Matrices made interesting

Movie review of "The Matrix" trilogy.
Published on facebook.com, 21st October 2007.

The Matrix
One of the few good films I was lucky enough to know absolutely nothing about when I walked into the cinema, and got totally blown away.

Reeves slightly less bogus than usual, more guns and special effects than you can shake a big stick at, and an stunning woman in the form of Carrie Ann Moss, clad from head to foot in black PVC. Damn. All this wrapped into the sci-fi conspiracy theorists's wet dream. Marvellous.

Action, plot, decent character development and believable situations despite the implausibility of the plot...although is it really that implausible? After all, we are an arrogant species that rarely considers "should we" as much as "can we"?

The Matrix Reloaded
Bigger, louder, and kung-fuier than the original with the addition of a number of new characters who inhabit the matrix as rogue programs. The love story is slowly developed between Trinity and Neo, though the Matrix theory gets slightly muddier with the elusively ambiguous 'Architect' and the beginning of the sequence of events that demonstrate the connection between Neo and Agent Smith and the trilogy's ultimate crescendo one film later.

Hugo Weaving steals this one I think. "Me too."

The Matrix Revolutions
The last of the three. Hated it when I first saw it at the cinema right up to the point when I realised there was never going to be any way in which the sequel could replicate the "aha" moment of the first film.

That said, the Zion inhabitants do a good enough job of delivering a whopping body count in the final grand battle, and most captivating of all is the climax (so to speak) of Neo and Trinity's love story. Again, Weaving does a great job of erring to be almost human, a characteristic seen the first time during Morpheus' interrogation scene in the first film. And what a great scene that was by the way: "...this zoo, this prison...it's the smell!"

A satisfying end to the set of three although one wonders how they ever got the financing to make a film, "...about an unbalanced equation." The DVD has some excellent bonus features that have the effect of making one appreciate all the subtleties of casting, costume, sound, and the fact that the theory on which the movie is based is real, published, and even earned the writer a cameo role as one of the Zion counsel. I forget his name though.

FACT SHEET: Energy Conservation Statistics

• Ontario provincial government wants to create a “culture of energy conservation”.
• Conservation of energy is much easier and much cheaper than trying to increase the supply of energy - every $1 not spent on energy conservation costs $5 on new energy generation.
• Ontario residents use 15-35 per cent more energy per person than the average New York or California resident.
• The Ontario Government has set energy reduction targets of 20 per cent by 2007.
• In 2003, the residential sector accounted for 17 per cent of secondary energy use in Canada, and 16 per cent of related greenhouse gas emissions.
• Scandinavian countries enduring cold winters use less than half the energy per capita that Canadians do.
• Over 81 per cent of residential energy is used for space and water heating. Reducing the amount of energy for space and water heating can decrease energy-related greenhouse gas and air emissions, improve the health of Canadians, and save money.
• The largest growth in global Green House Gas emissions between 1970 and 2004 has come from the energy supply sector, an increase of 145 per cent.*
• About 85 per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions are associated with energy production, distribution and consumption.*
• April 2007: Ontario Government announced province wide ban on the sale of incandescent lightbulbs by 2012.
• Canadians typically spend 90 per cent of their time indoors. According to Health Canada, indoor air quality has become an important environmental issue.
• Poor indoor air quality can be detrimental to one’s health and can cause headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, sinus congestions, coughing, sneezing, skin irritation, dizziness, nausea, and eye, nose and throat irritation.
• Through a combination of the federal government and Ontario provincial government, EnWise can help its customers claim up to $10,000 in rebates for environmentally-friendly and even profitable, home improvements.

SOURCES: Ontario Power Authority, December 2005 Report; Ontario Ministry of Energy; www.energyshop.com; Office of Energy Efficiency: The State of Energy Efficiency in Canada Report 2006; Kingston Whig Standard-“Canadians Urged to Get Green”, Monday, February 5, 2007, p.B1; Red Deer Express, “Retrofit $$$ for Homeowners”, Wednesday, January 31, 2007, p. 31; Health Canada Website; statistics taken from a wide variety of sources including: Zerofootprint.net, David Suzuki Foundation, Ministry of the Environment, Natural Resources Canada, Office of Energy Efficiency, Powerwise and Flick Off

The Hitch Hiker's Guide...oh bollocks, forget it

Movie review of "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
Published on facebook.com, 9th October 2007.

What a shame. The 1970s/1980s BBC TV series, despite its appalling poor and now cringingly dated special effects, had better character actors, a funnier performance, and eminently more watchability. The best bit about the 2005 movie version is Stephen Fry's narration. Boo!

Super job

Movie review of "Superman Returns".
Published on facebook.com, 3rd October 2007.

Brandon Routh is superb in this remake of the 70s classic, right down Reeve's mannerisms. Spacey is as ever, extremely watchable and the role brings out a Nicholson/Shining-esque pantomime baddie performance that's steered gingerly over the line of eccentricity but just short of the likes of Alan Rickman's OTT rogue in Robin Hood.

Eastern and promising

Movie review of "Eastern Promises".
Published on facebook.com, 2nd October 2007.

Excellent composite of gangster themes from the likes of Goodfellas, The Godfather, and others but with a European backdrop. Plot cleverly links the roots of post-Soviet Bloc underworld mafia dealings with modern day London. Excellent individual performances from Mortensen and Watts in particular, and thoroughly believable screenplay that packs no punches. Left 'hanging' for a possible follow-up but excellent in its own right too, as the quasi-cliffhanger, unresolved ending makes you reflect on the film back from the beginning again as if to say, "Well, it wasn't meant to be about that so it must've been about something else....?" Strongly recommended, though note there are a couple of squeamish bits in it.