The Matrix Reloaded
Cert: 15
Directed By: Andy and Larry Wachowski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving
Talk about tough acts to follow: The original 1999 Matrix, a critical and commercial smash, came almost as a revelation
out of nowhere. The Matrix Reloaded, the first of two sequels, faces a level of expectation that probably can't be met. Creating
a satisfying sequel under any circumstances is rife with potential problems. Suffice it to say that writer-director brothers
Andy and Larry Wachowski dodge many of these bullets, if not with quite so much grace as Neo. The film is hugely entertaining
but, by necessity, not as fresh as its predecessor.
The Matrix Reloaded starts at some undefined time after the end of the first movie. The last transmission from a ship
called the Osiris warns Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) that the machines are digging through the earth's crust straight down
toward Zion, the last remaining human city. This snippet of information refers back to the animated short The Final Flight
of the Osiris, which will appear with eight other shorts on the upcoming Animatrix DVD. But these films are not prerequisite
to understanding the story.
Morpheus's Nebuchadnezzar and the other ships are ordered home to Zion to defend the city, setting off a series of internal
political battles of strategy that constitutes the slowest part of the film. The problem is that there can be no direct connection
to the Matrix from within Zion, and as in the first film, almost all the interesting stuff happens in the Matrix. Luckily
the Wachowskis have contrived a reason for Morpheus and the gang to leave town, so the fun can begin again. However, the
initial 45 minutes are a total yawn of esoteric gogitations and superficial psychotechno verbiage (twaddle to you and me).
However, once jacked in, Neo (Keanu Reeves) and crew receive instructions from the Oracle (the late Gloria Foster, who
provides a likable human relief from the crew's often machinelike humans) that resemble a virtual-reality anorakie computer
hackers' treasure hunt: Find this character/software module, so you can get instructions to the next character/software module,
who will have information that will help you find this other crucial locale, which will tell you how to protect Zion. Or something.
It's all very bring-me-the-broom-of-the-Wicked-Witch-of-the-West, with the fate of the world at stake.
Some of these developments increase our knowledge of what the Matrix is and how it works, but others feel like gratuitous
plot embellishments, without the sense of necessity and inevitability that marked everything in the original. Almost nothing
in the first film could be removed without damaging our eventual understanding; in Reloaded, there's lots of stuff that provides
excitement or is simply, in and of itself, really cool, but could be written out. The ephemeral, dreadlocked albino twins,
for instance: shades of Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice but blonded out...so what?
With the November release of part three, The Matrix Revolutions, however, these cavils may turn out to be incorrect. Maybe
there is a more crucial metaphysical payoff to the twins and other new characters, like the Merovingean (Lambert Wilson),
a snotty French avatar, and his frustrated wife (an ill- and under-used Monica Bellucci). But, so far, some of this stuff
is reminiscent of Back to the Future 3, a perfectly okay film that nonetheless felt like an unnecessary tag-on.
Fight director Yuen Wo Ping provides his usual dazzling choreography, but that too feels both a bit compromised and a
bit "been there, done that." If Neo fighting one Mr. Smith is great, that doesn't mean that Neo fighting 100 Mr.
Smiths is 100 times as great - particularly when so much is accomplished through CGI and camera tricks.
It's a great thing that CGI frees stunt men from doing some really dangerous stuff now. But, injudiciously applied, it
can rob an action sequence of all power. The best action scenes, even in sci-fi and horror flicks, are somehow rooted in reality.
Many Hong Kong movie fans disdain the use of wires and harnesses as unauthentic or even cheating. But even those tricks
are not as far from reality as supernaturally speeded-up CGI simulations. The further we get from reality, the less thrilling
the effect is. There simply is little genuine suspense in these scenes; the excitement is more the result of a physiological
reaction to fast cutting, camera movement and sound effects than it is of empathetic investment in the characters.
Aggravating this is the more general "rule" problem: Who has the power to do what? And why? Why does Neo fight
and fight the Smith army and almost lose several times when we know that, from the first punch, he could have simply done
his Superman act and flown away? Why can he beat them? "Because he's the One and can do anything" isn't a good enough
answer. If his powers are unbounded, then there's no suspense and no point to the entire thing. If they are bounded, we need
to know how. The film's best action moments involve a motorcycle dodging between speeding cars, because these at least look
real. The worst action moments involve Neo swooping down from the sky to pull someone out of harm's way. That Neo could be
considered a deus ex machina may be a conscious joke on the Wachowskis' part, but it grows old.
The answers to some of these questions may be implicit in the computer mechanics that the Matrix represents: A fight could
be two cyberentities - a software module and the neural impulses of a jacked-in human - "punching" to infect each
other's code and "parrying" by mutating into immunity from that punch. The end of the first film suggested that
Neo's power stems from his newfound ability to see the code, i.e., bits and bytes, behind the Matrix's "reality"
and to therefore respond to what's really there rather than to the image.
