The Matrix Revolting-lutions

[Last Real Burner]

The Thing (John Carpenters version)
Armmagadon
Bridges of Madison County


watchingly,
mr smith

[Badger]

'The Blob' (original)
'The Thing' (Carpenter's version) Scary as FUCK. I squealed like a school girl
'The Bridges of Madison County - Reloaded'

[Last Real Burner]

'The Bridges of Madison County - Reloaded'

LMAOROTF

perloinedly,
mr smith

[Flux]

adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension.

Love that movie! One of my favorites ever.

Morpheus: "Reality? What...Is...Reality?" I love Laurence Fishburne, but seriously, he's turning into the black William Shatner.

Ha ha! Very astute observation. I hadn't thought about it, but you're absolutely spot on.

My fave rah-rah action move was 'Aliens' even though for the most part I was rooting for a team that was losing badly.

Very badly.

I think they released a director's cut of 'Aliens' for Halloween. Has anyone seen it? Might be a nice trip down memory lane.

Speaking of kick-their-ass movies, anyone seen Kill Bill?

Yeah, I have. I liked it quite a bit, but the final fight scene went on a bit too long for my tastes. Have you seen it, abitm? Anyone else?

[Badger]

The Director's Cut is for 'Alien' BTW.

[jbelson]

Okay. The first Matrix had the tightest plot and script of any movie of the 90's.; No dialogue was wasted.
The 2nd installment was a little slow in the beginning (zion), but brought up very interesting ideas. Unfortunatelly in the 3rd, all of those ideas were dropped. Nothing from the 2nd really carried over to the 3rd (except Smith)> Morpheaus was totally wasted and had no closure. Why did this unimportant, waste of screen time kid tell Zion that they were saved? That was Morpheaus' job. He's the one that believed. Neo fighting Smith. Cool, they were flying, but we've seen them fight like 5 times now. There needed to be another element for the grand finale.
And why oh why was the final shot of the movie on the computer programs (oracle) walking off into to the sunrise with the "new ray of hope"? Who gives a fuck about the computer programs? They enslaved the human race. Now humans are supposed to live in peace with machines, the whole time machines are harvesting us for power. The war isn't over!!! The only thing that has changed is that I'm out $9!!!

[Patience]

Tightest plot and script of any movie in the 90's??? Oh, HELL NO. It had fucking amazing effects and unprecedented fight scenes. The script was decent, but also heavy-handed and overly expository.

Some truly great scripts from the 90's:

The Usual Suspects
The Crucible
Silence of the Lambs
L.A. Confidential
American Beauty (probably my favorite)
Rez Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Pi
GoodFellas
Fight Club

Any of these scripts beats the pants off The Matrix.

[TestesInSac]

Patience, the only titles in your list missing from my collection is American Beauty, Crucible and Silence of the Lambs. And that's just 'cause I buy all my DVDs used and haven't seen them yet.

[Patience]

Sounds like we should have movie night at Tom's.

More 90's scripts that beat the bejeezus out of the Matrix:

Being John Malkovich (or was that 2000?)
American History X
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Shawshank Redemption
Clerks
Chasing Amy
Dead Man
Seven
Trainspotting
Shakespeare In Love
Unforgiven
As Good As It Gets
Election

Okay, I'll stop now.

[Don Muerto]

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

Would you believe this film is out of print? Love that movie, but then I love Shakespeare. Hate R. Dreyfuss though. Can you say 'yap-dog who needs a kick'?

[jbelson]

Tightest plot and script of any movie in the 90's??? Oh, HELL NO. It had fucking amazing effects and unprecedented fight scenes. The script was decent, but also heavy-handed and overly expository.

Some truly great scripts from the 90's:

The Usual Suspects
The Crucible
Silence of the Lambs
L.A. Confidential
American Beauty (probably my favorite)
Rez Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Pi
GoodFellas
Fight Club

Any of these scripts beats the pants off The Matrix.

Okay, maybe Usual Suspects and Fight club were tighter. The others are grat movies, no doubt.
But I'm not gonna get into a 'which movie was tighter war' either, it's pointless and subjective.
But the matrix was more than effects. Maybe thats what you saw it as, but there was a lot subtext. Many layers and many different schools of thought were incorporated.

