January 27, 2025 • 48 mins
JJ, Mattson and Alec delve into the cultural and cinematic impact of 'The Matrix', released on March 31, 1999, which coincidentally marks the 18th birthday of JJ. The hosts engage in a vibrant discussion, reflecting on their first experiences with the film and how it shaped their understanding of cinema. They explore themes of reality versus illusion, drawing parallels to contemporary discussions on technology and artificial intelligence. The conversation also touches on the film's innovative storytelling techniques and visual effects, particularly the groundbreaking 'bullet time' style that has since become a hallmark of action cinema. The hosts analyze character arcs, especially that of Neo, and the philosophical implications of choosing between the red and blue pills, inviting listeners to ponder their own choices in the context of modern life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You just say this movie's boring.
Tay Tay thinks the Matrix is boring.
That's.
That's hurtful.
Someone's living in the Matrix.
I know.
Welcome to the what's up?
Every podcast, we fashionourselves cinematic judge and Jerry.
(00:22):
My name is J.J.
crowder.
I'm here with my co hosts,Matt Ander.
Better Red Than Dead and Alec Burgess.
Let's get it.
We appreciate you tuning in.
Go and hit that.
Follow.
Subscribe.
Like Bell notification buttonshelp us grow the podcast.
Tell a friend about us.
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Tell a hacker about us.
Please don't tell hackersabout us.
(00:46):
That's fair.
I mean, do, but don't.
Wait, I don't know how thatwould work.
But anyway, hackers don't.
Just don't tell any reallystrange people in business.
Suits and sunglasses.
Definitely don't do that.
Yeah, we're wrapping up themonth of original screenplays, and
(01:10):
we're doing it with a bang.
And we're gonna talk this week about.
The Matrix was released March31, 1999.
On my 18th birthday.
Fellas, shut up.
It was written and directed bythe Wakowskis.
I'm gonna leave it at that.
(01:31):
And it stars Keanu Reeves,Lawrence Fishburn, Carrie Anne Moss,
Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster,Joe Pantoliano, Marx Chong, Julian
Arahanga.
There we go.
And Belinda McClory.
(01:51):
It was about a weird.
When a beautiful strangerleads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding
underworld, he discovers theshocking truth.
Life, he knows, is theelaborate deception of an evil, evil
cyber intelligence.
That's a terrible synopsis,but sure, whatever.
Yeah, that was not their best version.
(02:11):
Yeah, whoever wrote that one,kind of silly, but this was my movie.
My one and only pick this month.
I love this movie.
I saw this movie on my 18th birthday.
It was interesting because mybuddy Kyle at the time, he's talked
(02:33):
to us a couple times on Here Red.
He.
He talked me into going to seeit because he.
I don't know, he got an earlyscreening or something, I don't remember.
But he, like, convinced me togo see it because I was like, I don't
know, dude.
Keanu Reeves, like, he was in,like, this interesting mode where
he'd done some major movies,but he'd also done some really weird
(02:54):
ones.
And so, like, I was like, Idon't know, this just kind of seemed
like a weird movie to me.
So.
But he convinced me, and I satdown, watched.
It went like.
At the time, I was like, thatmight be the greatest movie I've
ever seen.
Like, just because it was sodifferent and it introduced so much
new technology that you justhad never seen anything like that
before.
And then.
(03:15):
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure we'lltalk a lot more about it.
But, like, it intrigued mebecause it was.
It was so different.
And then, like, the idea,like, it kept me on the.
It was weird.
And I guess I'll start this.
It's not really a twist to me.
Like, Right.
Like, the whole, like, you're.
You're fed starts off keepingme going because it gives you this,
(03:37):
like, weird intro, really.
Oh, how was she able to do that?
Kind of.
And then it goes to, like, this.
What feels like as normal asyou can be with Neo waking up.
Right.
And then, like, his computer target.
So it's just this constantbarrage of, like, where's this going?
And then when it gets there,you're like, oh, that's a cool idea.
(03:58):
And then the real twist, ifyou will, if there is a twist, is
that first moment where JoeyPants is sitting in the restaurant
eating the steak.
But even that wasn'tnecessarily much of a twist.
But it was just such a goodstory that you're just like, I need
to know more about this.
And then, like, the worldbuilding that they did.
And so this one really stuckwith me.
(04:18):
I think I saw it in thetheater like, three or four times.
But, yeah, it was.
It was amazing.
What did you guys think of it?
Hold up.
Red or blue pill?
Oh, see this?
Yeah.
This is a question.
I think in the moment, I woulddefinitely take, you know, the red
pill or the blue pill.
(04:38):
Whatever the one it was.
I don't remember.
I would have wanted to not bein the Matrix anymore at the beginning.
Alec.
Oh, I'm taking the blue pillthat I am staying in the Matrix.
