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

" mandingo " has traditionally been seen as one of two things : either a much - needed revisionist look at slavery in the south , or in the words of film critic leonard maltin , " a trashy potboiler " that " appeals only to the s&m crowd .
"
actually , i think " mandingo " is a strange combination of the two , although
it fails on both fronts .
it 's too trashy to be good drama , but too dramatic to be good trash .
the story takes place on a dilapidated louisiana plantation run by crotchety old warren maxwell ( james mason ) and his son , hammond ( perry king ) .
one day in new orleans , hammond comes across a slave trader selling a mandingo named mede ( heavyweight boxer ken norton ) .
although the movie never explains it , a mandingo is simply the name for africans who come from the region of the upper niger river valley .
according to the movie , mandingos were the rolls royce of african slaves .
hammond pays top price for mede and has to fight off others in order to get him .
hammond then spends his time training mede to be a fighter in money brawls with other slaves .
meanwhile , hammond has married his cousin , blanche ( susan george ) , because she wants to escape her family and he is under pressure from his father to produce a grandchild .
hammond , however , is happier spending nights with his " bed wench , " the derogatory name given to female slaves used by their masters for easy sex .
it is quickly apparent that hammond , despite his overt racism , is more in love with his bed wench , a sensitive slave girl named ellen ( brenda sykes ) , than he is with blanche .
hammond considers blanche tainted goods because he finds out on their wedding night that another man had " pleasured " her before he did .
of course , it 's fine that he 's slept with numerous slave girls , but the fact that his wife , a " white lady , " had been with another man out of wedlock destroys his capacity to care for her .
so blanche is usually left lonely and sex - starved while hammond is sleeping with ellen .
blanche gets back at hammond by seducing the studly mede and bearing his child .
hammond and his father can not stand the idea that blanche has given birth to a half - black child ( although it 's okay that ellen was pregnant by hammond ) , so warren kills the child by letting it bleed to death after birth , and hammond poisons blanche .
hammond then finds mede , shoots him twice in the shoulder , and pushes him into a giant cauldron of boiling water .
yes , you read right : the film ends with hammond getting his revenge by boiling mede alive .
judging only by the plot , " mandingo " is pure sexploitation .
the main purpose of the film seems to be getting as many blacks and whites into bed together as possible , with only the slightest commentary on what that would mean in 19th century southern society .
when " mandingo " was released in 1975 , it was still a bit of a shocker to see miscegenation on screen in such a graphic detail ; this way the movie could revise cinematic history while attracting large audiences of curious voyeurs .
dramatically , " mandingo " is weak and unfocused , and historically it 's mostly confused .
if one were to judge history by this film , it would be easy to walk away with the notion that the entire system of american slavery was based on sexuality , not economics .
not once in the film do we see any of the slaves working , except for a few house servants .
the men spend most of the time sitting around , while the sole purpose of a female slave seems to be free sex for the owner .
there is historical basis in the notion that slave owners often slept with their female slaves , but " mandingo 's " overwhelming emphasis on this aspect of slavery gives the movie the unpleasant taste of a cheap sex flick ( although there 's plenty of violence -- fights , vicious beatings , shootings , and the aforementioned human boiling sequence -- thrown in for good measure ) .
some tried to write off " mandingo " as a blaxploitation film , one of a number of quickly - made , low - budget films appealing to black sensibilities in the early seventies , but it 's not that easy .
" mandingo " was studio - financed by paramount pictures , and produced by dino de laurentiis , the grandiose italian producer behind such notorious productions as " the bible " ( 1966 ) , the remake of " king kong " ( 1976 ) , and the ill - fated " dune " ( 1984 ) .
the director was richard fleischer , a veteran who was best known for several special effects - laden action movies including " 20 , 000 leagues under the sea " ( 1954 ) and " fantastic voyage " ( 1966 ) , as well as such superior suspense films as " the narrow margin " ( 1952 ) .
the script , based on the supermarket best - seller by ken ostott ( and the subsequent play by jack kirkland ) , was penned by norman wexler , who had been nominated for an oscar two years earlier for his work on " serpico .
