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

[EX Q]: this sunday afternoon i had the priviledge of attending a private screening at the sony astor cinema in new york city , of james cameron 's most heralded film , titanic .
postponed from last summer , with an escalated budget that makes it the most expensive movie in history , this was one film i was eager to preview .
so , is this movie going to sink or swim this holiday ?
my best guess .
. . . it will sink , though with many awards attatched to its hull .
no doubt , titanic is the most elaborate disaster movie ever made .
it boasts the most amazing effects that i have ever seen done to date .
to see a ship fall apart , with actual people running across the ship , flying across the deck , and falling to the water , is just amazing to look at .
the effects are so stunningly realistic , you would swear you were looking at actual footage .
but titanic is more than a disaster movie , and that 's where the problem lies .
there is a love story attatched that nearly ruins the entire premise .
i 'll give a capsule summary of the story without spoiling anything for you : the film begins with a modern day excavation of sorts of the sunken titanic .
we see actual footage of the sunken ship , as cammeron had set up special cameras to film the wreckage on the ocean floor .
bill paxton leads the expedition , in search of sunken treasure .
what he finds instead , leads him to a mysterious old woman who recounts her tale of the titanic voyage .
we meet rose ( kate winslet ) , a young woman , who comes from an upper - class family .
rose is to be we d to a man she does not love .
we meet jack ( leonardo dicaprio ) , a young man , who comes from a poor financial background , and wins a ticket aboard the titanic , in a poker game .
the two meet under interesting circumstances , and the love story begins .
add in a jealous fiance , and a not - so - nice law officer played by david warner , and you have a story that , well , gets a bit overplayed and oversappy .
i must add , at this point , that the most likeable character in the movie is played by kathy bates , as a woman with " new money " who is a lot less uptight than the other rich folk on the ship .
she is a pleasure to see on screen .
when the ship does hit the iceberg at exactly 1 : 40 into the film , and eventually sinks , you never really feel for any of these characters .
the film is just loaded with unlikeable rich snobs and other folk you never really get a grasp on .
the effects are tremendous .
from the roars of gears and pumps in the engine room , to a doomed ship cracking at the seams , this is an effects picture that looks and sounds like no other .
we saw titanic in dolby digital surround , and by far , it is the best sounding movie i have ever seen .
my friend commented it was the best sound mix he has ever heard
.
when people are in the water , at film 's end , you are surrounded by the voices of lost soles .
titanic runs far too long .
the movie is 3 hours and 15 minutes in length .
and , while most of the first 2 .
5 hours runs very fast and well - paced
, the final 45 minutes almost comes to a sudden stop , and you realize that this sappy love story has to finish itself out before the movie finally ends .
do n't get me wrong about titanic . . . .
it 's not a bad as i am making it out to be .
it really is an exceptionaly well - made film .
the costumes and sets are incredible , and true to the time period .
the ship is painstakingly created exactly true to form , as we see actual pictures of the modern - day wreckage , transformed into the movie depiction .
this film will certainly win on effects , costume , set design and sound .
cameron has certainly made his best film to date .
unfortunately , titanic is not a best picture candidate .
it just does n't have a strong supporting story .
it 's an exceptional disaster film with sappy filler inside .
it just does n't have the emotional impact that i suspect mr .
cameron was shooting for .
i predict that titanic will open to likeable reviews .
it is a film worth seeing .
i predict that it will only do moderately well at the box office .
with its extreme running time , and lack of enough robust to get substantial word - of - mouth , i expect that it will do even better on home video .
this will certainly be the definitive ac3 movie for all you home theater enthusiasts .
titanic opens december 19th , and is released by paramount pictures and twentieth century - fox .
i give titanic 3 stars ( .
that 's not bad .
ron epstein riginally posted in home theater forum
= = =
[EX A]: P

[EX 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 .
[EX A]: P

[EX Q]: available for rental - october 12 , 1999 10 things i hate about you is an update of the classic play , the taming of the shrew .
that said , drop any pre - conceived notions of what shakespeare 's work is supposed to be like and welcome yourself to padua high school , home of a student counselor ( allison janney ) who obsesses over the male penis ; a slightly too hip and racist african - american english teacher ( daryl mitchell ) ;
a new kid named cameron ( joseph gordon - levitt ) ; a model named joey ( andrew keegan ) , the subject of cameron and joey 's crushes ; bianca ( larisa oleynik ) ; and bianca 's sister - the shrew ( julia stiles in a marvelous performance ) - whose name is katarina , kat for short .
with movies about high schools similar to these running through projectors like water down the nile , it would be quite easy to write off 10 things i hate about you as just another doltish comedic - romance .
yet , you must realize that the story is timeless , and a few hundred years later it is equally as witty and comical
as when elizabeth gleefully looked on , groundlings below and stuffed brassieres on stage .
the first reminder of the original scribe can be found in katarina and bianca 's last name : stratford .
their family is run by walter stratford ( pretty woman 's larry miller ) , a doctor who is all too familiar with teenage pregnancy and guards his children accordingly .
in what he thinks to be a moment of ironic humor , the family " no dating " policy is amended to " bianca can date .
. .
when [ katarina ] does .
" with prom just ahead , bianca 's fate is grim ; unless , of course , she can tame the shrew .
do n't think this mission to be a simple one , as bianca kindly points out , her sister " .
.
. is a particularly hideous breed of loser .
" getting katarina to date is complex and oftentimes confusing .
when cameron , who likes bianca , learns of her father 's new rule , he is quick to consult a friend for advice .
the scheme they dream up is to fully exploit " someone with money .
" in this case , that is joey - the other guy with a crush on bianca .
cameron 's friend , a loser by teenage verdict , convinces joey to pay someone who has enough guts to take the shrew out .
the solution lies no farther away than the second blatant reminder of the master scribe : patrick verona ( heath ledger ) .
this verona is far from fair ; rumor has it that he previously laid his scene in prison .
moreover , katarina openly opined to the aforementioned english teacher that " hemingway was an alcoholic who hung around picasso , hoping to nail his leftovers .
"
the laws of high school cinema inexorably turn patrick and katarina into romeo and juliet .
providing a constant reminder of the fact that this is n't exactly what shakespeare had in mind are the elements obligatory to a high school comedy :
a party polluted with liquor , a best friend 's betrayal , and prom .
it is the latter that has become infamous for closing films like drive me crazy , american pie , never been kissed , carrie , she 's all that , and ca n't hardly wait .
yet surely even these practices have roots in shakespeare ; falstaff was a drunk , romeo and juliet met at a party , and caesar learned about loyalty the hard way .
[EX A]:
P