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

Q: "
i 've been told by several people , ' you 're old fashioned .
you want to do everything by hand , ' " topiary gardener george mendonca complains , defending his continued resort to hand shears in trimming his intricately privet - sculpted animal creations .
"
this is the only way you can do it and do it right . " snip , snip .
"
some people believe that we are gon na replace ourselves by building these machines , and that may be , " muses mit robot scientist rodney brooks , who builds robots that run on instinct .
"
there may not be a place for humans in the future , if we 're really successful . "
" you feel that there 's a and looking directly into errol morris 's camera .
"
i know you are .
you know i am .
" in some ways the slickest film yet from nonfiction auteur morris ( the thin blue line , a brief history of time ) , fast , cheap & out of control is reportage of the highest order .
journalism students should dream of making connections like these .
cross - cutting among interviews and filmed segments , morris traces the lives of four disparate professionals who seem to share nothing but an immersion in their work , and then threads them around one another in an intricate quadruple helix .
the fun is settling into your theater seat and wondering just what the hell one story can possibly have to do with the other .
what morris manages is something akin to an intellectual magic trick , an interrogative sleight of hand .
one of the things that feels different about an errol morris documentary -- besides the always - striking visuals -- is the interview style , where subjects seem to look directly at the viewer .
weary of pressing his cheek against the camera lens to get this effect during conversations , morris developed an elaborate double - camera gadget he calls , half - jokingly , the interrotron . through a rig that uses a pair of teleprompters to project video images of the interviewer for the subject and vice versa , these folks talk , startlingly , right to the camera -- to the video image of morris , and by extension to the audience .
the gardener wonders whether , after his death , anyone will be interested in maintaining the garden that he 's devoted half his life to tending .
the robot scientist is more than a little pleased to note that his creations may be primal examples of what an insect or even an animal is -- a complicated set of sensory receptors .
the mole rat specialist is delighted to catalog the ways in which these vermin animals behave like insects , and notes that they may be more suited to long - term survival than people .
and the circus trainer pines for a long - lost ideal that was exemplified by world - renowned trainer and showman clyde beatty , who starred in such serials as zombies of the stratosphere ( excerpted at some length here , with affection ) .
starting to detect the patterns ?
fast , cheap & out of control contains a multitude of parallels and tiny intersections , culminating in what feels like an elegy ( the film is dedicated to morris 's late mother and stepfather ) .
the film is balanced on that airy precipice dividing the already musty past from the alternately exhilarating and terrifying space that is the future .
( the title is taken from brooks ' wish that nasa would send a payload of hundreds of expendable robots to scurry about the martian surface , creating a sort of road map for the terrain -- fast , cheap , and out of control . ) with able assists from editors karen schmeer and shondra merrill and cinematographer robert richardson ( oliver stone 's longtime collaborator ) , this becomes a cinematic contraption that 's a wonder of narrative divergence and coherence .
( further enhancing the picture 's wacky intellectual mood is the playful score by alloy orchestra founder caleb sampson . )
different story threads inform and comment on one another with the serene inscrutability of a kieslowski film , or a surrealist dream .
by cobbling together out of these motley musings a thesis on the nature of craftsmanship , invention , and existence itself , morris reveals the presence of cosmic themes -- creation , evolution , death -- in earthbound lives .
at the same time , and just as significantly , he pays tribute to a consuming passion for one 's work .
this breakdown of the dichotomy between the everyday and the extraordinary is likely as profound as anything you 'll encounter in pop culture this year , and the visuals cry out for the big screen .
do n't miss it .
--------------------------------------------------------------
directed by errol morris edited by karen schmeer and shondra merrill cinematography by robert richardson music by caleb sampson u
. s . , 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------

