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

another formula ' feel good ' quirky comedy from the british isles , much like " waking ned devine , " and a host of other popular low budget movies that turned a nifty profit off a thin story line .
it is filled with likable establishment types living in a quaint town , such as tolerant vicars and policemen , plenty of eccentrics , and of locals who stick together through thick and thin .
the strength of this film lies in its rational theme , that smoking pot should be legalized since it is even less dangerous than drinking alcohol .
the film is tolerable until after its first hour , it then falls completely apart , becoming just too absurd to consider as anything but
sitcom fluff gone completely bananas .
but its long overdue message of decriminalization for certain drugs is on target and allows the film to , at least , be viewed as containing a pertinent message .
its message is especially appropriate nowadays considering the ' war on drugs '
is about to be escalated into colombia .
the drug war has been a total failure so far and with no hope of it being won by law enforcement methods in the future , it has so far just ended up causing america 's jails to be overcrowded with non - violent drug prisoners and offers zero hope of curtailing america 's drug usage and drug supply .
billions of dollars have just been allocated by congress to get officially involved in the colombian civil war , by backing a corrupt government ( remember vietnam ! )
with the idea that military might could stop the cocaine and marijuana harvests in that country .
everything about this proposed action smacks of vietnam , with this scenario closer to home , so
what probably awaits such an effort is a more futile result than the other war .
the film 's mild theme of showing squares getting into the weed business and finding it acceptable by the public , something that should have been accepted some 40 years ago , is a theme long overdue for public acceptance , but one that is better received late than never .
there has to be some common sense in distinguishing what drugs should be legalized and how to educate the public on this , rather than making it a police matter altogether .
the film opens in a quaint cornish seaside village at the funeral of the husband of a middle - aged woman , grace ( brenda blethyn ) , who fell out of an airplane , evidently committing suicide .
the widow soon finds out her husband was a bigger bastard than she imagined .
he left her with a stack of enormous bills and put up , without her knowledge , their comfortable 300 year old house as collateral for a failed business venture by taking out a second mortgage .
the widow finds herself bankrupt and with no marketable skills to pay back her husband 's enormous debts and prevent her from losing the house and becoming homeless .
she also knows that he was having an affair with a sophisticated woman from london , honey ( quick ) .
what makes the affair doubly unsatisfying , is that when conferring with honey , she finds out that he was a tiger with her in bed but refrained from having sex with her .
even though the locals try to help the bankrupt widow out as best they can , the creditors swoop down on her like vultures .
her gardener and handyman , matthew ( ferguson ) , decides to stay on with her , despite his last check bouncing . since she is an expert amateur horticulturist , he convinces her to help him revive his hemp plants , which he grows for private use .
the two soon see this as a possibly big business opportunity , as grace works miracles with the plants which turn out to be high - quality stuff .
for grace , this is a way to save her house and get her out of debt ; for the scotsman , matthew , it offers a chance for him to continue to live in this beautiful village and earn enough money to marry his fisherman girlfriend nicky ( valerie ) .
the locals all let the illegal activities go on undisturbed :
the police sergeant ( campbell ) pretends not to notice what the bright lights in grace 's greenhouse is for , the friendly vicar ( phillips ) counsels about the wisdom of not taking action over something that you ca n't control , and the doctor ( clunes ) enjoys smoking the weed for recreation .
the story becomes incredulous when grace decides to go to london and score with a big - time drug dealer instead of having matthew go , because she finds out nicky is pregnant and does n't want matthew to end up in jail .
it is interesting to note , that no one thinks smoking grass is bad for you , only that one can go to jail .
the scene with grace on portobello road in the notting hill section of london , trying to find a drug dealer , while dressed out of place , in a white dress and hat one would wear to a tea party in cornwall but not on the streets of notting hill while looking to make a drug deal , was completely hokey and the film descended into a huge black hole , whereby it never recovered its dignity .
the film moves into the formula mode , whereas grace beats the odds against her failing to survive , as she meets an international drug dealer , a frenchman ( tcheky karyo ) , who is first seen threatening to cut off her fingers but later becomes her business partner and husband as she becomes a millionaire and writes a best selling fiction book about her experiences , thereby becoming a celebrity .
things work out in a ridiculous way , where there is a total breakdown in the character development of grace , where this matronly figure suddenly becomes merely a cartoon figure instead of live flesh and blood .
there are a lot of silly giggles that come forth and the film has just enough of an acting performance by brenda blethyn to breathe air into it before it comes to its belated finale , as it drones on with its transparently gratuitous upbeat tone , until it makes the audience feel good that the sweet old lady succeeded .
this ' unhip ' film leaves one with the impression that smoking and growing pot is silly , but should be tolerated as something
naughty middle - aged widows screwed by their terrible former husbands must do in order not to remain destitute .
ummm !