But can anybody keep all this stuff in his or her head in a useful way, while watching the film?
The last few scenes include a baffling event that points toward a possible upcoming explanation in part three. We won't
spoil it, but, if it's where we're heading - and it could be a total red herring - things could turn out to be either very
satisfying or very irritating. Be forewarned that The Matrix Reloaded is really only half of a two-part story. Unlike The
Matrix, it ends with a cliffhanger and represents less of an independent whole. (If you sit through the nine or so minutes
of closing credits, you'll see a preview of The Matrix Revolutions.)
One final thing...Keanu...loosen up man, it's supposed to be a film and you are allowed to 'act' occasionally!
Dark Water
Director Hideo Nakata
Writer Yoshihiro Nakamura, Ken-ichi Suzuki, based on the novel by Koji Suzuki
Stars Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa
Running time 101 minutes
When you see the corridors of the megalithic concrete apartment block, streaked with soot-tinged water and dappled with
mildew, you realise two things: first, that Yoshimi Matsubara and her daughter, Ikuko (a superb performance from this young
girl), aren't due for a happy stay, and secondly that Dark Water is going to live up to the hype. The plot is simple. A nervous
mother, undergoing divorce proceedings, moves into an apartment building that is haunted by a young girl, who disappeared
years earlier. It feels close to The Shining, with its terrifying atmosphere and spectral twins, but also not dissimilar to
Ring, with its story of a scorned daughter, psychological breakdown and watery graves.
Its not particularly subtle. At no time are you mystified, as to the fate of the little girl, who haunts the building,
or to the origin of the dripping water from the ceiling. However, it still manages to build to a terrifying, if obvious, conclusion.
This is the new feature from the writer/director combination that brought us Ring, and its almost as good. It manages to get
you onto the edge of your seat for almost the entire duration, tension heightened through the use of dark industrial music,
sliding strings and monotone locations, glistening with dark water.
However, this is just another horror movie, albeit an effective one. It doesnt have the depth, or intrigue of Ring, and
yet is satisfyingly unpleasant at times - you will only drink bottled water after this - with scenes that will have you screaming
at the naivety of the heroine, as she wanders down dark, dripping corridors without turning on the lights.
The Truth About Charlie
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newto, Tim Robbins, Ted Levine , Joong-Hoon Park, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Christine Boisson, Anna
Karina and Stephen Dillane.
Director: Jonathan Demme
Near the end of The Truth About Charlie, two characters dash madly after the film's McGuffin, first via subway, then on foot.
They finally engage in a rough-and-tumble struggle on a staircase, before they're individually yanked back to the landing
in humiliation. It's one of several moments in which the playfulness of the scene never quite masks the seriousness beneath,
which would suggest the handywork of director Jonathan Demme even if he weren't listed in the credits. Charlie shares that
tone with its source material, Stanley Donen's 1963 film Charade, a Hitchcockian thriller that plays light and loose until
it turns deadly.
Even given the daunting task of remaking a well-loved film that starred Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, the director would
have a hard time finding a vehicle better suited to the sensibility he brought to Married To The Mob and Something Wild. With
Charlie, Demme seems aware of that - maybe a bit too aware, since he's made a film so frothy and energetic that the fun starts
to exhaust itself after a while. Stepping into the Hepburn role with an abundance of grace, Thandie Newton plays a woman who
returns to Paris from a Caribbean holiday intending to become a divorcee, but fated to discover she's a widow instead. After
coming home to a ransacked apartment, Newton is whisked to a police interrogation, shown a handful of passports bearing her
late husband's picture and a string of unfamiliar names, asked a series of questions she can't answer, and let loose to the
wilds of Paris, where shadowy figures take an aggressive interest in the few possessions in her shoulder bag. Fortunately,
or so it would seem, she has two people looking after her: handsome stranger Mark Wahlberg and Tim Robbins, beautifully playing
a hilariously stiff man who claims to be an American agent.
This may sound confusing, but keeping the story straight is less of a concern than sorting through the possibilities it
presents. Charlie takes place not in the Paris captured by Donen, but in the one created by the French New Wave. Demme piles
on the references, giving cameos to Agnès Varda, Anna Karina, and, most memorably, cabaret singer Charles Aznavour. Even without
them, the line of influence would be clear. Though indisputably a thriller, Charlie abandons itself to little cinematic rhapsodies,
self-reflexive asides, and montages of Paris locations cued to a soundtrack of cool French pop (Gotan Project etc), all of
which often seems more vital than the main order of business.
Eventually, that business gets in the way, as the story asserts itself while winding down to a less-than-thrilling climax,
and Wahlberg repeatedly proves to be so far out of his range. (He should seem dapper and conniving, but instead acts like
he hasn't shaken his confused-astronaut character from Planet Of The Apes.) Long stretches of Charlie combine charm and suspense
to remarkable effect, but the attempts to sustain a tone of romantic abandon would succeed much better if an interrupted mood
and a broken one weren't pretty much the same thing.
