technology in one of the world 's harshest environments and captured so much on film is a feat unto itself .
( hurley created his own account of the shackleton expedition in his 1919 documentary , " south , " an interesting companion piece for " the endurance .
"
if shackleton 's original idea , document his trek across the frigid southern continent , had been successful , it would have been considered a super human feat .
as you watch the story of " the endurance " unfold , you realize that the disastrous obstacles the sir ernest and his men faced and overcame were even greater accomplishments than the first intent .
( shackleton 's amazing 800-mile journey in an open boat is fodder for a rousing adventure story all by itself . )
there are a couple of minor nitpicks with this fine work , though .
actor liam neeson narrates the story , but his voice is too soft spoken and lilting for the dramatic tale .
the nature of the ordeal also concentrates most of the visual material , both film and photo , in the documentary 's first half .
as the crew 's adventure takes more drastic paths , hurley had less and less film stock available to chronicle the awesome events .
helmer butler and his team fill in the blanks , but the treasure of " the endurance , " its film footage , is mostly relegated to the early months of the expedition .
i ca n't think of a true - life adventure that shows , better , the triumph of man over seemingly insurmountable odds .
"
the endurance , " based on caroline alexander 's book , is an eye - opening documentary that goes where few men have gone before and , even more remarkably , all 28 survivors lived to tell about it .
i give it a b+ .
P

phew , what a mess ! for his fifth collaboration with director
rich- ard donner ( lethal weapon i - iii , maverick )
, mel gibson plays a motormouth , maybe mentally ill new york city cabbie , jerry , whose wild conspiracy theories are all but ignored by alice ( julia roberts , acting all serious ) , the justice department employee that he has a crush on .
she not interested , but another person is : a cia psychiatrist ( patrick stewart ) who promptly kidnaps him .
is one of jerry 's conjectures correct ?
* is * the metal strip in the new $ 100 bill being used to track your movements ?
is oliver stone still alive , because he cut a deal with george bush to spread * dis * information ?
is this movie really about
* any * of the crazed cabbie 's theories ?
no , no ,
and no . as it turns out
, there 's some other nonsense going on here , involving and revolving around jerry 's background .
( hint : pay attention to an early scene where jerry blacks out and flashes back , in quick succession , to images of an interrogation room , hypodermic needles , and ms .
roberts herself . )
the * initial * premise is pretty good and is played , for a while , at a delightfully dizzying clip .
mel is wider - open that we 've ever seen him and , if his character 's relationship with roberts ' initially strains credibility , their combined star power is blissfully intoxicating .
( the highest wattage of the summer , perhaps ? )
even when the plot contrivances begin to intrude , the two remain a randy dandy screen pair .
there 's a great scene in jerry 's fortress , er , apartment , with alice trying to act casual as her hyperactive host tries to remember the combination to a locked coffee bean container .
( which he stores in another locked con- tainer , his fridge . )
other hilarious moments , of which there are many , include a trio of memorable convention - breakers , where alice ditches a tail , jerry cold - cocks someone , and , later , eludes a foot pursuit , each in a uproariously unexpected fashion .
( that 's donner 's own ladyhawke playing in the theater , btw . )
let 's see , other pleasures include .
. .
a brilliant title sequence , a jazzy score from carter burwell , and the worth - paying - to - see sight of roberts pumping lead into one bad guy and slamming another 's head into a wall .
oh , pretty woman !
getting to the latter , however , requires slogging through an increasingly overburdened and ultimately unappealing story .
the last hour of conspiracy theory devolves from tolerable to torturous to almost unwatchable .
more stuff happens of the stupid shit variety than is worth mentioning here , except , perhaps , for a late sequence that has alice locating jerry in an abandoned wing of a mental hospital by hearing his voice carrying through the air ducts .
and here i thought it was wabbit season .
good god , who rewrites these movies ? and
do they arrive in nondescript black vehicles ?
N