N

meet joe black ( reviewed on nov .
27/98 )
starring brad pitt , anthony hopkins , claire forlani in " meet joe black " , brad pitt plays death .
that 's all that really needs to be said , but nevertheless , i will provide the three of you that have seemingly been living in a cave with a plot description .
death decides to take a holiday , what with all the rigors of soul - collecting and all , and forces anthony hopkins into showing him what it 's like to be human .
death assumes the body of brad pitt , and from there , much trouble ensues .
for one thing , death - as - pitt falls in love with hopkins daughter , played by claire forlani .
obviously this enrages hopkins , because really , what can death offer ?
besides eternal damnation , of course .
there is also a sub - plot about forlani 's ex - boyfriend ( she dumps him for pitt ) trying to take over hopkins company .
" meet joe black " runs just under three hours .
i 've always thought that such obscene running times should be limited to historical epics .
" meet joe black " is neither historical nor is it an epic , though i get the feeling martin brest ( the director )
desperately wants it to be .
every single scene in the movie goes on about 3 - 4 minutes too long .
and the ending takes about 20 minutes longer than it really should .
a severe editing job could have made this movie excellent , instead of just good , which is what it is .
pitt , an actor i normally loathe , is actually quite engaging as death .
i believed his performance , and i could see why forlani 's character would fall in love with him .
i have to agree with roger ebert , though , who found it hard to believe that an entity that 's been around for all time would n't know what peanut butter was .
that has nothing to do with pitt 's performance , of course , but it is a little distracting .
hopkins gives his usual excellent performance .
he 's able to portray the angst of a man who knows he has very little time left , without making him an obnoxious whiner .
and in her first major studio role , claire forlani is surprisingly good .
she has a sweet tenderness that allows the audience to instantly root for her .
so , " meet joe black " is
a good movie hampered by it 's ridiculous running time .
had the film been cut by an hour or so , i have no doubt that i would be calling it one of the best movies of the year in this review .
P

in the wake of the smashing success of " rumble in the bronx , " it 's looking more and more likely that more jackie chan films will see american release .
rumor has it that one of these films will be drunken master ii .
the version i have is a copy from the laserdisc ; it 's widescreen and bilingually - subtitled , as are most hong kong films these days .
availability over here in the united states is very limited ; these films must either be purchased via pirates or sought out from asian distributors such as tai seng .
the subtitling on the copy i have is slightly hard to read ; the letters are white and a bit small .
although the american release will almost certainly be dubbed , this review is of the subtitled version , so please keep that in mind if you 're reading this review to help you decide whether to go out and see it .
to be fair , i must admit that i 've never been very fond of " period - piece " martial arts movies -- the ones set in some nebulous china of the distant or not so distant past .
perhaps it 's because most of those i 've seen were filmed on inferior stock , with either butchered dubbing or all - but - illegible subtitling , or perhaps it 's because their plots all tend to be very similar to each other and , in many cases , all but nonexistant .
in fact , many of them get so wrapped up in their subplots that they seem to forget their main plot entirely until only a few minutes before the end .
or , for that matter , it might be because the jackie chan films with more modern settings ( armour of god , rumble in the bronx , etc . ) tend to have more spectacular stunts , often involving large motor vehicles and large explosions , whereas period pieces simply have the martial arts .
having said that , i must now turn right around and say that drunken master ii is a remarkable exception to all or most of the above , is one of the better martial arts films i 've seen , and i quite enjoyed it .
surprised ?
well , so was i .
drunken master
ii is about a young man named wong fei - hong ( played by jackie chan ) who is a master of the drunken boxing style of kung fu .
where he learned this style is uncertain , as his father , wong kei - ying ( ti lung ) is steadfast in his opposition to fei - hong 's practicing it rather than some more normal style of kung fu .
apparently , fei - hong is some sort of figure from chinese folklore , rather like paul bunyan is for americans , but i 've heard very little about this , and could quite well be wrong , so i 'll leave analysis of that to the people who know it better .
one of my friends points out that the character of wong fei - hong is also featured in the " once upon a time in china " movies , but i have not yet seen those .
the plot of drunken master ii is somewhat hazy , as are the plots to many such films , but if you 're watching a jackie chan film , odds are you are n't expecting something on the order of " war and peace " .
