The Matrix ***** (1999, Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano, Gloria Foster) – Classic Movie Review 22

After a five-year gap in hits since his blockbuster Speed in 1994, Keanu Reeves makes his mega-movie comeback as a thrilling action hero in this awesome, stunningly exciting, amazingly imaginative and intelligent, hi-tech, high-energy sci-fi action thriller The Matrix (1999).

Reeves stars as wizard computer hacker Thomas A Anderson, an everyman who sets out to discover the truth behind a legend known as The Matrix. He has heard that the legendary Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) may be able to provide him with the answers he seeks. But Morpheus’s actual words aren’t much help: ‘Unfortunately, no one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.’ Oh, gosh, darn!

Reeves also knows that Morpheus is a bit of a slippery customer, actually perhaps the most dangerous man on Earth, so he’d better be careful. And also, in The Matrix, everyone knows Reeves as Neo, which gives him a bit of an identity problem and this means he has to find out who he is as well. Turns out, he’s The One.

With a handpicked cast carefully assembled, Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity (‘a woman in black leather’, says the script) and Joe Pantoliano’s Cypher also make essential contributions to the show and Hugo Weaving makes a lovely all-time favourite villain, as the evil rogue Agent Smith.

Astounding and exciting to look at, with incredible state-of-the-art effects, pioneering time-freezing photographic techniques, eye-catching sets (many borrowed from the 1997 Dark City), thrilling fights, extraordinary stunts and brilliant martial arts scenes, this is easily one of the best sci-fi films of the Nineties and Reeves’s best movie since 1994’s Speed, erasing memories of Johnny Mnemonic or Chain Reaction.

Dazzlingly written and directed by the Wachowski siblings Andy (now Lilly) and Larry (now Lana), billed as The Wachowski Brothers, it leaves audiences begging for more. The Wachowskis duly delivered, with their two sequels so far: The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both 2003. They picked Reeves because they tried to imagine his idiot Ted character in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) grown up as a Nineties computer nerd.

The Matrix is a technical marvel as well as a gem of intellectual story-telling, and it won four much deserved technical Oscars: Best Film Editing (Zach Staenberg), Best Sound Effects Editing (Dane A Davis), Best Visual Effects (John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, Jon Thum) and Best Sound. But the Wachowskis’ dense, possibly baffling screenplay, Bill Pope’s delirious cinematography, the Don Davis pounding soundtrack and Owen Paterson’s marvellous production design also deserved far more awards and attention than they received.

There were two Bafta wins – for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects and Best Sound.

Also in the cast are Gloria Foster as The Oracle, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, Matt Doran, Belinda McClory and Anthony Ray Parker.

The Matrix Reloaded is directed by Andy [Lilly] Wachowski and Larry [Lana] Wachowski (as The Wachowski Brothers), runs 136 minutes, is a Groucho II, Silver and Village Roadshow production, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, is shot by Bill Pope, is produced by Joel Silver, is scored by Don Davis and is designed by Owen Paterson.

http://derekwinnert.com/constantine-classic-film-review-255/

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 22

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/