Posted in Books, Movies, Televison, Uncategorized

THE MATRIX

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Why did The Matrix become such a huge hit?

Dystopian future films have become hugely popular in the last couple of decades. I figure it’s because we’re already there, and this is a way to explore what’s happening without truly acknowledging it’s happening.

Do many already feel like we’re in The Matrix?
A simulated reality where we’re kept complacent and subjugated.

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Perhaps our body heat is already being harvested, think about it, corporations plotting to make us fatter because obese people produce more body heat.

Maybe they’ve brainwashed people into having phones or tablets with them at all times so they’ll produce more electrical activity.

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Is it easier to just live on our computers, cell phones, tablets, and so on, looking at pictures of kittens, tragedies, recipes, hoaxes, optimistic quotes that looking around at what we’ve done?

So where is our Neo come to free us from this dream world we’re plodding through on our cellphones, laptops, Google glasses, tablets, etc.? And do we even want to be saved from the distraction?

The Wachowski Brothers, now called The Wachowskis (Larry Wachowski is now Lana) wrote this cyberpunk standard with the works of Philip K. Dick whispering in their ears. The paranoia, power, mental discomfort, a ruined world. The Matrix is the ultimate exile from ourselves.

Or maybe it’s so loved just because the awesome effects, the wire fu techniques, the anime-like feel, action scenes, great cast, and cool outfits.

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The Matrix contains incessant references to: mythology, religion, philosophy, literature, and pop culture.

Johnny Depp was first choice, also Will Smith and Nicolas Cage both turned down the part of Neo. Smith turned it down to do Wild Wild West. No comment. But come on, we’re expected to believe Nicolas Cage turned down a part?

Epic shot where Keanu Reeves (Thomas Anderson/Neo/The One) hits the ground, bounces back up again is meant to look like Wile E. Coyote? Evil super genius ordering from an omnipresent evil corporation ACME who sends weapons to an address in the desert, great, but where’s the tiny umbrella?

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The numbers 1 and 3 are everywhere in this movie. Neo means new; it’s also an anagram for One. Trinity, 3. Neo is called Thomas in the beginning when he is doubting.

A matrix in mathematics, is a rectangular arrangement of numbers, symbols, or expressions, ordered in columns and rows. Distinct items in a matrix are called its elements or entries.1matrix10

The Matrix is green, not ecofriendly, but shot with a green filter for the parts inside The Matrix.

The scene with Neo and pins. Those pins were actually in his head. For realism. It worked.

The government lobby shootout took 10 days of filming and didn’t use CGI. The Wachowskis staged everything you see on the set, even the explosions and water pouring in.

Sci-fi flicks always produce conspiracy theories. How about this one, note the date on the passport.

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The actors were put through their paces on this movie, they had to be able to do stunts, wire fu, fight, process weighty philosophical discourses, etc.

The end, the last line in Neo’s monologue gave the studio and audiences options, “Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.”.  I would’ve been satisfied with The Matrix, it  was enough.  In the 15 years since it’s release few have matched it.

Definitely a cautionary tale that allowing oneself to the plugged in all the times can rob us of reality, truth, and any meaning to life.

 

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Posted in Movies, Uncategorized

INCEPTION

As interesting and bizarre as Inception was at times I had a feeling I wanted something more. But I wasn’t sure what more was exactly.

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Certainly not the cast, they were amazing.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine, all in one movie, wow.

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Despite some flaws, issues with paradox, etc. this was a highly entertaining sci-fi, pseudo film noir journey into conceivably the future of corporate espionage.

Beyond writing, directing, and co-producing Inception, Christopher Nolan also recycled a lot of the cast in and from his Dark Knight Trilogy, which I have no objection to…really…really.

It was rumoured that the performers’ contracts featured a sequel clause, whether or not this is true, I hope it never happens. I don’t want tincept2o know what really happened. I have my theory. Millions of people have their theories. Let the Cobb conundrum rest.

Posted in Books, Movies, Televison, Uncategorized

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

HHgttg don't panic2The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams  (Del Ray)   

I can still read this and laugh so hard it hurts. Contains one of the best scenes ever written, in the tea house with the biscuits, I’m giggling just thinking about it; if you haven’t read it, read it just for that. What am I saying, if you haven’t read it?

One of the most entertaining books ever written and apparently inspired by a drunken evening in Austria with a Hitchhikers Guide to Europe in his pocket, sounds about right. 

Adams also wrote and acted briefly in Monty Python and wrote a few Doctor Who scripts. HHgttg don't panic6

Worked on video games.

I have no words.

A delight to the gray matter and darn you Douglas Adams, you’re one of the reasons my laugh lines are so deep! No, I forgive you and miss you. HHgttg don't panic4montyp3In this case as entertaining as the on screen offerings of this have been, the book is so much better. All 4 (or 5 depending on your belief system and the hour of day) books in the trilogy are fantastically mythically rereadworthy.

Although Adams left too early at 49, his written works, his activist causes and his understanding of absurdity of it all remains to entertain and amaze us.

And don’t forget a towel is one of the most useful things you can carry with you on your journeys so celebrate towel day May 25th.

Douglas Adams‘ present location: Highgate Cemetery, Highgate, United Kingdom