" james mason , perry king , and susan george were well - known and respected actors ( mason already had three oscar nominations under his belt ) , and ken norton appeared to have a promising film career .
so why is " mandingo " so bad ?
a number of reasons , including the fact that all those experienced filmmakers behind and in front of the camera did a lousy job .
wexler 's script is pure poor hokum bordering on the offensive
; it combines stereotyped slave - talk ( " yessuh , massuh " ) , stereotyped southern white trash talk ( " fer whut're you gittin ' outta bed ? " ) , and stereotyped contemporary militant black talk ( " if you see me hang , you gon na know you killed a black brother ! " ) .
fleischer 's direction is clumsy , especially during the fight scenes , and all the actors give weak performances , especially susan george whose constant shrieking finally becomes laughable .
nevertheless , credit should be given where credit is due .
despite its exploitative nature , " mandingo " was one of the first hollywood movies to take an alternative look at slavery .
until then , there had been a kind of underlying racism in all hollywood films dealing with slavery .
even classics such as " gone with the wind " ( 1939 ) can be seen as inherently racist by its glossing over the subject matter .
" mandingo " reassessed the south , and showed that it was n't all beautiful plantations , green fields , and pretty sunsets .
but all this is constantly undermined by the film 's negligible point - of - view
-- it claims to see things from the black perspective , but the entire narrative focus is on the soap opera tales of the white owners .
with a little more maturity and different handling , " mandingo " might have been an effective , worthwhile film .
while it portrays many sensitive aspects of slavery , it never deals with them .
the issues the movie brings up are worthwhile , but wexler 's script refuses to move them beyond a surface level of trashily vicarious viewing .
there is a great deal of potential in honestly exploring the nature of a sexual relationship between slave and owner , but " mandingo " never does it .
steven spielberg touched on that same topic in " schindler 's list " ( 1993 ) , by looking at a nazi officer writhing in inner turmoil because of his feelings for a jewish maid .
the difference between that film and " mandingo " is that spielberg dealt with the situation in a fair , unexploitive manner that focused on the inherent human dilemma .
" mandingo " is satisfied to simply show some skin , and because of that , its " trashy potboiler " nature overshadows any potential social good it might have accomplished .
N

ok , i admit it -- i find camp amusement with the spice girls .
yes , the same spice girls of the gimmicky individual " identities , " they of the annoyingly infectious bubblegum pop hooks and cheesy unifying mantra of " girl power .
"
but not even their guilty pleasure appeal is n't enough to carry their big screen debut , a junky mess which would be more aptly named shite world than spice world .
the film begins amusingly enough , with a cheeky 007-esque title sequence in which the british quintet-- " scary " ( melanie brown ) , " baby " ( emma bunton ) , " sporty " ( melanie chisolm ) , " ginger " ( geri halliwell ) , and " posh " ( victoria adams )
--are introduced one by one ( to , much to my surprise , excited and only slightly mocking cheers from the press audience ) as they croon the silky ballad " too much " ( a tune that would sound right at home in an actual james bond film ) .
a few minutes and an elton john cameo later comes an introductory tour of the numerous plotlines that run through the film : ( 1 ) the spicy ones go on a european publicity tour leading up to their first live concert at london 's royal albert hall ; ( 2 ) a film producer ( george wendt ) and a screenwriter ( mark mckinney ) pitch various film ideas to the girls ' manager , clifford ( richard e . grant ) ; ( 3 ) a documentary film crew follows the girls ; ( 4 ) a pregnant " mate " ( naoki mori ) of the group rapidly approaches her due date ; and ( 5 ) a tabloid publisher ( barry humphries ) attempts to destroy the group with the help of a sneaky shutterbug ( richard o'brien ) .
capped off by a live rendition of the girls ' bouncy hit " say you 'll be there , " a wealth of laughs and merriment is sure to follow , right ? wrong .
it 's all downhill from there as spice world collapses into a series of misfired comedy sketches .