the story seems to revolve around those evil foreigners who are spiriting away ancient chinese relics ( and hence , china 's cultural heritage ) while overworking , underpaying , and beating up chinese workers in a nearby steel mill .
however , this plot merely serves as a framework for the other main story of the film -- fei - hong 's perpetual struggle to win his girlfriend , supplicate his father , keep his ( pregnant ) mother ( played by anita mui ) from fighting , and keep from getting beaten up by evil foreigner thugs .
the macguffin that drives the plot ( s ) is a precious antique jade imperial seal which is being taken away by the evil foreigners .
in the beginning , fei - hong accidentally steals it while trying to recover an identically - wrapped box containing the medicinal ginseng his father was bringing back for a customer .
in the process , he clashes with another thief , who is himself trying for the seal but ends up instead with the ginseng .
after fei - hong narrowly avoids getting caught with the seal by the evil foreigners ' lackies , thanks to some timely intervention by a general 's son ( a cameo appearance by andy lau , who would later take on the starring role in drunken master iii ! ) , comedic chaos ensues back at the wong household when fei - hong and his mother attempt to come up with a replacement for the missing ginseng .
and so it goes .
and the plot thickens later on , such as when fei - hong 's girlfriend maneuvers him into a kung fu match with a rival , or when fei - hong and the thief , now revealed to be a loyalist manchu officer trying to recover the seal and stop the evil foreigners , are attacked en masse ( another grand kung - fu movie tradition ) , but i think i 've already spent more time on the plot than it really deserves .
let 's move on to the real draw of jackie chan movies . . .
the action .
there 's plenty of martial arts action to be found in this movie .
.
.
of course , in a kung fu film , that 's to be expected .
however , this is n't just another kung fu movie ; this one has jackie chan doing the fight and stunt choreography , and
jackie chan is a genius .
the primary martial arts " style " featured in the film is drunken boxing , a form of kung fu which attempts to draw the adversary off his guard by making it seem like the fellow using it is drunk .
further , for the purposes of this film at least , drunken boxers fight better when they actually _ are _ intoxicated . . .
but there 's a fine line between just drunk enough and drunk into a stupor .
under normal circumstances , the idea of someone staggering around looking sloshed but managing to fight effectively and even incredibly might seem rather stupid , but jackie pulls it off with flair .
the kung fu sequences are so intricate in their staging and execution that it is pointless to try to describe it on paper , so i 'll just say that the fights -- especially the big climactic fight at the end -- in themselves make the movie worth watching .
another thing drunken master ii has going for it is the stunt work .
even without motor vehicles ( well , not counting a train ) , there are some remarkable stunts in this film .
among other things , jackie dives off a balcony into a table and crawls across hot coals ( not once , but at _ least _ twice , if you count the outtake shown during the credits ) .
( quicktime movies of these stunts can be found through the www movie database . )
unlike in american films , these stunts are _ not _ faked .
drunken master
ii stars several veteran actors of the hong kong movie scene , including jackie , ti lung ( " a better tomorrow " 1 & 2 ) , and anita mui ( the " heroic trio " series , " rumble in the bronx " ) .
the performances are first - rate , especially when it comes to the comedy parts of the film .
the scene where fei - hong and his mother conspire literally behind fei - hong 's father 's back to cover up for the missing ginseng root is hilarious , as is the scene where fei - hong 's mother , having just revealed that she is pregnant , is threatening to hurt herself ( in order to draw her husband 's anger away from fei - hong ) .
jackie has developed his knack for physical comedy into a sort of mastery over the years , and he 's in fine form all through drunken master ii . as far as cinematography is concerned , it certainly works for this film .
it 's nothing spectacular , but is at least a dozen times better than
all those old kung fu movies of the 70s .
the picture is crisp and clear .
one thing i find particularly worthy of mention is that , at least in the copy i have , the screen was wider than any film i 've ever seen on videotape before -- almost a whole 1/3 of the screen was blocked out above and below .
( watch this on a bigscreen tv or movie theater if you can . )
it will be an utter shame if this film is eventually pan - and - scanned for american video release .
drunken master
ii shows the full potential of " period piece " kung fu movies , and it 's good enough to overcome even my usual distaste for such movies .
the plot does meander a bit , but that 's to be expected in this type of film .
if you like this kind of movie , you 'll love this movie , and if not , well , give it a chance anyway .
if nothing else , the martial arts and stunt sequences are by themselves worth the price of admission or rental .

P