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: roman emperor marcus aurelius ( richard harris ) chooses his trusted general maximus ( russell crowe ) as his successor .
however the emperor 's evil son commodus ( joaquin phoenix ) murders his father before the announcement can be made , and maximus ( as well as his family ) is sentenced to be executed .
maximus is able to escape his executioners , but is later captured and sold as a slave to proximo ( oliver reed ) .
proximo is looking for gladiators to earn himself money ( he being a former gladiator himself ) , and maximus reluctantly uses his skills to prove himself a powerful gladiator .
when emperor commodus announces that new games will be held in the colisseum , proximo takes his gladiators there to do battle .
maximus sees this as his chance to exact revenge on commodus .
gladiator begins with a great battle sequence between the roman army and germania , and actually is able to maintain interest during the now required " 40 minutes of exposition after a kick ass opening sequence " style of moviemaking .
the only downfall of the opening sequence is the editing style used . . .
it 's choppy slow - motion which is unsettling and distracting .
it 's similar to the opening sequence in saving private ryan , but nowhere near as effective .
the actual gladiator battles are thrilling , but also a bit disjointed .
many times it 's unclear as to exactly what 's going on .
. .
all the audience can tell is that blood is being spilled .
we 're not sure who 's blood or by who 's hand though .
there 's an instance of this earlier in the film too
that 's disappointing .
it 's comes when maximus escapes his executioners .
some flashes and a few quick cuts later and maximus is free . . .
but i still do n't know exactly how he did it .
russell crowe should have become a major star after his gleefully over the top role as a computer generated serial killer in 1995 's virtuosity .
for whatever reason his stardom never arrived . . .
but he should have it now .
from here on moviegoers should now be able to say , " let 's go see the new russell crowe movie " .
he gets the best scene in the film ( and one of the best moments of all recent movies ) when he reveals his identity to commodus in the colisseum .
it 's both rousing and chilling
.
joaquin phoenix
does a very effective job of making commodus a person and not just a cartoon character ( which could have easily happened ) .
commodus is conniving , sneaky and whiny , but phoenix never lets the character get silly .
it 's a very good ( and very creepy ) performance .
oliver reed died during the filming of gladiator , and it 's a huge loss to the acting world .
i 've always been fascinated with reed .
. .
he 's one of those very talented performers who once had a fine career but ended up in direct to video junk during his twilight years .
it 's ironic that this film probably would have gotten him back into real movies again , as he gives a fun and sincere performance .
the film is dedicated to him , and he will surely be missed .
reed 's death presented the filmmakers with an obvious problem , as he still had scenes to be completed . rather than recast the role ( and end up reshooting a great deal of footage ) , a digital version of oliver reed was created at a reported cost of 2 million dollars .
ironically , that was probably more money than reed ever earned for a single film .
anyway , this digital effect is only used in one scene that i am aware of ( for about twenty seconds ) and if you are n't looking for it you wo n't even be able to tell .
some of the other digital effects are less convincing however .
. .
and like i always say , noticable digital effects take me out of a movie immediately .
it 's sad that such a good film has these distractions .
movies like the fall of the roman empire and spartacus seemed to do okay without the use of computer effects .
keep in mind that gladiator is based on real people and real events , but is entirely a work of fiction .
however it 's a work of fiction that 's great entertainment , and
another film to add to the list of damn fine flicks released in 2000 a .
d .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: let me start off by saying that leading up to the release of the latest bond film , i really was n't looking forward to it as much as i have with some of the previous films .
i 'm not sure if it was the fairly lackluster trailers or the ever - present dread that the next film will fall back into the miserable ways of the timothy dalton years .
i 'm happy to report that any doubts were erased after about the first 10 minutes of the film .
by that point , it was evident that mr .
bond was back with a vengeance .
all doubts would have probably been erased sooner except for the fact that the first ten minutes of the film were n't exactly a pleasant experience .
it seems that nobody told the geniuses working at the theater that the house lights are supposed to be turned off when the movie starts .
it took a reminder from an audience member to clue them in .
i guess they can be excused though , taking tickets and cleaning up popcorn between shows is extremely taxing on the brain .
anyway , after somebody remembered what the light switch was for , i settled in for bond .
i think the most noticeable aspect of this , the 19th film in the series , is that it really goes back to the almost tongue in cheek style of the roger moore films .
there were probably more one - liners in this movie than in the last several combined .
and bond 's last one - liner in the film is about the best of the series .
the world is not enough also contained perhaps the most action of any movie of the series .
everything from wild boat chases to the usual assortment of cool bond gadgets trotted out just when there seems to be no way out for 007 . for the most part , the action sequences worked very well .
although , there were a couple of times that i thought some things were a bit over the top , even for a bond film .
i think some of the blame can be laid at the feet of director michael apted .
while he did a good job for the most part , there were points in the movie , specifically during action sequences , that he seemed to loose site of the fact that he was making essentially an action film .
most noticeably sequences on a snow covered mountain and one involving bond getting through a closing door looked like apted thought he was filming some sort of high brow art movie .
he almost seemed like he did n't know what he was doing .
but they were brief scenes and really should n't take away from the otherwise solid job that apted did in directing
.
if you have ever seen a bond film , you wo n't be shocked to learn that plot has never been their strong suit .
the world is not enough is no exception .
this time we have yet another over villain that bond has to stop for the good of the world .
