Rating: Summary: Excellent Review: Fabuluous, remake of the classic Japanese Kung-Fu Movie without the overdubbing.
Rating: Summary: Unimaginative drivel Review: Let's start with the plot; it's basically Dark City (a GOOD scifi film) without any of the good stuff about Dark City. The entire nonsense philosophy that everyone thinks makes the movie so deep is hundreds of years old and stupid to boot.The acting was subpar. Keanu Reeves couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. The other actors, while competent, were not particularly good or entertaining. The special effects were good, and that's the reason I gave it two stars. Some awesome computer work here. Overall, a piece of crap. Do yourself a favor and watch Dark City or The Truman Show instead.
Rating: Summary: One of the best action movies of all times Review: This movies has it all, ground breaking visual affects, great fight scenes, jarring sound, decent acting and a great story. This is my favorite action movie of all time to date.
Rating: Summary: The Best! Review: Some SciFi movies, whilst good, are somewhat predictable. Not this one! With a mix of "Cyber Punk" and " Asian Action" Matrix delivers a rare combination of where we're going and where we've been with pure fantansy. It takes some time to figure out exactly what's going on (a day or two I mean) but this makes for a thought prevoking period. The special effects are un-believable and the fight scenes unreal!! Enjoy!!
Rating: Summary: It's the cheesiest! Review: What is this? Wanna-be Hong Kong movie + wanna-be Western movie + Wanna-be SF? I felt kinda sorry for all the money that spent on that movie. Yes, the special effects and all that but nothing impressive. But if you liked it, then go to watch "The Cell". You'll probably like it, too.
Rating: Summary: An unintentionally amusing pop-video ? Review: As Blackadder would say; "The Matrix...hmmm...well it starts badly, sort of peters out in the middle and the less said about the end the better". This sums the movie up really, except, as everyone already knows, Keanu Reeves makes Schwarznegger look like Olivier. If the film makers were serious about impressing adults as well as kids with oh-so-trendy-computer generated...things...why didn't they make a proper film with a story and characters like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon instead of seemingly trying to special-effect their way out of everything. There's an unintenionally funny scene where the director, obviously running out of money, decides to give up making people fly king-fu fighting into hyperspace and instead puts everyone into some old kitchen talking drivel for a while. I think either we're supposed not to notice that or everyone was being "ironic" - that word film makers use when even they don't understand what they're making. If you like people wandering around in slow motion wearing shades then obviously you are "cool" so you'll love this. But beware - the film's effects are already dated, so when the "cool" runs out and you've grown up a bit expect clips of this modern-day-Ed-Wood effort to regularly appear on "Tarrant on TV" for our kids to laugh out loud at.
Rating: Summary: Worth it despite the flaws Review: I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of The Matrix at Skywalker Ranch for the entire Lucas/ILM team (who had just released SWE1). The entire place roared with approval for the film, and not just once did I overhear a techie claim that the Matrix was "much better" than the Jar-Jar movie they had just spent the last three years making. Ah, but here's the thing. All of you 20-something reviewers pausing your TOOL album long enough to pen your two cents while blowing off your dot-gone job - listen up. Of course you are going to love this movie. You are a demographic under transparent crosshairs and this movie was made to be spoon fed to you. They even made the hero a hacker! Ha! Hearing 2000 of you say that this was the "best movie ever" with "a complex plot" that "enlightened" you does not help any real film fan judge this flick. ... The Matrix was a very enjoyable action movie with frenetic pacing during the action sequences, mediocre acting from the cast, and enough gaps in the story continuity to annoy any careful movie watcher. However, it was fun, loud, and had more back-story behind it than most action movies in recent years. Apparently that is enough for many to claim it as the best movie of the year, but not me. A quick rundown of the positives: Carrie Ann Moss - truly the heart and soul of the movie, not to mention the best acting job of the lot. Her unforgettable first scene is probably the best one of the movie. Her heroine (until the clichéd end) is a model for strong female characters. Hugo Weaving - next to Alan Rickman's "Hans Gruber", the second best action movie villain ever. They're lucky he'll be in the sequel. One of the few times that both the villain and the hero are guaranteed to be in the follow up. It didn't hurt The Empire Strikes Back, did it? The Soundtrack - the industrial electronica and the fight sequences go hand in hand. Made to be turned up loud. Also, the sound effects team deserved every bit of the Oscar won for best Sound Effects. The Humor - we expect action movies to be filled with one-liners, but I liked the slight nods to classic martial arts films and spaghetti westerns - dig on the newspaper playing the