TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: you know something , christmas is not about presents .
it 's about over - hyped holiday films with lots of merchandising and product tie - ins . at least that would seem to be the message of " the grinch , " which has been advertised since last christmas and whose logo is currently plastered all over stores .
hollywood expects us to ignore this cynical greed as the movie scolds us about losing the true spirit of the season .
you know the plot : there 's this evil furry green guy called the grinch ( jim carrey ) who lives on a mountain overlooking whoville .
down below all the who s are preparing for their whobilation , but the grinch is determined to steal their christmas .
the movie is , of course , a live - action version of the beloved children 's book , which was previously adapted into a 1966 tv special by looney tunes animator chuck jones .
it 's rare that a big budget hollywood release is shamed by a thirty - year - old half - hour cartoon , but that 's the case when jones ' version is compared to ron howard 's .
the tv grinch hit all the right notes : boris karloff 's soft , deep narration ; thurl ravenscroft singing " mr . grinch " ; max the dog weighed down by the gigantic antler tied to his head ; and the grinch 's wide
, toothless grin .
by contrast , the movie hits one sour note after another .
first
, there are the numerous bad choices that jeffrey price and peter seaman made in padding out the short book into a 105-minute movie .
young wide - eyed cindy lou who ( taylor momsen ) is depressed about the misplaced priorities of her parents ( bill irwin and molly shannon ) during the holiday season .
she begins to sympathize with the grinch , who turns out to be surprisingly sympathetic .
cindy lou discovers that the grinch turned tearfully away from whoville in grammar school when he was publicly humiliated while expressing his love for the prettiest girl in the class , martha may whovier ( played as an adult by christine baranski ) .
are we expected to like the grinch , hate the who s , and want him to steal christmas ?
the grinch is n't even the villain here ; that role is filled by the corrupt mayor of whoville ( jeffrey tambor ) who was the grinch 's rival for martha 's affection .
not only are the characters needlessly complex ,
but the once - simple plot becomes so convoluted that the actual theft of christmas seems like an afterthought .
the casting choices are n't any better than the screenwriting decisions .
jim carrey seems woefully miscast .
while his face is so supple that the rubber make - up seems superfluous , carrey brings nothing else to the role .
his accent keeps changing ; i assume he was shooting for karloff ,
but he ends up sounding like a weird slurry of richard nixon , sean connery , and cartman from " south park .
" not knowing what else to do during his many scenes alone in the grinch 's home , carrey falls back on his stand - up comedy and clowns around ace ventura - style .
needless to say , his wise - cracking antics do n't quite fit the character of the grinch , who is an embittered loner filled with hate .
little taylor momsen brings little to role of cindy lou except big eyes and a cute smile .
she would have been fine if cindy lou was limited to her original purpose in the seuss story ( finding " santa " in her living room stealing the tree ) .
however , the expanded script makes cindy as important as the grinch , and momsen is not up to the challenge .
bottom line : when you 're stealing christmas ( movies ) , leave this one behind .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: mpaa : not rated ( though i feel it would likely be pg , for martial - arts violence . )
with three movies already ( re ) released theatrically in america , and at least three more on their way , jackie chan is one of the newest " hot properties " in action adventure stardom , and it 's just about time .
for over twenty - five years , jackie 's been starring in martial arts and action movies in hong kong , thrilling audiences with both an incredible grasp of acrobatics and martial arts and a wonderful sense of comedy .
" drunken master " has the distinction of being the first jackie chan movie to " make it big
" --this is the movie that supposedly set jackie up for big stardom in hong kong .
i 'm not entirely sure why , exactly .
in many ways , " drunken master " is similar to most of jackie 's other early films , such as " fearless hyena " i and ii , " master with cracked fingers " , " half a loaf of kung fu " , " spiritual kung fu " , and others .
in fact , looking at all these early films together , one gets the impression that they were stamped out , cookie - cutter style , at a rate of four to six per year , all using the same casts and telling very similar stories .
to be honest , i think that early jackie chan movies are something of an acquired taste .
they 're quite different from action movies as we know them in america .
these films tend to be set in the chinese countryside in an indeterminate period sometime in the distant past , with fairly slow plots that often meander far afield and sometimes seem to exist only for the intention of stringing comedy and fight scenes together .
" drunken master " , though its plot is tighter than some , is no exception .
( as an aside , " drunken master " was the first jackie chan movie i ever saw , and i saw it the way it was meant to be seen .
