TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: you 've got mail is a timely romance for this impersonal , computer - driven decade .
two people who 've never met confide in each other via e - mail without revealing their true identities .
nora ephron 's contemporary update of the shop around the corner retains the basic plot : two people who despise each other unwittingly become enamored with each other through their anonymous correspondence .
ephron , who co - wrote the film with her sister , delia , as well as directed it , knew what she was doing by reteaming tom hanks and meg ryan as the at - odds couple .
ryan is kathleen kelly , owner of a small children 's bookstore , while hanks is joe fox , who heads up a chain of mega bookstores ( think barnes & noble ) .
their charm and chemistry are the glue that binds this film , even through some of the script 's rough spots .
for the ephrons invested so much effort in their protagonists that they give short shrift to the talented supporting cast , including parker posey , greg kinnear , jean stapleton and steve zahn .
yet no one is really going to complain because the ephrons know their audience - and what the paying public wants is hanks and ryan .
and the two are kept busy .
one , the other or both are in nearly every scene .
hanks has his decent guy routine down pat , yet each time he does it ,
it seems effortless , spontaneous and fresh .
ryan
smoothly moves between spunky and vulnerable , with a sexy touch of winsomeness added to the brew .
their scenes together sparkle , even though they lack the nostalgic romanticism of sleepless in seattle .
and the shadow of that earlier hit hangs over you 've got mail like dried - up mistletoe .
the sparks created by the earlier movie are , by necessity , not evident here .
true , these are two people seeking true love , but you 've got mail is more comic and less poignant than its predecessor .
the ephrons ' script is witty and sharp .
however , as a director nora ephron is a bit uneven .
some scenes drag , while others , especially when hanks and ryan are revealing their souls via e - mail , are crisp and tidy .
also , the script gets sloppy toward the end with characters merely disappearing from the story .
a nice , romantic soundtrack adds to this date - night special .
overall , you 've got mail is a lush and cute outing , taking advantage of the star appeal of its two leads .
it 's a nice holiday movie , one for holding hands and snuggling . committed to lifelong learning through effective communication

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: what would inspire someone who can not write or act to pen and star in a movie ?
a better question , what would inspire a studio to produce said movie ? if you have an answer , let me know .
foolish , the new movie written by and starring master p is a jaw - droppingly horrible film , one with no redeeming value
socially , cinematically or otherwise .
comedically it has some potential , but only in its stand - up comedy moments , which i can turn on comedy central for .
master p stars as fifty dollah '
( beat that ! )
as a mobster ( i think ) who is trying to start a comedy club / act with his little brother foolish ( eddie griffin ) .
but the two of them have to deal with an angry mob boss ( played by andrew dice clay , for the very first time entertaining ) , a stubborn club owner and family problems ( the latter in foolish is a perfect example of roger ebert 's " idiot plot ,
" if everyone here was n't an idiot , there would be no problem ) so what does foolish have to offer beside a bunch of idiotic character names ?
not a hell of a lot .
as i have mentioned , master p can not act or write
.
he acts like the rapper that he is .
the occasional despair that his script requires him to exhibit is excruciatingly forced , as are his warm and fuzzy scenes with his little bro .
as for his script -- well , i suppose he delivers what one would expect from a musical artist with no previous screenwriting experience .
if you have n't yet figured it out , that is not saying much .
co - star eddie griffin ( really the star of the show ) is quite a different story .
the fact of the matter is that griffin , whose most significant screen outing to date is probably the mildly successful tv show malcolm and eddie on the fledgling upn network , is an extremely talented comedian , stand - up and otherwise .
he has much in common with chris tucker ( rush hour , money talks ) in how quickly and effortlessly his speech flows from his lips .
he spouts profanity with impressive dexterity ( to the extent which that can be done ) , and
while i hope that does not become his trademark it works in a few scenes in this movie .
and indeed , i laughed at a few stand - up scenes here , but from a feature - length movie i expect more .
foolish provided me with no reason to care for these characters .
every scene which has any potential for dramatic impact is effectively diffused by either a stupid joke ( in a scene where tension escalates between the two brothers , foolish blurts out towards his jewelry - sporting sibling " you lay one hand on me and this cemetary is going to be a gold rush " ) or something even more idiotic such as foolish smashing his own car ( to which i said , a bit too loudly for the occasion
" huh ?
" ) after getting slightly upset with his wife . believe me when i say that there is nothing in foolish that warrants parting with your hard - earned $ 8 .
you 'll get more laughs from watching 30 minutes of comedy central or any virtually any sitcom if you do n't have cable .
eddie griffin fans may enjoy this derivative ( although offensive ) yarn , but everyone else should stay the hell away . & # 137 ;