007 matches wits with the terrorist renard ( robert carlyle ) , a man who has a bullet lodged in his brain that makes him impervious to pain .
why this point is included is beyond me .
they took great pains to explain his condition , but it only came up later in the movie as a scene that can only be described as looking like an afterthought .
anyway , renard , like the typical terrorist that he is , is bent on some harebrained scheme involving a mid - east oil pipeline .
i guess world domination just is n't as attractive to terrorists as a money making venture anymore .
bond is brought in to protect the pipeline 's owner , elektra king ( sophie marceau ) , who is the daughter of one of renard 's recent victims .
along the way , bond has to enlist the help of a nuclear scientist , dr .
christmas jones ( denise richards ) , and his old rival valentin zukovsky ( robert carlyle ) .
like all bond films , you basically just have to suspend disbelief over the plot , since it is ridiculous beyond words .
my biggest complaint would be that it was about the most disjointed of any of the bond films .
there was at least one point that i had to stop and try to remember why bond was where he was and why he was doing what he was doing .
the buddy that i saw the movie with was completely confused over an earlier kidnapping of marceau 's character .
it was alluded to earlier in the movie briefly -- although not included in the film .
later , it became a big part of the story and left him with the distinct feeling that he had missed something .
but because it is a bond film , the beautiful women and nifty gadgets seem to make you forget about script problems quite quickly .
after all , it is n't shakespeare .
how about the cast ?
brosnan seems to get better with each of his appearances as 007 .
i grew up with the roger moore version of bond , so i really enjoyed the lighter style that brosnan brings to the character .
judi dench , as m , had a bigger role in this film than in her two previous appearances in the role .
she brought the talent with her that one would expect from an oscar winner .
robbie coltrane was easily one of the best parts in goldeneye , so it was nice to see his russian mobster character revived in this movie .
coltrane gets more screen time , which simply leads to him stealing even more scenes .
then there are the bond girls .
sophie marceau might be one of the most beautiful actresses working today .
there is just something about her breathtaking eyes that makes her a natural to play the innocent victim .
those that saw her in braveheart know she is more than just a pretty face .
marceau may be the most talented actress to ever play a bond love interest .
then we have denise richards .
there was no doubt in my mind that she was cast exclusively for her looks .
and after you see the outfits she wears , you wo n't have any trouble guessing what part of her anatomy caught the producer 's eyes .
i was pleasantly surprised to find that she really did a good job playing a nuclear scientist .
admittedly , there was one point that the audience snickered a bit at one of her technical lines of dialogue , but other than that
she stacks up ( no pun intended ) to her bond girl predecessors nicely .
i must say that the biggest disappointment was robert carlyle 's character .
while carlyle did a fine job with the material that he had , his character just never worked for me .
the producers tried very hard to add more complexity to his character , but it just never quite got off the ground .
i guess i was hoping for a bit more regarding the whole impervious to pain aspect of his character , but the writers decided to play up the emotional side of his character .
this might have worked well in another movie , but i do n't go to see bond movies for their deep characterizations .
last , but not least , we have desmond llewelyn as q .
this is the 17th appearance for llewelyn as bond 's gadget guy , and he is as good as ever .
although his screen time has grown far more limited in the past few films , he is still a treat to watch .
rumors abound that this may be his last appearance in the role .
he says future appearances are up to a higher power .
the producers have introduced his protege and future replacement , a bumbling and somewhat pompous character played by comedy master john cleese .
while we do n't see much of him in this film , i think it is fair to say that desmond llewelyn 's legacy , whenever it is passed on , will be in very capable hands .
so how does it stack up ?
despite some problems , the world is not enough is a very entertaining movie .
and , all things considered , what problems it does have are small compared to some that have plagued earlier bond movies .
this is easily the best of the brosnan films .
it may even be the best of the entire series , certainly in the top 3 .
one thing is for sure , even after 19 movies , there is still plenty of life left in the james bond series .
here 's looking forward to bond number 20 .

SOLUTION:
P