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

Q: capsule : earthy , experimental , difficult , shockingly frank ( even for 1997 ! ) , and ultimately refreshing story of a black man on the run from the cops .
the first few minutes of sweet sweetback 's baad asssss song ( yes , i checked --
that 's the correct number of ss )
are without dialogue , just eerie montages of sounds .
a young boy , obviously malnourished , is taken in and fed up by several loving mother - surrogate figures .
then one of them takes the boy to bed for a sexual initation ( underneath the title credits ) that 's far more confrontatory and shocking than any ten basic instincts -- probably because it has the directness and clumsiness of real life , something we 're not used to seeing on screen .
this is one tough movie to swallow , no matter who you are , but that probably reflects more on how pallid and unchallenging movies have gotten lately .
( i suspect the sex scenes in movies like el topo and salo would probably melt the synapses of most modern audiences . )
the plot is simple but not simpleminded .
sweetback , hassled by two white cops who are apparently just looking for an excuse to beat up on a black man , breaks his bonds and runs like hell .
along the way he moves through a good many of the kinds of environments that we are only just now being seen in a more serious light in the movies -- or at all , for that matter : the slums , the missions , the ghetto .
in other , lesser , movies , sweetback would be machine - gunning everything in sight and the end credits would roll over a pile of bodies ; in this one , we get taken on a kind of a tour of the depressing and anarchic world that sweetback takes for granted .
ssbas first appeared in 1971 and was promptly rated x ( " by an all - white jury " , as director melvin van peebles crowed in his legendary ad campaigns ) , and it 's hardly surprising why .
there 's a good deal of sex in the movie , but it 's handled in a way that 's unsettlingly frank -- a frankness that spills over into the rest of the movie .
in one scene , sweetback visits a friend 's house in the hope of getting sanctuary there , and the other man chats him up while on the toilet .
we 're not used to coming this close to people in real life , let alone in the movies -- especially not people who are not made out to be glamorous .
the movie is also full of experimental stylistics that are relatively unused today , but probably because of that seem curiously fresh and new in van peebles ' hands .
one scene , in which a man is interrogated by the cops , is loaded full of menacing energy as they fire off a gun inches from his ears , and suggest his deafness through a cleverly edited soundtrack .
another note : ssbas is not so much anti - white ( that would be too easy ) as anti - authority , and as the movie goes on to demonstrate , authority exists in many forms -- governments , churches , and even the paranoid inside of one 's own mind .
ssbas is ultimately about thirsting for freedom -- and it looks like we could use a little more of that in our movie diet , god knows .