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: renown surrealist director , the 77-year - old frenchman alain resnais ( hiroshima , mon amour / last year at marienbad / m ? lo ) , has created a lighthearted musical played as an homage to britisher dennis potter and his pennies from heaven ( 1978 tv serial , 1981 movie ) and the singing detective ( 1986 ) .
the film follows potter 's gimmicky style of having the characters jump into lip - synched old or contemporary french pop songs to express their private thoughts .
he also follows the kind of sweet and colorful musicals his fellow countryman jacques demy loved to direct , such as " the umbrellas of cherbourg " and " the young girls of rochefort .
"
the tale has resnais 's unique touches as a director to go along with his homage .
it is a satire about class differences and falling in love with the wrong person , and that there is a song in everyone 's heart for every occasion .
what hinders this production is that the stars are not portraying particularly engaging characters , the songs are not memorable and stand little chance of being recognized by an american audience ( the exceptions might be the edith piaf and maurice chevalier numbers ) , and the farce seems more banal than daring .
yet it is not without its striking moments and charms , such as when jane birkin does a cameo and sings one of her own songs .
also , the glossy amberlike photography added a very french romantic feeling to the story , while the mood of paris as being a place for love to flourish above all else , which has always been embellished in movie lore , comes through with flying colors .
it also does a good job of showing you the way paris is in the 1990s and in the way ordinary people exist there .
it tells the romantic story of six parisians who become intertwined with each other in their ordinary lives as they search for happiness .
they are
the attractive sisters odile ( sabine az ?
ma )
and camille ( agnes jaoui ) , with the older businesswoman odile married and decidedly set on a bourgeois life of material comforts .
she is married to the glum and laconic claude ( pierre arditi ) .
she once went out with a businessman , nicolas ( jean - pierre bacri ) , who left her 8-years ago and now shows up in paris and asks her help to find someone to rent a flat for his family .
simon ( andre dussolier ) works as a real - estate salesman and is trying to find nicolas a flat , in his spare time he writes radio plays .
simon 's boss is the much younger , unscrupulous and arrogant marc duveyrier ( lambert wilson ) , who inherited the firm from his father and is the real - estate agent selling a more luxurious and larger flat with a better view to odile , but fails to tell her that a building project is going up soon that will block her view .
screenwriters and actors jean - pierre bacri and agnes jaoui wrote themselves the best parts .
jaoui 's camille is a university scholar finishing up a ph .
d . in history , using for her thesis the study of ' the yeomen in the year 1000 at lake paladru . '
she works as a tour guide in the meantime and suffers from panic attacks , even though she appears to have outwardly perfect self - control .
on her tours for the last four years has been the much older simon , pretending to be doing research for his plays but really attracted to her , but not having the nerve to tell her this .
to his dismay , he finds out she is dating his mean - spirited but handsome boss , whom she meets when looking at her sister 's new place and seeing him crying but not realizing that it was from a cold , not because he 's so sensitive .
bacri as the classy nicolas , turns out to be now working as a chauffeur .
he is a hypochondriac with a history of depression who visits many doctors , until he finds one who tells him there is nothing wrong with him .
odile still pines for him , but he 's married , telling her he expects his wife to arrive shortly .
love is ' the same old song ' that makes the world go ' round , even when all the characters are liars and not exactly open to what their true motives are .
everything comes together in a bourgeois housewarming party for odile 's place , as the characters reveal their true feelings and all their deceptions and neurotic impulses are either uncovered or about to be .
there 's not a lot of bite to this satirical musical , but resnais has never made a bad film and is one of the best current french directors , if not the best .
this film is not one his great ones , but it still has enough pep in its light touches to be interesting .
it not only has an odd way for the characters to break into song
but -- some males even sing in a female voice while some females sing in a male voice .
it is also interesting in the way it examines its characters ' behavior as being similar in business as in love .

SOLUTION:
P