The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Remember when you couldn't be told what The Matrix was? You just had to see for yourself? It was a game-changer, as they say, even if it wasn't actually all that original. The Wachowskis took some great ideas, some manga-inspired portrayals of action, bullet-time, and a great cast, and made a sci-fi action classic of the 20th century. That kind of thing can't really be repeated, as shown by the sequels. Maybe to try and recapture any of that cinematic magic is a fool's errand. If that is the case, director Lana Wachowski may well be the smartest fool around.

The Matrix Resurrections takes place after all of the events that we saw play out years before. Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Keanu Reeves) has been reincorporated into the matrix, allowed to incorporate elements of his past adventures into a massively popular videogame trilogy. Identities have changed in this universe, but the parts are essentially the same. Neo is Neo, he just isn't aware of it. Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is Trinity, but she's been restrained in the role of a housewife/mother named Tiffany. There's a Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), there's an Agent Smith (Jonathan Groff), and there's a plucky resistance fighter (Bug, played by Jessica Henwick) looking to set things in motion to bring down the whole facade.

I loved this film. Absolutely loved it. And I can see why so many people hated it. Very few people enjoyed the previous sequels as much as I did, and this is very much a logical development from those. It takes the next step in the evolution of the matrix, as a concept, reframes the narrative in a way that is an obvious and brilliant direction for Lana Wachowski to choose, and delivers comments on the current state of society with all the subtlety of a slap in the face with a wet kipper. There are statements about people believing in emotions over facts, statements about the comfort of nostalgia, and a few lines dotted throughout that lovingly deride the optimism we loved in the original movies. Choice is an illusion, those we think have the power might just be in need of saving, and even that awe-inspiring bullet-time is derided for being oh so yesterday.

There's an argument to be made for this being just as impressive and vital as the first film, but I doubt I am the person to make that case. I'll just say that it comes damn close, with no small thanks to the constant feeling of someone biting the hand that is feeding them. Wachowski, who also co-wrote the movie with David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon (both having previously worked together on the series finale of Sense8), knows how redundant it could be to just rehash everything we've seen before in these movies. She also knows that it's a property that will be bled dry by those in control anyway, and that means Warner Bros. in this case (there's a very pointed line in here about that). Knowing those two things, Wachowski decides to smash up the toyroom, disassembling everything and reassembling it to be the same, but crucially different.

Reeves and Moss are still as necessary here as any of the film-making technique on display. They are the yin and yang, two halves of a beating heart that keeps flummoxing computer programs. Both do great work here, looking very tired and yet still very capable of handling themselves. Henwick is a lively new presence, her character being the one to quickly explain some of the new rules to characters she wants to help break out of their somnambulism. Abdul-Mateen II cannot hope to make himself as immediately iconic as Fishburne was, but he is helped by the script, trying out lines of dialogue from the first movie for size and getting himself comfortable in his new body. Groff is decent, albeit no replacement for Hugo Weaving, and Neil Patrick Harris gets to portray the most interesting new addition to the cast of characters, The Analyst, someone who viewers will immediately surmise knows more than he is letting on. There are small roles for other newcomers, such as Priyanka Chopra Jonas and a wasted Christina Ricci (wasted in her brief cameo, not wasted on any mind-altering substances), and some more returning players get treated very differently by the material. Jada Pinkett Smith gets to play Niobe in a similar way to how she was played before, but Lambert Wilson's The Merovingian is basically just used to comment further on the decline of modern civilization and the non-stop corporate interference in our daily lives.

Unfortunately, and surprisingly, the one weakest part of the film is another reason why I can see why so many reacted so strongly against it. The action sequences aren't that good. That's okay if you're just a sci-fi action movie that people decide to take a roll of the dice on, but it's a whole different kettle of phishing emails if you're the next instalment in The Matrix series. Some moments work well enough, and there are a couple of chase sequences that feel like a fun mash-up of Inception and Monsters, Inc., but the big set-pieces are marred by some clumsy choreography and horrible editing. The subversion of the big moment that everyone is waiting for is clever and fun, but I can equally see why people might find it irritating, almost contemptuous of the audience.

You know what, maybe Lana Wachowski IS contemptuous of her audience. Being such a fickle bunch, maybe audiences earn an occasional bit of contempt. If this is the end result, I don't mind at all. That's the way the cyber-cookie crumbles.

The Matrix Resurrections is the wildest mainstream movie sequel since Gremlins 2: The New Batch. It's a big middle finger raised to the idea of unoriginal, self-devouring, franchise instalments churned out to appease the masses while the world goes to hell in an Amazon basket. And it does that while being dressed up as an unoriginal, self-devouring, franchise instalment.

9/10

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Noir-vember: Collateral (2004)

It’s something we have seen happen in movies before, the businessman with a busy schedule who offers to pay a driver for a whole night of work. All the driver has to do is get the passenger to various places on time, wait, and receive a nice bonus at the end of his shift. This particular businessman is Vince (Tom Cruise), and the taxi driver is a man named Max (Jamie Foxx). Vince has five jobs to do, but Max becomes alarmed after the first job, when a dead body falls on his taxi. That’s when he finds out that Vince is a hitman. 

Directed by Michael Mann, and written by Stuart Beattie, Collateral is best described as, to use the technical term, an absolute beast of a film. Set mainly during one night in Los Angeles, it’s a two-hander that makes the most of two fantastic leads delivering performances up there with their best work.

It also makes the most of L.A. Mann gets the right people working with him to put his vision onscreen in the way that best showcases his eye for cityscapes, and how human animals move around them when being pursued, or even trapped. This is a gorgeous and glossy film, and it manages to avoid claustrophobia, even when a number of scenes simply show Vince and Max talking while the cab is driving around. Mann doesn’t put a foot wrong, and when the action beats hit, well, he once again does what he seems to do best. The nightclub scene in this film holds up as a flawless bit of entertaining violence, a precursor to the visceral thrills of the John Wick movies.