i must give the girls credit for their refreshing willingness to make fun of themselves , but writer kim fuller and director
bob spiers can barely come up with a funny joke between them , much less a organized framework for all the " wacky " goings - on .
spice world jumps from vignette to vignette , subplot to subplot with no direction and little sense , at one minute having the girls meet with aliens ( no joke ) and at another having them stage a daring rescue of two young fans who fall into the water during a boat ride .
while a decent joke slips through the cracks here and there -- during a " dance bootcamp " scene , the girls sing the lyric
" we know how we got this far / strength and courage and a wonderbra
" --much of the material is not even funny on the chuckle level .
some gags are just plain pointless , such as roger moore 's recurring role as the mysterious chief , who dispenses cryptic , metaphor - heavy advice to clifford .
the only reason why i can think anyone would find that funny is the fact that moore once played james bond .
ha ha .
as weak as the script is , i think there 's one insurmountable problem
with even attempting to make a spice girls movie , and that is the girls themselves .
the point is not that they ca n't act ( and , for the record , they really _ ca n't _ ) but that their individual personas , which works as a gimmick over the span of a four - minute music video , are too thin to survive outside of the truncated , video bite mtv world .
posh ( who garnered the most enthusiastic cheers during the introductions ) comes off best by default because her persona ( rich bitch ) most easily translates into character in a film .
baby 's persona ( young innocent ) , to a lesser extent , also works , but the remaining girls ' identities are a little harder to flesh out .
there really is n't much to do with sporty besides having her exercise every so often ( which is _ exactly _ what fuller and spiers do ) , and , after all , what exactly entails being " ginger " or " scary " ?
apparently , just their wardrobes .
spice world manages to pick up some steam in the late going following a flashback performance of the spices ' signature hit , " wannabe .
" the song is as grating as ever , but the energy of the number gives the proceedings a much - needed shot in the arm , setting the stage for a wave of self - referential humor stemmed from the screenwriters ' film ideas ( the film almost mirrors robert altman 's the player in the way the film snails into itself ) .
this section of the film , involving all manner of derring - do involving a speeding bus , is perhaps its most effective , but it also points up how all the other storylines ( the publisher , the documentary crew ) lack a satisfactory payoff .
spice world is harmless entertainment suitable for the entire family , and it will please the spice faithful .
but this sloppy enterprise surely wo n't win them any new fans , which is what the group sorely needs to bolster its rapidly waning girl power in the states .
once the hype disappears , spice world will likely serve as the the spices ' final hurrah in america .
N

titantic , writer and director james cameron 's much anticipated and sometimes ridiculed $ 200 , 000 , 000 epic , arrives shortly into the theaters
so the question naturally arises , whether the film is worth it ?
as a business proposition , it seems hard to see how it can ever break even , but as a movie it is nothing short of wonderful . if you 've already neatly categorized it as yet another disaster movie a la volcano or the poseidon adventure , think again .
the movie is both a great love story told with the disaster as a backdrop and a portrayal of one of the world 's most memorable disasters made real and personal by seeing it through the eyes of two young lovers .
in either case , it is filmmaking at its best .
when we entered the press screening , my wife asked the publicity rep if there would be an intermission since the film runs three and a quarter hours long .
he said no
but that the time would go by so fast she 'd never notice the length .
amazingly , he was right .
titanic is one of the few long films that does n't suffer because of it .
the lush picture , filmed by russell carpenter in 70 mm , opens in the present with two diving subs exploring the wreck of the titanic on the bottom of the ocean .
fortune hunter brock lovett ( bill paxton ) leads the expedition looking for the world 's most valuable diamond necklace that went down with the ship , known back then as " the ship of dreams .