[Flux]

I haven't seen 3 yet, and 2 was disappointing in this department, but the original Matrix soundtrack rocked! The DVD had an option where you could turn off the sound and just play the soundtrack with the movie. Perfect eye/ear candy for parties, etc.

[Patience]

Not trying to get into any kind of war. Just expressing my opinion. And you're right, this is all subjective.

I don't think that The Matrix was just action. I said the script was decent. But the action and effects were what made it groundbreaking. The philosophy expressed in the script, while interesting, was nothing that hasn't been said before, and more eloquently at that. My big problem with it, however, is the lack of subtlety in delivering that philosophy--at times, anyway. Too often the characters just explained the philosophy, rather than letting it flow naturally out of the story.

[jbelson]

I don't think that The Matrix was just action. I said the script was decent. But the action and effects were what made it groundbreaking.
. Too often the characters just explained the philosophy, rather than letting it flow naturally out of the story.

it's a Joel Silver movie. All he knows is how to hit people over the head, especially his assistants.

Watch Swiming with Sharks. It was written by a former assistant.

[Badger]

but the original Matrix soundtrack rocked!

'Reloaded' had its musical moments. Juno Reactor's track during the 'rave' scene in Zion was pretty good. You just need to close your eyes and listen to the music rather than watch the silly dance number.

[Chai Guy]

Juno Reactor's track during the 'rave' scene in Zion was pretty good. You just need to close your eyes and listen to the music rather than watch the silly dance number.

When this scene appeared in the movie, I thought "WTF? A rave?" I stopped watching after this and have had no desire to see the third (even before the horrible reviews came out).

This is what I dont' understand, a movie comes out, it's a huge success because it deviates from the standard crap that is out there, they make a follow up and include all the lame conventions of every other piece of crap movie. Just copy what you did right the first time!

[Isotopia]

Juno Reactor's track during the 'rave' scene in Zion was pretty good. You just need to close your eyes and listen to the music rather than watch the silly dance number.

I mean fuck. Even Pepe could have pulled off a better choreographed scene.

3rd installment might have even been better if Zion was being attacked by out of control wind sailers....

[tzimisce1313]

well, i think the third one wasn't that bad...

you have gotta love the bondage club.
but it was a bit over the top. and i enjoyed being in the rave scene... however, i think you had to be there to appreciate exactly what was going on.

[jamison]

well, i think the third one wasn't that bad...

you have gotta love the bondage club.
but it was a bit over the top. and i enjoyed being in the rave scene... however, i think you had to be there to appreciate exactly what was going on.

I didn't like the rave scene, at least not until I went to Burning Man and experiences the burning of the Man. Suddenly, I could understand exactly.

As for the third one, I was disappointed, but for different reasons then many people were is seems like. I'm finding hard to explain this, but I wasn't interested in Neo after the train station, mostly because it had become a forgone conclusion what would happen:

Neo was going to get of the wheel of Samsara and reach Nirvana. Why is this film the story of the sixth "the one"? Because this was the one that was going to break the cycle of reincarnation.

This applies solely to Neo though, each and every person must reach Nirvana on their own. The truce will not hold, the war will begin anew, and the cycle of the one will probably happen again, but not the same. There are machines that have been touched by the humans: the Oracle, Serif (gotta love him), the indian girl (don't remember her name)

I didn't think Morpheus to be fully realized in this film: He'd just learned that his entire religion was a control mechanism by the machines. I wanted to see the struggle he had to go through to reconcile that, but it was missing from the film.

I also loved the bondage club scene, so many cute guys. I think I need to check out that scene a bit, hehe.

[quiet girl]

Just for the record, my roommate took me to Revolutions as a favor after I helped her out with a building project a few weeks ago. I didn't pay for my own ticket, and man, am I happy about that!

The Matrix series went from a somewhat hip sci-fi thriller to being nothing but an extended video game that viewers don't even get the satisfaction of being able to play themselves. I heard some critic (I forget who now) characterize the film as being like watching someone else play a video game and not being able to join in.

To be fair, I gotta say I enjoyed the special effects, the multiracial casting and the hot action chicks. Aside from that, there simply wasn't enough meat and or set-up of the characters from installment to installment. I didn't really care what happened, as long as the ride kept going, and wasn't really invested in the characters, some of whom seemed to have been cribbed from old (and better) Star Trek episodes.