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

Q: jackie brown entered theaters with little fanfare and a lot of expectation .
even though advance publicity on this one was fairly limited , the audiences waited for the showings with heightened anticipation .
this is , after all , the first movie quentin tarantino has directed since the highly touted pulp fiction .
to say he has been inactive in between would be to tell a falsehood , since he has been involved in such projects as destiny turns on the radio , desperado , four rooms , and from dusk ' til dawn .
he was also called in at the last minute to help punch up the screenplay for crimson tide .
( i 'm willing to wager the debate over which silver surfer is the only true silver surfer was penned by him . )
tarantino contributed on and off screen to these films , but never took the director 's helm .
nearly four years since gaining notoriety on the hollywood scene and making john travolta a star once more , tarantino returns with a film he can call his own .
the film opens up with an homage to the graduate , with jackie brown ( pam grier ) on one of those airport people movers as the credits are displayed in front of her .
jackie is a flight attendant for air cabo , which flies back and fourth between los angeles and cabo san lucas .
this makes jackie a convenient cash courier for gun dealer ordell robbi
( samuel l . jackson ) who is currently keeping his money stashed in mexico .
however , while bringing fifty thousand dollars back into the u . s .
for ordell , jackie is apprehended by fbi agent mark dargus ( michael bowen ) and atf agent ray nicolet ( michael keaton ) , who catch her not only with the money , but with a bonus of a couple of ounces of illicit drugs .
jackie did n't know they were in the package with the cash , but that 's of no consequence to the authorities , who threaten jackie with a couple of years hard time if convicted .
of course , dargus and nicolet are just using the sentence to get jackie to turn over the big fish , ordell .
ordell uses honest bail bondsman max cherry ( robert forster ) to get jackie out of jail , but while max is immediately attracted to her , jackie is more concerned about her immediate safety , since ordell killed the last one of his operatives who got picked up by the police .
sure enough , ordell shows up at jackie 's apartment that evening and tries to silence jackie for good , but she " borrows " max 's pistol and manages to turn the tables on ordell .
instead of closing the irony circle and relocating a bullet from the pistol 's chamber to ordell 's head , jackie proposes a deal .
since ordell wants to get his money out of mexico , jackie will get back up to her old tricks and be a courier for him once more , but this time for a more substantial fee : fifteen percent of ordell 's half million dollars .
with a gun in his face , how can ordell not agree ?
by itself , this premise might have been interesting enough to carry the film .
however , we are also introduced to a number of double crosses which make us pay attention and think .
jackie claims to be bringing the money in for ordell , but she 's also making a deal with the feds as well as with max .
the film throws us off every once in a while by leading us to believe the deal we thought was authentic is actually a sham , but it is in no way done to the extent that we feel jerked around .
instead , it 's actually a nice departure from the predictability which is prevalent in so many of today 's movies .
at least this film has a little imagination .
most of the performances in jackie brown are above par .
pam grier , of whom i had never taken notice before , plays jackie with a mix of confidence and vulnerability which makes her character believable .
samuel l .
jackson has a kind of mesmerizing quality about him as he handles himself in situations where you know he is in total control .
robert forster is thoroughly likable because he comes across as such an honest guy , trying to do his best . .
never mind that he belongs to a profession where sneaking into a guy 's apartment to zap him with a stun gun is simply a matter of course .
he 's just so down - to - earth , the nature of his job really does n't occur to us , even when we 're shown him bringing a handcuffed woman to prison , or when we see the tools of his trade .
in supporting roles are robert de niro as louis gara , a recently paroled friend of ordell 's , and bridget fonda as melanie , one of the girls ordell keeps around town .
unfortunately , de niro is basically wasted as his lines are few and far between , and then they are mostly clipped sentences .
in this film , he 's not really de niro , but stereotypical de niro , uttering things like , " little bit , " and " pretty much .