role of tumbleweed during the final confrontation in the subway station. Subtle, yet funny. The Concept - As stated many times before, not original. But I have to applaud the Wachowski brothers for putting a very pretty window dressing on an age-old philosophical query - "Is our entire existence but a dream in someone else's mind?" Better yet is the question "Is humankind perhaps merely a disposable evolutionary step between nature and machine?" Plus, packaging these concepts up for the young, no-so-well-read, white male population in such a digestible way might even open up a mind or two that otherwise would be wasted on net... Even I can't be against that. A rundown of the negatives: The quickly brushed-over plot devices - i.e. Humans need more energy than they could ever produce if kept still. It would be easier and more efficient to raise just about any other animal. Please. Plus, I can't help but wonder just how much money it took from Motorola, Ericsson or Nokia to have these uber-cool ruffians carry cell phones, just as an proliferation in US cell-phone hipness was exploding in the movie's target demographic. Can't you just hear the talks at Warner Bros.: "But wait, we want these characters to have to run to certain phone locations." "Okay, okay, you can't travel via cell phone out of the Matrix, but you can talk to each other." "How will we explain that one?" "Who cares, they'll all be too stoned to realize." The incongruent visual effects - Never before has the trail of multiple effects shops been so easily followed. The scenes from outside the ship look like they were spliced in from a PC Game intro. They contrast with the scenes of the embryo farms, which in turn contrast with the martial arts scenes, all of which look nothing like the helicopter explosion. Each may as well have had a "©1999 Amalgamated Pixels Inc." or "©1999 MVFX" logo in the corner. At times I felt like I was watching a VFX demo reel. The Violence - I must admit I softened on this complaint after multiple viewings. But the first time I saw this movie, I was a little appalled by the need for so much base-level, gun-toting sophomoric violence in a sci-fi/kung-fu film. Not to mention the helplessness of many of the victims. In the wake of multiple school shooting tragedies, the writers probably realized this, hence the line Morpheus spouts saying that anyone "still plugged in" can be an enemy. Ah, but justified slaughter has never been as poetically rendered. Lastly, the hype. As I've already railed on above, the people who claim this as the "best movie of all time" tend to all be of a type. They're not telling us anything about the movie, they're telling us about themselves. They are not well versed in Philosophy, have not seen many classic sci-fi movies, and generally are not that bright. (don't even get me started on their grammar usage - it speaks for itself.) As for the movie itself, it is a very fun, very exciting ride, with some thought-provoking concepts that make up for its various faults. The DVD transfer, as should be expected, is impeccable, and the sound will leave your living room shaking. Buy it and enjoy it, but try and contain the hyperbole.
Rating: Summary: Mind blowing sci-fi action Review: When i saw this in theaters i was blown away. this is one of the most inovative movies of any genre to come out in years. The Wachoskis are a talent to keep an eye on, they do a great job directing this masterpiece. The story contains many allusions to Jesus and Buddha and all that which is cool. In addition i liked the whole "what is reality" type theme. If u know anything about Eastern religion u know where they got that whole idea. As for Keanu, this is the role he was born to play for chris sake!! He does not have to talk and he looks good while kicking and shooting all the bad guys. The action is obviosly Hong Kong borrowed. IN intereviews the Wachoskies say they look Jet LI and John WOo movies, and when u watch the lobby shootout and the martial arts it shows. By the way, the action scenes, especially a jaw-dropping lobby shootout, are visually stunning!! This movie is brilliant and can be watched thousands of times. THE VE IS AMAZING!!
Rating: Summary: Is this just fantasy? Review: This movie remembers me that song named "Bohemian rhapsody". It seems that the guys who wrote this GREAT movie heard that song a lot. Impressive visual FX. A story that if you fall asleep or doesn't pay atention to it you get lost in the knots of it. But, alas, nobody is perfect. The girl that plays the role of "trinity" is somewhat bad. She needs to loosen up her talent. Wanna see an awesome collection of good FX and a great story? Buy this.
Rating: Summary: All style no substance/immoral hero Review: I must dissent. The Matrix strings together enough sci-fi cliches to stretch from coast to coast. It's all been written or seen in films before. All The Matrix adds are top-notch effects. Furthermore, our two heroes in one scene strut into a building, and to get to the bad guys, they slaughter (in graphic detail) a dozen or so innocent security guards who have no clue as to what's going on. And to make it worse the woman at one point grabs away a guy's gun, so the guy is now defenseless, and then she shoots him in the back with a machine gun. This is a hero? These are the people we're supposed to root for? I think NOT.
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