A: P
****
Q: by phil curtolo mel gibson ( braveheart ) gave a gripping performance as the father of a young kidnapped boy in ron howard 's ransom .
gibson plays tom mullen , a wealthy business tycoon whose past actions are coming back to haunt him as a deranged psychopath , played by gary sinise ( forrest gump ) , and his band of low - life thugs kidnap his only son for $ 2 million .
tom and his wife , kate , played by rene russo ( tin cup ) were instructed not to inform the police , but they contacted the fbi .
minutes later , an elite team of agents led by delroy lindo ( broken arrow ) are in tom 's house and wiring every phone .
the plot sounds average , just like most other kidnap movies that you 've already seen , and it was nothing more than that .
that is until about half - way through the movie .
suddenly , tom goes to the fox 5 news room and makes a live broadcast saying , " this is your ransom .
but this is as close as you will ever get to it .
instead , i am offering this money as a reward on your head , dead or alive .
" at this point , the plot thickened , and the unusually slow start of the film turned into a suspense - filled action film with great stunts .
the last half of the film is very well done .
another thing that carries this film are the superb performances by gibson and sinise , as they collide in a game of wits over their cellular phones for most of the movie .
owen gleiberman of entertainment weekly commented on the subject : " it makes you wonder what kidnappers did before cell phones .
" before this movie , sinise played mostly " good guys , " first in of mice & men , then in forrest gump , and most recently , in apollo 13 . but he was surprisingly devilish and cold in his portrayal of a cop - gone - bad .
gibson , of course , was just being gibson , in an oscar - worthy performance .
although most of the scenes were quite predictable , ransom is a very entertaining and suspenseful film . ,

A: P
****
Q: one never quite knows what one is going to get with a mamet film .
his american buffalo is a set - bound piece that has very little plot .
sometimes he will tell a story that really moves .
heist is mamet
doing his most entertaining work .
unlike his the spanish prisoner , there are no lapses in credibility .
heist is probably the best mamet thriller since house of games .
it is the kind of plot with which you are never sure who will double - cross whom , and frequently it is mamet double - crossing the viewer .
watching the film 's team getting around security the viewer is frequently asking himself either " what the heck are they doing ?
"
or " why did n't anybody think of that before ? " appropriately enough heist opens with a very clever jewelry store job .
it is so clever that one wonders if mamet really thinks up all these ideas himself or if he has help from professional magician and con expert ricky jay , now a regular actor in mamet films .
this is a robbery that works like a well - oiled machine .
there is just one problem and it is enough to get joe moore ( played by gene hackman ) filmed on a security camera .
now joe has to get out of the business .
it was coming time anyway .
joe 's team including bobby blane ( delroy lindo ) , fran moor ( rebecca pidgeon ) , and pinky pincus ( ricky jay ) is going to split up and go separate ways .
but crime boss bergman ( danny devito ) is pulling the strings
and he says that joe and his people have to manage one more robbery .
and he has to take along a young kid , the short- fused jimmy silk ( sam rockwell ) .
immediately it is obvious that there is more going on than meets the eye .
much of what distinguishes heist is mamet 's dialog .
remarkably it serves a double purpose .
the robbery team sounds at once very professional and at the same time it has mamet 's special feel for dialog
.
hackman has lines like " everybody needs money .
that 's why they call it money .
"
mamet 's timing is perfect in the direction but terrible in the production .
the plot is coincidentally a lot like the plot of the recent the score , which is , in fact , a very similar story .
both are good films , perhaps for some of the same reasons .
but at least on a high level they are much the same story .
the other problem with the timing of heist is that it involves airport security and clever ways to get around them .
i saw the film at the toronto international film festival on september 12 , 2001 .
that made the subject matter just a little too timely .
my understanding is that the release will be delayed .
my biggest problem with the film is that rebecca pidgeon 's acting at times seems very poor .
it is some kind of mamet trademark i do not understand to have women talk without inflection , as if they are just reading the words for the first time .
it is an irritation and distracts us from what is
otherwise a very good thriller .
it is one i rate an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale .

A:
P
****