"
fonda , on the other hand , plays the slightly spaced - out melanie with satisfactory relish and cuteness , such that even when she is annoying louis , we are taking her side .
as is characteristic of any film in which tarantino has had a hand ,
the dialog is quick and snappy .
it grabs our attention and is actually interesting , and in many respects , this makes jackie brown a film which needs few visuals ; the lines are a form of art in and amongst themselves .
do n't count tarantino out when it comes to using the camera , however .
there 's a scene where max is unwittingly watching a dry run of a money exchange , and he 's not really sure what 's happening , but by composing the scene just so , his realization of what 's going on is felt simultaneously by the audience .
we look at the screen and think , " gee , that 's clever , " and then think the same thing about how the film induced us into that wonderful feeling of catching on .
although tarantino is n't afraid to drag out a shot for dramatic effect , it unfortunately works to varying degrees in this film .
there are shots where a character is simply driving , and we watch this person and somehow get an idea of what is going on in his or her head .
this is a tribute to both direction and acting .
however , there is at least one other scene where we follow jackie through a mall , and she is looking for something ; desperately looking for something .
we get the idea of the frantic nature of her search , but we follow her for so long that we end up not really caring about what she 's looking for , but instead hoping she 'll just stop .
overall , viewing jackie brown is time spent well .
some flap has already been made about the language used in the film , but it 's really not much worse than many of the other movies out there today .
in fact , one might even be able to say that the way in which these " offensive " words are employed almost cause them to parody themselves and therefore transcend their own offensiveness .
go see the film and see what i mean .

A: P
****
Q: robert altman 's cookie 's fortune is that rare movie that does not depend on sentimentality to be uplifting and to make its viewers feel good .
it is a sunny , delightful , dreamy comedy , filled with lovely performances , skillful direction and topped off with an understated , clever , extraordinary script .
as this is an ensemble piece , it is forced to start of slowly as it introduces us to its characters , all of them residing in a southern town called holly springs .
first we meet willie ( charles s. dutton ) , an honest man with a slight drinking habit .
we then see that willie takes care of an elderly lady nicknamed cookie , who is slowly losing her grip on sanity and is being filled with loneliness , despair , and want of her dead husband .
we cut to camille ( glenn close ) who is obsessively directing a play with her sister cora ( julianne moore ) .
then we briefly get acquainted with emma ( liv tyler ) , an apparent relative of cookie , who is a down - but - not - out teen outcast , still full of love and hope even though she has no real place to live .
we also fleetingly see emma 's lover jason ( chris o'donnell ) , an ambitious but far too excitable young cop .
we are now about one quarter through the two hour picture , and robert altman decides that it is time to set the plot in motion .
we see the ecstatic cookie stare hopefully at a picture of her husband .
she exclaims " here i come ! " and then puts a pillow to her face and shoots herself .
soon after , her niece camille stops by to get a fruit salad bowl , comes upstairs , finds cookie dead and flips out .
convinced that suicide is a disgrace and that she will have none of that in her family , she eats the suicide note and convinces her slightly slow ( yet sweet ) sister that it was a murder .
she makes sure that she stages it like a murder as well ; scattering jewelry all over the floor , breaking a few cabinets , windows and doors , and then throwing the gun out in the back yard .
the only reasonable suspect is willie , who immediately gets taken into custody , and put in a jail cell
( they all know he did n't do it , so the cell stays open and he plays scrabble with the sheriff and the faithful emma ) .
meanwhile , the unperturbed camille continues her none - too - subtle manipulations trying to further cover up for the murder while at the same time making her easter play a success .
so begins cookie 's fortune , a film aptly described by critic scott renshaw as " a southern spin on fargo , " except that this one is far funnier and much more enjoyable than the coen brothers ' darker , somewhat disturbing and slightly overrated escapade .
robert altman 's slight picture is in some ways reminiscent of something like midnight in the garden of good and evil as well , in that both films focus ( on and off ) on the eccentricities of the residents in a southern us town .
indeed , most of the characters in cookie 's fortune are loads of fun to observe , and a portion of them are fascinating and surprisingly multi- dimensional .
glenn close turns in an insubstantial ( in terms of her career ) but magnificent performance
as the conniving camille and is also the source of a good portion of the many laughs that we enjoy in this movie , and she is perfectly cast as the prolific " aunt alexandria " character , endlessly obsessed with family dignity .
the equally essential role of willie is handled with an intangible grace by veteran thespian charles
s. dutton
( mimic , a time to kill ) there is nothing like a movie which leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy
inside hours , even days after the film ends .
cookie 's fortune is such a movie .
i loved the light , kindhearted approach altman ( whose last project was the dark , intense drama the gingerbread man ) took towards the tricky subject matter .
i enjoyed the talented ensemble cast .
i even liked the trite " in the south everybody is related to everybody " cliche that is inevitably employed by the time this movie draws to a close .
i 'm not sure
why cookie 's fortune had such an all - around pleasing effect on me .
perhaps it 's that good ol' southern charm .