. . in a movie theater in seattle , as part of an asian film festival .
at the time , i did n't really think it was anything special . . .
but after having seen more films like it , it 's kind of grown on me . )
" drunken master " 's storyline is very similar to that of other early jackie chan movies , such as " fearless hyena " i and ii and " master with cracked fingers
" --slacker martial arts student is taught the martial arts by a harsh - seeming master , and has a big fight with an evil bad guy in the end ( a formula that has been " adapted , " to put it kindly , by american films such as karate kid ) .
more specifically , jackie chan plays the part of wong fei - hong , aka " naughty panther , " a fun - loving , practical - joking kung fu student who is too good at kung fu for his own good , but not _ quite
_ good enough .
after embarrassing his instructor 's assistant by beating him roundly , then beating up a bully in a marketplace , wong fei - hong tries to hit on a pretty girl , but discovers that she , and her mother , can hit back , better than he can . . .
and is further chagrinned to discover that the two women are his cousin and aunt , respectively .
his father , wong kei - ying , is unhappy about this , and is further annoyed when the father and brother of the bully show up to sue for damages .
kei - ying soon institutes a harsh regimen of punishment , which fei - hong does not like at all .
while escaping from this punishment , fei - hong meets up with a drunken old man , who proceeds to thrash him soundly , then take him on as a student and thrash him some more .
this turns out to be su hua - chi , a legendary master of drunken - style kung fu .
he assigns fei - hong a series of bizarre tasks , such as filling jugs with water while hanging upside down from a frame , cracking walnuts with his hands , and other such exercises , that seem like more pointless cruelty but are actually strengthening him up .
then , when he 's ready , he teaches him the seven styles of drunken kung fu .
unfortunately , the lazy fei - hong only practices six of them . . .
" drunken master " features some wonderful martial arts sequences , with jackie winning some fights and losing others .
it 's been said before , but i 'll say it again --
these fights do n't just _ happen
_ , they 're as
carefully choreographed as any ballet performance , and it shows .
in his fights , jackie often makes use of objects found in his environment-- benches , jugs , cups , bowls , fruits and vegetables -- often in new and surprising ways .
the fight scenes , particularly those toward the end of the film , are unparallelled in most american films .
whether jackie wins or loses , it 's really something to see . . .
and it 's often as funny as anything , too .
and funny is the other thing
jackie chan is very , very good at
.
there 's very little
that 's new in this movie --
jackie winning fights , jackie getting beaten badly by a master , jackie going through punishment or training . . .
these schticks have all been seen before , in any one of several dozen similar jackie movies from the seventies and early eighties .
but they 're still hilarious as ever .
likewise , jackie has a _ great _ supporting cast , many of whom were also in other early jackie films , and they 're often the source of plenty of hilarity on their own .
the really big thing about " drunken master " , though , that inspired several copycats ( including a couple starring jackie himself ) and a sequel fifteen years later , was the drunken - style kung fu .
i 'm not certain whether or not this is actually a genuine style of kung fu , but the principle behind it is to imitate the wobbly movements of a drunkard to lull the enemy into a false sense of security . . .
and it apparently helps if you 're drunk while you 're doing it .
genuine or not , i have to admit , there 's just something incredibly fun
about watching a fellow who looks utterly sloshed wading into a group of startled opponents and making mincemeat out of them before they even realize what 's going on .
come to think of it , perhaps this element is what accounts for this film 's success over any of the other jackie films . . .
it 's not just martial arts , it 's the kind of martial arts that makes you stop and go , " whoa . . .
" on the negative side , the cinematography in this film is nothing special , the film stock is rather primitive , the plot is often rather slow , and the subtitles are sometimes extremely hard to read against the background . " gone with the wind " , this is n't .
still , if you like martial arts films , or like what you 've seen so far of jackie chan and want to see more , give it a shot .
it 's much more " real " than chuck norris or jean - claude van damme .
you might very well like it .
another interesting thing about " drunken master " has to do with its video availability in the us .
" drunken master " is the
only early jackie chan movie that i know of that you can find in its original , letterboxed , hong kong subtitled form , commercially available on vhs ( from magnum video , in a gold box , for about $ 10 ) .
there are plenty of other early jackie films around , but these are typically either in dubbed , pan - and - scanned form or else import tapes priced for rental instead of purchase .
thankfully , " drunken master " , at least , is available in the aspect ratio in which it was meant to be seen , at a very affordable price .
if you like " drunken master " , take a look at the numerous other early jackie chan films that are out there ( even the dubbed ones are n't really _
too _ bad .
.