underwater science fiction stays submerged sphere a film review by michael redman copyright 1998 by michael redman
one of the most unpleasant experiences that can occur in a movie theater is when a cast of fine actors end up in a film that wastes their talents .
you keep thinking what they might have accomplished with the time they squandered .
psychologist norman goodman ( dustin hoffman ) is called to the middle of the pacific ocean to work with the survivors of a plane crash .
when he arrives at the site , he discovers that there is no plane , but rather an enormous spacecraft that has been sitting 1 , 000 feet below the surface for almost 300 years .
having written a paper for the bush administration on how to handle first contact , he is chosen to head up the team of scientists investigating the ship .
his group as outlined in his report , consists of beth halperin ( sharon stone ) , a biochemist ; harry adams ( samuel l . jackson ) , a mathematician ; and ted fielding ( liev schreiber ) , an astrophysicist .
unfortunately it turns out that the writing was a blow - off project for goodman who did it for the money and named his then - colleagues to the team .
"
after all , " he explains , " who reads government documents ?
" lead by harold barnes ( peter coyote ) , a top secret federal operative , the group descends to a mobile undersea headquarters set up next to the alien vessel .
once there they stroll over , knock on the door and explore the still - operational ufo .
discovering the surprising origin of the ship and the crew finds an astonishing gigantic golden liquid metal sphere .
when adams enters the sphere , the weirdness unfolds .
a storm rolls in on the surface and the team is forced to remain below just as an unseen presence begins to communicate through their computer .
"
my name is jerry .
i am happy " flashes across the screen .
this is unsettling for the psychologist .
" what happens if jerry gets mad ?
"
he asks .
barnes is more pragmatic : he needs a last name because he ca n't put in his report that they made contact with an alien named jerry .
then the situation turns bad .
deadly beasts appear from nowhere .
a gang of jellyfish kills one of the navy personnel .
lethal sea snakes attack goodman .
a giant squid batters the habitat just as adams is reading " 20 , 000 leagues under the sea " .
the suspicious scientists turn against each other .
this has all the makings of a first - rate thinking man 's science fiction film .
however even the finest ingredients do n't go very far in the hands of a chief who does n't seem to care about his product .
director barry levinson has churned out a mish - mosh that does n't engage the audience beyond a few skillful suspense scenes .
the first of the film zooms by as the situation and players are introduced without any characterization or justification
.
it 's much like speed - reading a novel and realizing that you missed the nuances .
it does n't get any better when the action scenes begin .
while the actors do an adequate job with their limited roles , the people are still flat .
oddly they hardly have reactions when deaths occur around them .
after adams experiences the interior of the sphere , no one bothers to ask him what happened .
their history together is an intriguing plot device but is barely exploited .
even goodman and halperin 's ill - conceived affair when she was his student is just mentioned in passing .
her psychotic tendencies are talked about but never convincing .
there 's a truism that items shown early in a movie must be used before the ending , but here they are far too obvious .
when an emergency mini - sub is explained , you know what 's going to happen .
the movie affectations are nothing more than distracting .
chapter headings that divide the movie have no function .
the shaky camera work muddies already perplexing chaos .
much of what goes on is confusing and difficult to follow .
although some of the disorientation eventually is understandable , a great deal of it is n't .
even a science fiction film must be internally consistent .
there 's too much here that does n't make sense .
are the manifestations real ?
the jellyfish kill queen latifa ( in a throw - away role ) and the squid nearly destroys the outpost , but the bites of the fatal snakes have no effect .
a scene in the sub suggests that it 's illusion , but earlier episodes indicate that it 's not .
not everything has to be explained to death , but there are major questions that the film never answers .
where the ship came from is clarified , but how it ended up on the ocean floor in 1709 is merely alluded to .
even the enigmatic sphere is still mysterious when the credits roll .
the climax is followed by 15 minutes of epilogue that does little but weaken the already labored tale .
after pre - release audience testing , the actors were called back to re - shoot the ending .
it 's difficult to imagine how the original could have been worse .
following the recent tradition of lengthy films , this weighs in at over two very long hours .
the weak scenes could have been cut , but then there would n't have been much left .
the movie was supposedly held up by effects work , but there 's nothing special on the screen .
we never even see the monstrous squid or the menacing storm . stealing from " alien " , " the abyss " and the disastrous " event horizon " , this film has learned nothing from them .
remarkably levinson and hoffman 's other currently showing film is " wag the dog " , a smart and entertaining piece of work .
this one could have been titled the same sans one word .

N