A: P
****
Q: my first press screening of 1998 and already
i 've gotten a prime candidate for my worst ten of the year list .
what an auspicious beginning !
welcome to the dog days of winter when the only film openings of merit are those oscar contenders that the studios opened in late december in new york and l . a . and which are just now beginning to appear elsewhere .
firestorm , the directorial debut of dances with wolves 's academy award winning cinematographer dean semler , is the first of the new year 's crop of movies .
as our story opens , the movie pretentiously informs us that of the tens of thousands of firefighters only 400 are " smokejumpers .
"
we then cut to a plane load of smoke jumping cowboys and one cowgirl , where one of the gung - ho guys is taking a romance quiz from " cosmopolitan .
" having the time of their lives , they then jump into the middle of a burning forest .
when , even in the beginning , the director ca n't get the small parts right , you can sense the movie is in trouble .
with the noisy fire roaring all about them and with the trapped people huddled near their gasoline - filled cars , smokejumper monica ( christianne hirt ) tells them to get away from their soon - to - explode vehicles .
not bothering to shout nor even get close to them , she announces her warning without raising her voice much or approaching the people .
miraculously , they manage to hear her and move away .
in a movie that specializes in cheap shots , the camera locates the proverbial young girl trapped in a nearby burning building .
as it does throughout
, overly dramatic cinematographer stephen f .
windon from the postman uses extremely fast zooms right down to the endangered girl 's face .
our show 's two heroes , the crew 's chief , wynt perkins , played laconically by scott glenn , and his second - in - command , jesse graves , played by howie long in a weak attempt to be the next steven seagal , enter the burning house looking for the little girl .
in a panic they have difficulty in locating her before they are engulfed in flames .
the manipulative script has her hidden in her own dollhouse .
this mawkish show cuts back to monica , who has a life - or - death decision to make .
the chopper with the fire - retardant chemicals has only enough to save one group .
will it be the large group near the cars or the helpless little girl and monica 's two firefighting buddies ?
she has only seconds to decide who will be saved .
yes , she goes for the majority , but , miracle of miracles , the other three come out alive anyway .
not content with a traditional firefighting story , chris soth 's screenplay attempts to jazz it up by having william forsythe from palookaville play a vicious killer named randy earl shaye who sets a forest fire so that he can join the crew to put it out and then escape .
( " hoods in the woods , " is what the " ground - pounders " yell out when the convicts are bused in to help them fight the fire . ) along the way , shaye picks up an ornithologist hostage played by suzy amis , who turns out to have been trained in warrior ways by her father , who was a marine drill instructor .
most of the highly predictable movie is a long chase in which poor howie long is
given one ridiculous stunt after another to look silly performing .
he flings a chain saw backwards over his head while riding a speeding motorcycle so that the saw can hit the windshield of the pursuing truck .
arguably
the low point is when he escapes from a locked burning building by riding a motorcycle conveniently parked inside .
using a ramp , he shoots straight out of the top of the building 's attic , and when he hits the ground , he just rides off in a cloud of dust .
when the film is n't using some stock footage of actual forest fires , the simulated ones look hokey .
editor jack hofstra cheapens the action even more by his use of burning flames in scene transitions .
the ending , with its sick twists , manages to be even worse than the rest of the movie .
perhaps the best that can be said for the picture is the faint praise i heard afterwards in the lobby , " it 's not as bad as some of the television sitcoms .
" firestorm runs mercifully just 1 : 29 .
it is rated r for violence and language and would be acceptable for teenagers .

A:
N
****