TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: probably the most popular and praised film of all time , turned out to be a primitive and predictable costume drama with a dose of social criticism .
everyone knows about the greatest and most famous shipping disaster of all time .
and the actual catastrophe is masterfully crafted by director james cameron , combining visual -and sound effects , he re - creates the frightening atmosphere of the sinking ship in the middle of nowhere .
i liked very much
the emotional and brutal contrast between the first and the third classes .
while their cabin is slowly filling up with water , a mother is telling her children a fairytail -- " .
.
and they lived happily ever after . .
"
.
and then the ship goes down
and the few survivors are left alone under the stars and the chilling air .
however , the actual disaster is happening almost at the end of the movie , while the first two hours are just beautiful sets and bad dialogues .
in the present day , the rms titanic is explored by brock lovett ( bill paxton ) , a treasure seeker looking for the coeur de la mer diamond , lost during the sinking .
somewhere inside the ship , lovett 's crew discover a sketchbook of an artist long dead .
here , in the shape of a nude young lady , is a window into the distant age of 1912 .
lovett is extremely surprised when he get 's a phone call from rose dawson , claiming that she is a model .
she is immediately helicoptered onto the vessel , and she gets the first glimpse of the fated ship in 80 years .
as the memories come flooding back , she once again becomes rose dewitt buketer ( kate winslet ) , the fianc ?
e of wealthy cal hockley ( billy zane ) and daughter of ruth dewitt bukater ( frances fisher ) .
on board there are rich and poor , everyone trust in the ship 's designer ( jonathan hyde ) and her master , captain e .
j .
smith ( bernard hill ) .
on board the ship , rose , unhappy and restless meets jack ( leonardo dicaprio ) - a young american artist , poor , brave and attractive .
a love story slowly emerges and the two lovers must not only experience the difference between the social classes , but also face the greatest power on earth - death .
cameron could as well have called his picture " the never ending love " or " love at first sight " , as he concentrates all his energy on the young couple , and not on the disaster itself .
the plot is anything but original and the dialogues sometimes resemble a television soap - opera .
the director does n't even try to overcome his empty script . because of its primitive and predictable plot , titanic is totally depending on the visuals that truly are breathtaking .
russel carpenter 's rich , majestic and incredibly detailed cinematography is certainly award - worthy .
everything from art direction to visual and sound effects are a top notch .
but it does n't help much when the costumes are more convincing than the actors who wear them .
the actors are not to blame , because their characters are more like caricatures , in other words - fake .
jack is a man with many talents : he is a talented artist , handsome , brave , honest , strong , funny . . .
you name it .
he does n't have any dark side , he does n't make any mistakes , that for a second would make him human .
jack is perfect , but he is - poor .
on the other hand we have cal .
he is a bastard that treats rose as an odalisque and not as his wife - to - be .
he lacks everything jack possesses , but he is -- rich .
this childish contrast between the social classes is one of those things that makes titanic nothing more than a mediocre picture .
cameron knows precisely what we want to see .
his film therefore contains certain minimums to draw an audience - attractive actors , a " tragic love story " , beautiful visuals ( including expensive special effects ) , a dose of social criticism , a fascinating historical event ( we love true stories ) and last , but not least - an incredible media support , which proclaimed an average picture the " greatest film of all time " .
on the outside titanic looks perfect , but behind that sparkling curtain of incredible visuals - is emptiness - nothing to think about .
the main weakness of this film , which ironically became its success , is simplicity .
cameron enables our basic and if you wish - primitive emotions : love , hate , fear and helplessness .
everyone understands the power of love and the threat to our beautiful couple is likewise imaginable - a sinking ship .
titanic is a typical hollywood production , totally and completely dependent on visual perfection to hide its primitive plot .
it 's a good picture , but absolutely not a masterpiece .
it 's among hundreds and thousands good films released every year , not better or worse than the average american film .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: while watching " shallow grave , " i found myself periodically noticing thematic similarities to the coens ' " blood simple .
"
both are good films in which several characters , none of whom are the most conscientious to have walked the earth but still are not really evil , indulge in an act of deception that soon necessitates more serious crimes .
the body count rises , and before long seemingly normal people have blood on their hands .
both films are also flawed , but for different reasons .
"
blood simple " is unrelentingly dark and moody , but its characterizations were a little hollow .
" shallow grave , " on the other hand , is nearly flawless for an hour and twenty minutes , and then the filmmakers throw away much of what they 'd accomplished for a more standard , audience - pleasing ending .
the events of the film were sufficiently intense and disturbing that i honestly felt quite troubled by what i was witnessing on screen most of the time , yet there was a slight grin on my face at the end .
as the film begins , we are introduced to alex ( ewan mcgregor ) , juliet ( kerry fox ) , and david ( christopher eccleston ) , a scottish trio living in an apartment in glasgow .
they are all sarcastic and occasionally obnoxious , but other than that they seem like a fairly normal bunch .
a man named hugo moves into the apartment 's remaining vacancy , and the next morning he is found dead of a drug overdose .
juliet is about to call the police when alex discovers that hugo had brought with him a suitcase filled to the brim with cash ( presumably from criminal activities ) .