A: P
****
Q: the coen brothers are back again , this time with homer 's " odyssey " as the backdrop in their tale of three fugitives from a mississippi chain gang who trek across the south to find a secret treasure in " o brother , where art thou ?
" right for the beginning of " o brother " the coens grab your attention with a chain gang of prison inmates breaking rocks along the road in unison to a work song .
the camera flows around the hard toiling men , giving a visually exciting symmetry to the scene that ends with our three heroes - ulysses everett mcgill ( george clooney ) , delmar ( tim blake nelson ) and pete ( john turturro ) - escaping across a cotton field .
it is the beginning of a journey that takes on different meanings and urgencies to each member of the trio .
a strong suite , as always with the coen brothers , is the depth of character of the folks they create in their films .
their characters are goofy and comical , like nicolas cage in " raising arizona " ; or , dramatic , as albert finney and john turturro in " miller 's crossing " ; and , even a mix of the two with frances mcdormand in " fargo .
" in all cases , and in " o brother , " too , the characters populating their films are three - dimensional people .
ulysses everett is a handsome , hair - obsessed petty criminal with a silver tongue and not a lot in the brains department .
but , he seems like a genius when compared to the simple , sweet delmar and the maladjusted pete , who follow their self appointed leader to a promised treasure of $ 1 . 2 million .
their odyssey takes on the mystical proportions of homer 's original material as they meet all manner of people along the way , including those dangerous sirens who beckon them onto symbolically rocky shoals and a cyclops who beats them and takes all their money .
there is magic , too , when delmar believes that pete was turned into a horny toad by the sirens .
the story meanders through the different vignettes of the boys ' adventures , giving the flick a choppy , episodic feel that disrupts the overall flow .
some of the interludes are an epiphany , though .
the trio becomes a quartet when they pick up guitar - playing tommy johnson ( chris thomas king ) and visit a radio station in the middle of nowhere , run by its blind owner ( stephen root ) .
they become the soggy bottom boys for the sightless radio station man and , without their knowledge , are recorded as they sing the traditional tune , " i am a man of constant sorrow .
"
it is a wonderful moment of moviemaking and gives us , in my mind , the best movie song of the year
.
contrasting this and other wonderful moments
( the sexy seduction by the sirens comes to mind ) are some pretentious bits that detract from the overall quality of " o brother .
" in particular , near the end , is a scene where ulysses , delmar and pete crash a ku klux klan rally to save tommy from being lynched .
the scene is overblown and flashy and reeks of " the wizard of oz .
"
they do n't say " lions and tigers and bears , oh my !
" and there 's no dorothy , but it is the land of oz we 're seeing here .
the highs and lows of the story flow are tempered by fine acting on several levels .
george clooney is funny , charming , a little dumb and one of the handsomest actors in the business today .
he has the charm of a 30 's movie idol and is able to put himself into silly situations with dignity .
ulysses has an ongoing obsession with his hair , risking life and limb to get a particular brand of pomade and a supply of hairnets .
his vanity will come to plague him as it would any mystical hero - wanderer .
while clooney is the name draw for " o brother , " the show stealer is tim blake nelson as delmar .
the heretofore unknown nelson is terrific as the simple convict who , at one point , hears the word of the lord and joins members of a church congregation in their mass baptism .
delmar is saved and dedicates his life to doing good and provides a richness to his simple character that makes him shine .
the taciturn pete , as played by longtime coen collaborator turturro , is the sullen member of the trio and gives them the necessary angst .
all together , the tuneful triumvirate is a mix of the three stooges and the three musketeers as they prove to be buffoons , albeit brave ones .
the colorful supporting cast is rampant with homerian characters to meet and get to know along the way of the boys ' odyssey .
charles durning appears as incumbent governor pappy o'daniel , who keeps crossing paths with them in his bid for re - election .
john goodman is wicked as the one - eyed bible salesman and con artist , big dan teague .
michael badalucco is manic and outrageous as outlaw and bank robber extraordinary
, george " babyface " nelson .
stephen root is amusing as the blind dj , rep'ing one of the many references to the sightless that abound in the film in mystical ways .
holly hunter is wasted in the small role as ulysses ' estranged wife , penny ( and the real reason for this adventure , not secret treasure ) .
techs are , as expected in a coen brothers venture ,
first class .
cinematographer roger deakins , who has worked on five previous coen films , captures the sultry atmosphere of the south .
the photography complements the lush period production and costume provided by dennis gassner and mary zophres , respectively .
once again , roderick jaynes - the alter ego of ethan and joel coen - is on board as editor .
the high points outweigh the low through most of " o brother , where art thou ?
" with particular praise for the wonderful selection of period and traditional music .
i give it a b .

A: P
****
Q: not so long ago , men by the names of peckinpah , ford , leone , and eastwood made westerns .
real westerns .
these were some of the best films of the twentieth century .
those days are gone .
now we have crap
like wild wild west to pass for the western .
and that record is not improved with the unbearable tale of american outlaws .
outlaws is yet another re - telling of the jesse james legend ,
courtesy of b - movie king james g . robinson ( producer of such classics as wrongfully accused and chill factor ) .
delayed since the spring , this version stars the irish hunka hunka burning love colin farrell ( the best part of schumacher 's tigerland ) as the bad - ass jesse james .
alas , any sense of his character has been left on the ranch , leaving us with only cute chicks like ali larter ( minus the whipped cream ) to watch .
the spin this time around : fresh from serving as southern militiamen in the civil war , jesse james ( farrell ) , his brother frank ( gabriel macht ) , and his pal cole younger ( scott caan ) lay down their arms and head home to missouri to tend the family farms after the war has ended .
but trouble is brewing in their small town of liberty when evil railroad baron thaddeus rains ( harris yulin ) and his cronies rollin parker ( terry o'quinn ) and allan pinkerton ( timothy dalton ) demand the boys turn over their lands to the railroads .
the jameses and the youngers then join forces to fight the railroad -- by robbing banks up and down missouri , thus cutting off the railroad 's financial surplus and playing robin hood to the local people .
along the way , the boys squabble over who 's the cutest of the gang , who 's the most popular cowboy in the gang , and who ought to go on mtv 's total request live .
they rob numerous banks with identical interiors , always with the kindest of hearts , strutting in their grungy dusters as moby songs play in the background .
the witty banter they share could be plastered within a hallmark card .
the biggest disappointment here lies in the acting of colin farrell .
after a great job in tigerland , farrell walks through this role easier then nicolas cage in gone in 60 seconds .
and his american accent rivals richard gere 's irish accent in the jackal .
combined with feeling like bonanza : the teen years , this homogenized production ( toned down to get the ever - popular pg-13 rating ) gives us an invincible jesse james that quickly grows tiresome and boring
.
the unbearable villains courtesy of timothy dalton and thaddeus rains spend the entire film proclaiming that everyone should be hanged , sucking out any energy left in the film .
not to mention : the real story of jesse james and his gang bears no resemblance to the plot of american outlaws .
instead , the movie is full of old , outrageous tales about the wild west -- tales which went out of style in 5-cent magazines about a century ago .

A:
N
****