. if nothing else , you can enjoy the martial arts choreography while making fun of the dialogue ) .
i particularly recommend " spiritual kung fu " , " half a loaf of kung fu " , the " fearless hyena " movies , and " snake & crane arts of shaolin " .
also , the mostly - unrelated - storywise sequel , " drunken master ii " , will hit theaters in american release sometime later this year ( though what its american - release title will be is still uncertain ) and comes _ highly _ recommended by this reviewer .
also , for a rather different interpretation of the character wong fei - hong ( who is in fact a popular figure from chinese folklore ) , i 've been told to suggest the " once upon a time in china " series starring jet li ( though i have n't personally seen any of them yet ) . if you choose to watch " drunken master " , i really hope you enjoy it , and i hope it starts to open your eyes to the wonderful world of asian cinema
that 's out there .
all in all , i give this film
an .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: imagine this .
you 're given a sword and a shield and very basic , minimal training .
a man you do n't know tells you that this will be the last day that you will live .
you are thrown into an arena with thousands of spectators wanting to see you die .
you frantically monitor several closed doors which , in seconds , will release vicious enemies prepared to destroy you .
you watch as the innocent friends you made in the last few days are murdered in cold blood . if you are lucky enough to survive this chaos thrown at you , you know you 're going to have to do it all over again tomorrow .
eventually know matter how strong or skilled you are , you 're going to die .
this is the life of a gladiator .
you 'll never have to be a gladiator and after seeing ridley scott 's powerful gladiator , you 'll be thankful for that .
with his new film , scott has returned cinema to the fascinating age of the ancient roman empire .
and like those preceding it , spartacus and ben hur , gladiator has nearly everything going for it - a strong lead actor , a wonderful supporting cast , eye - catching special effects , and a great script . since the two aforementioned films came out before the prime target viewers of gladiator ( teenagers to thirty - year - old males ) were around , a whole new genre may just be reborn and revisited .
>
from a weak beginning , the film starts off extremely gloomy and inauspicious .
rome 's best general maximus ( russell crowe ) , who has helped the empire conquer nearly everywhere they have attempted , is currently ( in the year 180 a .
d .
that is ) waging a war against germania .
scott shoots the gory battle in an awkward style , similar to that of saving private ryan but much less effective .
it 's blurry , in slow motion , and the sound is muted . as soon as this artistic method began , it was hard to tell what was what and who was who .
it 's a good thing scott stops this after the first twenty minutes or else gladiator
would have been torture to watch .
instead , the general swears he will get out after this battle .
he wants to go back to his family and his crops , he wants a quiet life .
but , unexpectedly , he gets anything but that .
the dying emperor of rome , marcus aurelius ( richard harris ) , decides to have maximus appointed new emperor of rome once he dies .
he asks maximus to restore the republic by giving more power to the senators .
all of this does not go well for aurelius ' son , commodus ( joaquin phoenix ) who was expecting his father to name him the new emperor .
jealous and upset , commodus kills his own father , names himself emperor , kills maximus ' wife and son , and attempts to kill maximus .
but maximus is able to escape his own death and vows to kill commodus and fulfill marcus aurelius ' wishes .
now a slave , the only way he can win his own freedom and complete his goal is to become a winning gladiator , who eventually are released for their success .
a story of betrayal and promises , gladiator is more than just a mindless action flick .
you actually care about the characters , sometimes even the evil villain commodus , who is just a young man as determined to make rome one way as maximus is determined to make it the other way .
phoenix plays his character brilliantly .
think of commodus as the percy wetmore ( of pant - wetter the green mile ) of the roman empire - a whiny , sleazy , " respect - me - because - my - father - was - a - good - man " brat who hates when he 's not the center of attention .
every scene we see commodus , he 's either crying or he looks like he has just been crying .
phoenix has definitely matured as an actor since to die for , and gladiator shows he 's more than just river 's little brother .
crowe is also excellent as the film 's grisly - faced hero .
maximus is one of the few characters in recent cinema who actually has emotions .
this guy actually acts like a anyone in his situation would act , he 's no invincible superhero who only blurts out one - liners , he ( believe it or not ) acts like a human being !
the rest of the cast , including richard harris , djimon hounsou , walter hill , derek jacobi , and connie nielsen are also first rate .
ridley scott , using outstanding special effects , has brilliantly
recreated the roman coliseum , the loudness of the roman mob , and the city of rome in general .
the visuals are breathtaking and voluminous , like a cleopatra of the year 2000 .
the costuming is also wonderful from the detailed shields and armor to the exquisite dress of the upper - class politicians .
gladiator is another movie you have to see on the big screen to get the most out of the experience .
along with u-571 , action fans should have plenty to see in theaters this week and should expect much more excitement to come this summer of 2000 .

SOLUTION:
P