misfitS pOLITICS

We talk. We write. We entertain. Or so we think.
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings

Can You Fly That Thing?

3/28/2019

0 Comments

 
Rex
The last time I posted to these pages of which I am so fond, I said that I had never and would likely never again write a movie review. As it happens, I was (sort of) incorrect on that second point.

The Matrix premiered in cinemas in 1999 (which we had been partying as if it were for almost two decades already - RIP Prince). I cannot remember exactly, but it may have been the first movie I ever owned on DVD. I would have streamed it, but that wasn’t a thing 20 years ago.

I am not a particularly big fan of the science fiction genre in any medium. I don’t hate it, but it’s lower on my list than some might have it. When Star Wars came out in 1977, I saw it a couple times. It was a thing when I was 14. Anyway, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house right across a big drainage ditch from the mall cineplex. This was how we did it back in the olden days. There’s an arcade where you hang out and spend all the quarters you can… acquire, an Orange Julius where you grab a lovely beverage, and then a few screens just down the hall. They sold popcorn and snowcaps and all the usual shit everyone still chokes down as if they think movie time suspends dietary reality as well as disbelief.

Another movie came out in the summer of 1977 that got a lot more of my attention and dollars. It premiered around the same time as Star Wars (I don’t know what the new name is - it’s the first one). I saw Smokey and the Bandit at least six times in that little olden days mall cineplex. And Sally Field really did have a very nice ass back in 1977. Cledus wasn’t wrong. The Millennium Falcon was cool, but I could see a Trans Am 6.6 every day. I liked cars. Boys used to dream about dinosaur-powered private conveyances back in the olden days too. (Disclosure: I still very much do. Check my wish list and send me a Bugatti for Christmas)

In the interest of making the point I meant to make when this piece was fermenting or metastasizing or aging in the barrels of my mind, let me now transition smoothly and without any noticeable rhetorical stitching to my point: The Matrix.

I was born in 1963. My first memory of an event being broadcast live on television as it happened was Apollo 11 landing on the surface of the moon on 20 July 1969. Maybe there are people who can top that, but I reckon they are few. I was six when that happened, so perhaps watching men in real life visit rocks in space put an early damper on my future enthusiasm for space-based science fiction. It isn’t worth paying a shrink to figure it out. I have nothing against the north African desertscape that was Tatooine, but I saw real dudes on the real moon when I was a little kid. You really gotta bring it to impress me on the science fiction front.

The Matrix really brought it.

I was skeptical about the movie. I knew who Keanu Reeves was. He was Bill S. Preston, Esq. (This just in: He still is.) He was Johnny Utah. Hell, he was married to Charlize Theron when she gashed her throat open with a piece of window glass in “The Devil’s Advocate.” OK, I admit it wasn’t Reeves: It was me. I thought he was an airhead because the first time I remember seeing him was in Bill and Ted, and I loved that ridiculous thing. But I came to think as time went by that Reeves is actually a really good actor. He seems to know his range, and his range is more impressive than I had thought early on. I’m not suggesting he is a great Shakespearean thespian, but he is most assuredly better at the craft than I initially believed. Kind of a wooden thing going on, but he knows his lane. And that works.

Also, I did not know who Carrie-Anne Moss was until I saw the film, so there were really no downsides to it in my opinion. Man, she was so hot in that catwoman suit.

This isn’t really a movie review. If you are reading this, odds are you are clever enough to have figured that out. What it is is a tribute to a film that amazed the world 20 years ago. The Matrix is iconic, and that takes some doing. I don’t need to use quote marks to let you know I’m talking about a specific work when I write ‘The Matrix’. And it holds up. SciFi tends to resonate with later generations better than other genres because it exists outside the plane of reality. Even so, the film also was innovative in ways that were new to me. When Trinity was in the phone booth and that whole garbage truck thing happened, that was a really new thing to me.

I could come up with things to criticize about The Matrix…
Picture
No.

Maybe it isn’t the best sci-fi action movie ever made. But then, maybe it is. Who’s to say? It was innovative in its production. It introduced some concepts no one had seen before. Also, did I mention the Carrie-Anne Moss in the catsuit thing? And the classic ‘weak guy betrays his brothers’ storyline gets updated. Fragging takes on a whole new meaning with ‘if you have any words for him before I unplug his head...’ That’s just nasty fragging. Bitter. Cypher was an amazingly well-played character. And he was doing that so he WOULD get a tube in the back of his head so he could falsely believe he was happy until his transmogrification into compost. That is a thing I would write if I were trying to convince people socialism always leads to tyranny.

I could write more words and meander down other plot paths, but what would be the point? What if I told you The Matrix turns 20 on Sunday? And that it’s leaving Prime the next day? Take the time to watch it again. It’s as good as you remember. Maybe even better.
​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Misfits

    Just a gaggle of people from all over who have similar interests and loud opinions mixed with a dose of humor. We met on Twitter.
    ​Enough said.

    (If that's not enough, you can learn more here)

    Tweets by misfitspolitics

    Archives

    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    January 2021
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All
    2016
    9/11
    Abortion
    AFB
    Afghanistan
    Air Force
    #alfieevans
    Alfie Evans
    ALS
    Armed Forces
    Army
    Baby
    Ben Carson
    Bernie
    Blog
    Bosnia
    CAOC
    #CelebrateWomen
    Christie
    City Council
    Comey
    Cooking
    Crete
    Cruz
    Deep Fry
    Desert Storm
    Donald Trump
    Drug Companies
    Election
    England
    Europe
    Exclusivity
    F-16
    Fanfic
    Fayetteville
    FBI
    FDA
    Fiction
    Fire
    Florida
    Free Market
    Fun
    Germany
    Gilmore
    Government
    Health Care
    Hillary Clinton
    Hobby
    Iraq
    Italy
    John Kasich
    Kevin Williamson
    Korea
    Kuwait
    LANTIRN
    Life
    Local Politics
    Marco Rubio
    Medical Care
    Memoir
    Military
    MIsfitMemo
    #MisfitMemo
    Misfits
    Misfits Politics
    Moms
    Mother's Day
    Narrative
    National Review
    NATO
    Navy
    #NeverTrump
    Patent
    Pharmaceutical
    Philippines
    Phillippines
    Politics
    Raymond
    Reform
    Rex
    Rubio
    Scarcity
    September 11th
    Service
    Ted Cruz
    Thread
    Tweetstorm
    Twitter
    UK
    Water
    Weekly Rewind
    World Cup
    World Trade Center

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact​

Copyright © 2016
  MisfitsPolitics
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings