Movies
It's been more than two decades since I last watched the Wachowski's first. It's a movie I liked when I hadn't seen too many films yet. I appreciated the single-location stuff and some of the edgier crime scenes, but twenty years later it doesn't feel all that special anymore. It's still a fun film, but nothing more. The performances are decent (though a tad overdone), the build-up of tension is proper and there are some good scenes scattered throughout. But the Mafia dudes scream too much Scorsese to me and with a runtime of nearly two hours the film is too long. It was a nice enough rewatch, just far from what I'd call a personal favorite these days.Read all
Almost 20 years after the first trilogy, a new Matrix film arrives. It's mostly a commissioned film, a sequel made because that's what you do with popular IP. I never cared much for the franchise, so it didn't really pain me to see it mistreated like this, but I do feel for the many people who do loved the originals, as Resurrections is a truly poor effort. Everything here screams redundant sequel. Too many lazy references, not enough novel ideas, actors who appear old and tired, bland action sequences. The entire film feels contractual and corporate, very different from the first one. Maybe that was Wachowski's way of getting back at her bosses, but she didn't have to punish us for that.Read all
