instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
much ado about nothing .
ah , how sweet the irony !
it 's accepted wisdom in some circles - among english literature nuts , mainly - that whenever a critic knocks shakespeare they are only doing so through ignorance .
he just does n't " understand " shakespeare , you will hear them say .
the bard 's work is apparently beyond criticism .
what a load of old cobblers .
if these arbiters of public taste think kenneth branaugh 's film of shakespeare 's " comedy " much ado about nothing is comedy in any modern sense of the word
, it 's time to get a life .
get monty python .
get woody allen .
get john waters .
whatever .
just get a real taste of some clever , witty , risky comedy . and banish this nonsense
to where it belongs .
drama and tragedy was shakespeare 's strength .
to my sensibilities - and i 'm no stick in the mud - much ado about nothing resonates with no spark whatsoever .
no kidding : this film ranks among the most embarrassing two hours i have ever spent in a cinema in my 20 years of movie going .
the only thing that stopped me walking out was loyalty to my lady friend , as this was our day out
and i had n't seen her in ages .
but boy , does she owe me one !
i wo n't spend too much time on the plot .
basically , we follow the trials and tribulations of two would - be couples - one young , the other older .
there 's some dark treachery amongst all this , but everyone is so awfully jolly that you 'd hardly know it .
mind you , there 's nothing wrong with the basic story .
good romantic comedies based on similar premises abound .
nothing wrong with most of the cast , either .
branaugh , emma thompson and denzel washington are all talented performers .
the problem is the script , or more accurately , shakespeare 's original text .
light comedy should n't be complex .
yet wrapped in elizabethan english , the dialogue becomes difficult to comprehend .
for this alone it will be a problem for modern audiences unschooled in shakespeare and in search of nothing more than a good , undemanding laugh .
the only laughs to escape my belly were brought on by the gloriously inept performance of keanu reeves , the actor once again miscast as a jealous half - brother or something .
but when dissected and understood , what it all boils down to is that this stuff is just so goddamn lame .
this is comedy so clean and nice and corny and so devoid of danger that it leaves this viewer
totally cold .
ho , ho ,
ho ,
boy likes girl !
ho ,
ho ,
ho , men are such klutzes !
ho ,
ho ,
ho ,
she 's so awfully clumsy !
oh please !
there 's wit in here somewhere , i 'm told .
i call it pretentious
.
something lightweight striving to be something sophisticated through clever wordplay .
in the end , it 's cringeworthy .
watching some of the cinema patrons around me collapse with laughter made much ado about nothing a very weird movie going experience .
comedy ?
bah , humbug !
answer:
N


question:
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 .
answer:
N


question:
a standoff .
a man holds a woman , a diplomat 's daughter , hostage in his embrace , a gun pressed to her head .
a cop , impaired by drink due to his wife 's philandering , trains his gun on the man 's nether regions , threatening to shoot .
another cop holds his gun to his partner 's temple , forcing him to disarm .
the scene unfolds like a foursome bidding in bridge -- upping the ante , signaling tacitly , going for game .
the second cop retrieves the first cop 's weapon , the suspect lowers his , and the woman caught in the middle moves -- in slow motion -- to safety .
it is then that the intoxicated officer makes his move , grabbing for the assailant 's gun .
the room turns upside down , a shot rings out , a cop is down .
shot in the back and paralyzed for life .
the young man who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time is sent to prison for six years for a crime he did n't commit .
storytelling has always been one of pedro almod ?
var 's greatest gifts
and in " live flesh " he gives us a twisting , turning , compelling tale peppered with well - written , colorful characters .
characters who find themselves , more often than not , in carefully - constructed scenes like these .
characters played by actors we might not know , but who look strikingly familiar nevertheless .
take the ruggedly handsome victor plaza ( liberto rabal ) , for instance . before he gets out of prison he could easily be mistaken for that almod ?
var favorite , antonio banderas .
when we first meet elena ( francesca neri ) , the woman in the middle of the nervous shakedown , she looks like spice girl barbie with her frizzy shock of orange hair , but later tones down her look sufficiently to pass for juliette lewis .
elena 's husband david ( javier bardem ) is the cop crippled in the shooting and he wears david schwimmer 's bemused expression throughout .
playing the inebriated cop and his cheating wife are jos ?
sancho and angela molina -- no lookalikes spring to mind , but they round out the excellent cast .
it 's a credit to almod ?
var 's craft that these five individuals cross paths and intertwine with such credulity .
" live flesh " begins and ends with a live birth and the film 's contradictions come almost as often as the contractions .
between the two childbearings , coincidence , irony , and a hefty dollop of sex form the key elements of this thoroughly entertaining film .
although based on a ruth rendell story , " live flesh " is brimming with the acclaimed spanish director 's high - heeled flourishes .
women are at times alluring and repulsive , their extravagant hairdos and animal print coats providing colorful highlights to the intricately - woven drama , an eye bruised by an abusive husband here , a mouth bloodied by an impromptu delivery there .
while in prison , victor learns bulgarian from an inmate and learns to love the bible , quoting from deuteronomy thereafter not unlike the way by which david and sancho refer to themselves as " guardians of a sick flock .
" victor 's pre - fab inheritance is a shambles in a slum resembling sarajevo .
"
dear son , i got cancer " his mother writes to him in jail .
she dies before he is released and it 's at the cemetery that victor is reacquainted with elena -- redemption , ultimately , substituting for revenge .
answer:

P