"
the necklace 's hundred - year - old former owner , rose dewitt bukater ( gloria stuart ) , finds brock to tell him her story .
although almost all of the movie happens in flashback , one of the engineers shows the elderly rose exactly how the ship was sunk .
using a computer simulation , the movie takes the time to explain what will happen later , which adds immensely to making a lucid story out of what would have otherwise been hopelessly confusing .
after twenty minutes , the story makes its jump to the past as the titanic leaves on her maiden voyage .
in a classic movie theme , the two parts of the ship , first class and steerage ( third - class ) exist in sharp contrast .
the strength of the script is the way it paints the differences between rich and poor without excessive moralizing .
entering the ship on its day out is rose along with her millionaire fiance , cal hockley , played with perfect snobbishness by billy zane .
and thanks to a last minute winning poker hand , an itinerant artist named jack dawson gets himself into a little shared cabin in third class .
even with her own promenade deck , rose feels trapped on the ship , what with an upcoming marriage to a man she loathes .
in contrast , jack can barely contain his euphoria at being on board .
after jack saves rose from committing suicide , they start a brief but impassioned love affair .
never tawdry and rarely explicit , their romance has the power to sweep the audience into the story .
leonardo dicaprio
in his best performance ever plays jack with confidence and charisma .
in so many ways , small and large , he makes all the right decisions in his approach to the part .
when he confronts cal , for example , he remains composed and polite and yet subtly undermines every one of cal 's supercilious put - downs .
kate winslet
gives a wonderfully captivating performance as young rose .
the chemistry between these two academy award nominees , him for what 's eating gilbert grape and her for sense and sensibility , is nothing short of astonishing .
from the scene where he embarrasses her by repeatedly asking if she loves her finace to the beautiful one of them hanging off the ship 's bow to the one where she embarrasses him by asking him to paint her nude , they dazzle the screen with a pair of mesmerizing performances .
if the film breaks after an hour and a half , which is how long cameron wisely waits to have the iceberg show up , you will still get one of the best films of the year .
peter lamont 's sets are more than authentic .
one scene , for example , starts with the planning - to - retire captain , played with insouciance by bernard hill , having his tea on deck .
it then shifts to the ship 's massive gears and then to the bright - hot boiler room filled with sweating muscular men shoveling in the coals .
the handsome interior common rooms of the ship resemble a palace more than an ocean liner .
easily the most fascinating part of the story is what happens after the iceberg hits and before the battle with the water begins in earnest .
at first , since the iceberg tears a series of little gashes in the hull , not some big gaping hole , the passengers view the hit as more of curiosity than anything else .
what a lark .
we 've struck an iceberg .
now let 's get back to our brandy and cigars .
the ship 's musicians play like troopers through it all , even after the panic sets in .
after all , they see it as their duty to calm the passengers .
when the musicians are about to die , they politely thank each other for the pleasure of being able to play together , and they mean it .
their civility borders on insanity , but it is touching nevertheless .
the story is so rich that my description has merely touched the surface .
there are more than enough characters to love and to hate , and all of the casting is dead - on . special effects work best when their presence becomes almost undetectable .
in titanic , for which he created a nine - tenths scale model of the entire ship , cameron strove for accuracy at all costs .
the most dramatic moment in the film happens when the ship breaks in two , and the front section becomes vertical in the water .
people are flung like ants either into the water to be shortly frozen to death or into other parts of the ship to be crushed immediately .
besides being romantic and dramatic , the script includes liberal doses of humor .
from the many deliciously subtle verbal put - downs to the physical comedy , as when jack teaches rose to spit like a man , the show elicits laughter in addition to perhaps a few tears .
"
it 's good - bye for a little while , " a less than confident father tells his little girl since it was indeed women and children first .
"
this boat 's for mommies and children .
there 'll be a boat in a little while for daddies .
"
basically there was a design decision to have fewer than half of the necessary life boats -- it made the decks look too crowded otherwise .
perhaps the sinking is best summarized by one of the guggenheim 's on - board the ship .
in the dining room with the lifeboats gone and the ship certain to sink , he is offered a life jacket by one of the crew .
"
no thanks , " the elegantly attired guggenheim replies .
"
we 're dressed in our best and would prefer to go down like gentlemen .
but we would like a brandy .
"
titanic runs 3 : 14 .
it is rated pg-13 for tastefully and delicately presented sex and nudity and would be fine for kids twelve and up .

P