The Last Great Wilderness
Rating: 18
95 mins.
David MacKenzie Director
Gillian Berrie Producer
Laurence Gornall Executive Producer
Steven McIntyre Executive Producer
Christopher Pigott Executive Producer
Cast:
Alastair Mackenzie
Jonny Phillips
David Hayman
Ewan Stewart
Victoria Smurfit
John Comerford
Sheila Donald
Ford Kiernan
This is the tale of two oddballs stuck in a sleepy Scottish town out in the middle of nowhere. The romantically jilted
Charlie (Alastair Mackenzie) is headed to a remote location in the Highlands to burn down the house of the celebrity that
stole his girlfriend away from him.
On the way, he is forced to give a ride to a pseudo-Spaniard named Vincente (Jonny Phillips) who is on the run after sleeping
with a violent thug's wife. En route, the car breaks down and the men are forced to stay at the Moor Lodge - home to a group
of similarly odd people that Charlie and Vince soon find themselves compelled to learn more about.
Sound intriguing? Don't get too excited.... It never fails to amaze me how some people get the required finance to make
a film based purely on a thin synopsis and two or three well-kent faces to bolster the PR of the production. The reality is
that "The Last Great Wilderness" is 90+ minutes of total guff, underdeveloped characters, a flimsy premise, echoes
of umpteen previous (better) movies - and poor performances from normally reliable thesps such as Hayman, Stewart and Kiernan,
who really should know better. Give this a wide berth, it's a sad attempt that fails on virtually every level - and as for
the soundtrack - The Pastels? Come on!
Hope Springs
Screenwriter-Director: Mark Herman
Producer: Barnaby Thompson
Executive producer: Uri Fruchtman
Director of photography: Ashley Rowe
Production designer: Don Taylor
Music: John Altman
Cast:
Colin Ware: Colin Firth
Mandy: Heather Graham
Vera: Minnie Driver
Joanie Fisher: Mary Steenburgen
Doug Reed: Oliver Platt
Fisher: Frank Collinson
Running time -- 92 minutes
All of the elements seem to be in place for this romantic comedy - an attractive and talented cast, witty script, nice
direction and glorious locations. But somehow it can't make the leap from an enjoyable light film to a movie to remember.
Director/Screenwriter Harman has adapted the 2001 book "New Cardiff" by Charles Webb, best remembered from his
1962 debut novel, "The Graduate." The script closely follows the story of a disillusioned Englishman who heads to
the picturesque New England town of Hope.
Colin Ware (played with real charm by Colin Firth) is an illustrator, recently dumped by his fiancee, Vera (Minnie Driver),
who sends him an invitation to her wedding to another man. He thus arrives heartbroken and jet-lagged in this charming small
American town, featuring a sign reading, "18,459 people live in Hope."
Joanie (Mary Steenburgen), the matchmaking landlady of the local motel, promptly introduces him to Mandy (Heather Graham),
a trained "caregiver" who works at the local old folks home. Before long, she has broken through his grief and introduced
sex into his life. Soon he is planning a series of pencil portraits of locals.
The fly in this romantic ointment comes in the form of Vera, who arrives in Hope to announce the wedding invitation was
just a joke to try to get Colin to commit to life with her and now attempting to lure him to return with her to England. This
all, of course, leads to a heady triangle of love, jealousy and confusion with Colin forced to make a few difficult life decisions.
The early scenes of Colin arriving in Hope feel heavy-handed - uncomfortable Greyhound bus, stumbling jet lag, etc. shows
Firth obviously ill at ease playing more physical comedy. Later in the story, the script's wit and his impressive line delivery
carries the film. Firth certainly has the charm and style to be a romantic lead, but too often here he has to be dry and sour.
It is quite a presumption upon the cinema audience to believe he can change so dramatically.
Graham's role as Mandy allows her to be little more than a warmhearted local girl with only hints of problems from her
past slipped into the script. As with many of her films, she is down to her underwear within half an hour. While this is a
very attractive proposition, her seduction of Colin feels telegraphed and clumsy.
As a contrast, Driver as vampish Vera gets to wear the designer gear and come out with an array of barbed lines. Whether
railing about her inability to smoke anywhere in town or verbally abusing aging golfers, Driver does a great job in showing
Vera as a smart, contriving woman. She also manages to get down to her underwear as she tries to seduce Colin, proving it
is not just Heather Graham territory.
Herman does a fine job but can't make the story leap from a lightweight, endearing film to a really fine romantic comedy.
His direction is efficient, and he makes good use of the locations in British Columbia (nicely doubling for New England).
The casting of Oliver Platt, as the town's mayor, and Steenburgen is inspired, with both bringing class and laughs to the
proceedings.
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