the three eventually decide to keep the money and cover up the death ; after a drawing of straws , the particularly unenviable task of mutilating the body so as to make it unidentifiable and burying it falls to david , who had been the most reluctant to partake in the scheme from the beginning .
all of this transpires in the first twenty minutes or so of the film , and part of what makes " shallow grave " so brilliant for a while is that i honestly had no idea what was coming next .
other than the obvious question of why they do n't report the death and simply hide the cash , which is not addressed , the plotting and characterization , while sometimes predictable , worked in a way that kept my attention and , on more than one occasion , gave me chills .
i will , therefore , attempt to continue this review in a way that does n't give away too much of the plot .
broadly , the trio are in danger due to hugo 's underworld connections , as two goons search for the money and kill several people in the process .
a police inspector ( ken stott ) is clearly suspicious and visits the apartment , asking pointed questions and trying to unnerve the three suspects by exchanging banal and weirdly humorous bits of dialogue with a junior detective .
david , meanwhile , becomes increasingly paranoid , moves into the attic , and develops an affinity for sharp objects .
director danny boyle effectively creates an atmosphere of mounting tension and suspicion in the apartment , and finally the three seem ready to turn against each other .
while i do not consider myself the " happy endings are automatically stupid " type , i thought that " shallow grave " really should have ended in tragedy - a realistic analysis of the story up to the last ten minutes of the film would indicate that all three characters were probably about to end up in prison , in the mental hospital , or in the morgue .
this could have been accomplished , quite credibly , but then boyle and screenwriter john hodge seem to flinch and opt for a more conventional " caper " ending in which we get a kick out of seeing who outsmarted whom , and nothing more .
granted , this is n't really a " happy " ending , but it 's still pretty light - hearted compared to what preceded it .
i really should n't say anything more about the ending as far as details go , but let me add that it seemed not only shallow and lazy but also inconsistent with the rest of the film and not very believable .
yes , this ending made me crack a smile for a couple of minutes , but ultimately it left me feeling as if i 'd been cheated .
still , " shallow grave " was brilliant
most of the way through , and it does at least meet the minimum requirements for an entertaining thriller , and i am therefore awarding it three stars .
i guess i just ca n't help but think about that fourth star that boyle and hodge let slip away .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: the crown jewel of 1970 's irwin allen disaster movies , the poseidon adventure features an all - star cast including gene hackman and ernest borgnine spouting some of the most laughable dramatic dialogue in movie history while trapped on a cruise ship .
the story begins on the u. s.
s.
poseidon 's big new year 's cruise , where we are introduced to the ensemble of people who will soon be the only passengers left alive .
let 's see , there 's the new age preacher ( hackman ) who advises people to " pray to that part of god within yourself .
"
there 's the ex - cop ( borgnine ) who busted a hooker ( stella stevens ) six times -- then married her .
there 's the hippie singer ( " there 's got to be a morning after . .. " )
who turns to the company of a lonely man ( red buttons ) once her brother is killed .
and to round out the group : the elderly couple ( jack albertson and shelley winters ) who live aboard the ship , the beautiful teenage girl and her brother who are sailing alone and adventurous scotsman roddy mcdowall .
we get to know these people a little too well in the first thirty minutes of the poseidon adventure , before straight- faced ship captain leslie nielson looks in horror at the giant tidal wave headed right for the ship .
everyone 's in the giant ballroom at the time , shortly past midnight of the new year , when the ship turns first on its side , then completely upside down .
the second- in - command wants everyone to wait in the ballroom until help arrives , but rebel hackman leads his small band of followers on a quest to the top of the ship .
in this case , because the ship is overturned , the top is the bottom .
or is the bottom the top ?
either way , we get to see a lot of bottoms because the two beautiful women in the crew are both conveniently wearing hot pants during the scenes where the camera shoots upwards while they climb up ladders and -- in the ballroom scene -- christmas trees .
thus begins an hour or more of hushed trips down long corridors , through burning rooms , etc . while the ship slowly fills with water behind
them .
it 's a race against the clock which is only mildly interesting .
the poseidon adventure works more as a bad movie to laugh at , with all the melodrama that comes in - between the non - thrilling action scenes .
the one note in borgnine 's one - note performance is to be a cranky old man that argues with hackman every step of the way while buttons and the hippie fall in love ( although since there is n't a sex scene , we never find out if his buttons really are red ) and albertson and winters wonder if they 'll live to see their grandson 's birth .
shelley winters provides the most hilarious scene in the movie in a scene toward the end , where water has flooded the next two rooms of the ship and hackman is preparing to dive under with a rope for the rest of them to pull along .
winters , who has been the whiny fat woman throughout the movie ( stevens even not - so- affectionately calls her " fatass " in one scene ) , finally finds her purpose .
"
i was the underwater swimming champ of new york three years running when i was seventeen , " she brags , and before hackman can even ask her how she could be seventeen for three years , she 's swimming through the water , her skirt billowing up around her hips , showing off her cellulite ( or do you call it shellulite ? )
ridden thighs .
it 's not so much funny as innately disgusting , which pretty much sums up the poseidon adventure as a whole .

SOLUTION:
N