Sporting an uncharacteristic grey head of hair, Cruise is perfectly fast as the cool, calculating killer who lives by his own moral code. He’s a terminator, but one affected by elements of the human condition. Foxx is just the right mix of comfortable chat, nerves, and quick thinking as he gets drawn deeper and deeper into a nightmare scenario. Around the two leads, you get one hell of a supporting cast all giving great performances. Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg are two cops trying to figure out what is going on, Jada Pinkett Smith is a lawyer who stands out as Max’s favourite client of the shift, and there are a number of familiar faces elsewhere, from Barry Shabaka Henley to Bruce McGill, Javier Bardem to the briefest turn from Jason Statham.

Maybe not as successful as it wants to be when really trying to push the urban jungle and predator/prey analogies, Collateral does everything else pretty much perfectly. From the pacing to the soundtrack, the set-pieces to the foreshadowed final moments, this is gripping, very cool, and arguably the most fun film that Mann has delivered within this subgenre.

9/10

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Prime Time: Angel Has Fallen (2019)

Gerard Butler returns to the role of Secret Service agent Mike Banning in this third in the "Fallen" action series, and you could do a lot worse if you're after a decent action thriller with some fun set-pieces throughout.

Banning seems to be, to put it bluntly, getting a bit too old for this shit. Which isn't a problem, because the President (Morgan Freeman) wants to promote him. A nice job with less chance of people trying to shoot him and blow him up. That's not an automatic yes for Mike though, having spent his life in the middle of the action. He's right back in it when an attempt is made on the President's life, framing him as the main suspect.

Yes, Angel Has Fallen is basically The Fugitive with Gerard Butler in the main role, which means more brutal violence and swearing than you got from Harrison Ford. And more Scottishness. I wish there had been an equivalent to Butler in his band of pursuers, just for us to get the glorious "right, all a yous lot git tae work noo, I want you to check every coffee hoose, dug hoose, oot hoose, doss hoose, Muirhoose, Broomhoose until we catch this bam."

If you have seen the previous two movies then there will be no doubt in your mind how this turns out. Banning is always the smartest and toughest guy in any scenario, so it's just a matter of time until he gets himself in the right place at the right time to take down the main villain. And speaking of main villain, if it isn't obvious to you as soon as they appear onscreen then you've never seen ANY movie before.

Ric Roman Waugh does a decent enough job with the direction, working from a screenplay he helped shape with Robert Mark Kamen and Matt Cook. You're not getting any particularly memorable dialogue, but the plotting and pacing both work quite well, and the assortment of characters help to make a fun mix.

Butler is once again having a lot of fun in the lead role, which is slightly infectious. You can happily start laughing as soon as someone threatens him with harm. Freeman is very Presidential, although he has a bit less to do when he ends up incapacitated for a lot of the runtime. Piper Perabo is at the stage of her career now where she plays "loving wife to the hero", she does fine with what she's given, and Lance Reddick is his usual dependable self as David Gentry, the director of the Secret Service. You also get Danny Huston as Wade Jennings, an old friend of our hero who immediately makes you suspicious of him by the fact that he's Danny Huston, and Nick Nolte steals a few scenes as Clay Banning, the absent father who has spent years living off the grid.

Not setting out to be subversive or clever, Angel Has Fallen is simply an entertaining action flick with moments of satisfyingly cathartic violence against nasty villains. Butler, and others carrying weapons, can carry off the look and feel of it all convincingly enough, making it easier to digest all of the nonsense without being overly critical of it all.

7/10

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Girls Trip (2017)

The very basic premise of Girls Trip is a group of four friends getting back together to enjoy some leisure time that will include drinking, dancing, rekindling their sex drive, and a few arguments as they grow apart before maybe coming closer together. It's nothing we haven't seen before. The main twist here is that one of the group (Ryan Pierce, played by Regina Hall) is successful and famous, which makes the waters a lot trickier to navigate when her friends - played by Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish - start to suspect there may be a bit of trouble in her seemingly perfect marriage (to Stewart, played by Mike Colter).

Despite one or two very enjoyable moments, including an absolutely hilarious sequence in which the girls try to act normally while under the influence of hallucination-inducing substances aka tripping balls, Girls Trip is quite disappointing as a comedy. The script, by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, could have easily trimmed down one or two characters, and one more set-piece to rival the hallucinatory sequence would have been enough to push this above average. A few decent lines here and there don't do enough to make this consistently amusing.

Director Malcolm D. Lee doesn't add anything of note. His work is capable enough, following the predictable script almost to the letter (it would seem), and he tends to just have faith in his leading ladies. Which would be a wise choice if they were all on the same level.

I like Regina Hall. A lot. I always have, and think I always will. I have also been a big fan of every performance I have seen from Queen Latifah. So I enjoyed both of them in this film. And it was a bonus that Hall is actually given a few excellent, and unexpected, moments to show just how good she can act, especially in the second half of the film. Smith and Haddish, on the other hand, just don't work as well. It's not that they're terrible, and the earlier scenes with Haddish arranging her leave from work are actually very funny, but they're just nowhere near as watchable or charismatic as the other two. Colter does well in the bad man role, Larenz Tate doesn't get that much screentime as a nice guy, and Kate Walsh does a lot with her small role, playing a white woman who tries to act and speak like the rest of the group, despite other people explaining that it's not something she can really make work.

Far from terrible, it's just a shame that Girls Trip rarely has enough laughs throughout. Which is always a mark against something being sold as a comedy.

5/10

You can buy Girls Trip here.
Americans can pick it up here.