I got a job as a softwarewriter and I, you know, a little
(05:00):
side hustle on the side.
Going anywhere?
Well, yeah, I mean, I think.
I'd like to think I'd take the.
I think it's the red pill thatgets you out and, like, do that and
be the hero.
I probably would end up takingthe blue.
I don't know, man.
(05:20):
It's just.
Life's a lot better.
And sure, I'm in hissimulation, but it's a pretty good
one, I think, too.
Like.
Yeah, we're getting in.
I was gonna ask this question later.
We're getting into it.
I.
I think from Neo'sperspective, I take the red pill
and I stick with it.
Because he's like, they knowthat this group that he's.
(05:41):
That he's after specifically,Morpheus is after him and want him.
So the.
The agents aren't going toleave you alone at that point.
And then obviously in the.
In this movie, we didn't knowwhere we were headed with some of
this and the fact that hebasically had to take the red pill
for the whole thing to function.
But in this movie, I mean, Ithink you're.
(06:02):
He's screwed.
So he has to take it and getout because otherwise they're not
going to let him stay in therewith them chasing them like that.
On the flip side, though, ifI'm any of the other people that
they've pulled out at thispoint, like, I'm not the one that
I'm Joey Pants in this movie, dude.
(06:25):
You.
I'm Cipher.
I'm going.
You guys are not.
I'm going back.
But, like, watching him eatthat steak, like, I love that scene.
It's just like, I know thesteak isn't real, but ignorance is
bliss.
Yeah, I love that.
I think the criminals thatknow that they're.
They're the tweeners, theyknow that it's not real, but they
(06:47):
take advantage of it.
Like, that seems like an Alecmove especially.
And I could see myself doingthat as well, where you're like,
hey, you know it?
But you're.
You're in command of it andyou can benefit more from it.
Pretty good life.
Well, I'm not bungling theoperation where you turn in Morpheus.
Yeah.
Like, dude, that's one thingyou got to get right.
(07:10):
Yeah.
Well, why, Like, I alwayslaugh at cyber.
Because he's like, he throwsdown the weapon.
I'm like, you don't put yourweapon down.
Double tap.
Yeah, you fry them all tillthey look like dozers.
Like, sorry.
It's just.
You make sure they're notgetting back up, and then it's a
(07:30):
whole different animal.
But, yeah, that's one thing Ilove that they did in this movie
is the contrast between theMatrix and, like, the real world
and the clothes and the colorsand the environment.
Like, you just felt a littledepressed anytime you saw them outside
the Matrix.
And I mean, clearly that wasby design because it's the whole
(07:50):
point of it and the juxtaposition.
And then in the Matrix, didn'tthe Matrix movies, didn't they have,
like, a slight green hue?
Yep.
Everything.
You're in the Matrix,everything's kind of got a green.
And it was more pronounced inthe second and third one because
I remember it even more sothan maybe even the first one.
But again, all of it by design.
And that's one thing I loveabout this movie, is they make you
feel it and make you feel it immediately.
(08:12):
And you have that tug of warof like, oh, am I more like a Cipher?
Am I going to be, like, a Neo?
And you're like.
But then the more you watch,you're like, well, I can understand
why someone would want tosabotage this, because why do they
want to go back to this drabship in pipes and they're trying
to, like, fight off thesemachines that look like squids.
And it just all seems ratherdepressing when you could be back
(08:34):
in and eating a steak that youknow is fake.
But, hey, your fake taste budsmake it taste fake good.
Like sweet.
Send me back.
Oh, yeah.
Well, and it's to theircredit, like, getting Joey Joe Pantaleone
to do Cipher was just geniusbecause he has that likability, but
(08:57):
he also, like, has that just villainous.
Like, you believe that he'sdoing this because he's sick and
tired of being out.
It's not that he doesn't likethese people and he wants to, like,
hurt them, but, Yeah, I.
I get it.
Like, that sucks, dude.
I wouldn't want to be stuck in that.
He's the type of actor thatwhen he came out of his mother's
(09:20):
womb, like, I feel like hejust had a sinister face and then,
like, a happy one and, like,went sinister again.
He just yo.
Yoed.
What's weird is seeing the manwith Hair, like, that's the one that
anytime he's got hair in,like, some old movies, I'm like,
joey pants with hair.
That's weird.
I would have sworn he came outjust bald and never grew it, like,
because I can't imagine, like,again, the.
(09:44):
The original Bad Boys moviewhen he had hair.
I'm like, that just doesn't.
It just doesn't look right.
Like, yeah, for me with this movie.
I remember when it came out,Alec, I was in my friend's basement,
and I was 8, and it had comeout in theaters, and I didn't see
it immediately, but we had alltalked about it.
(10:06):
I was, like, kind of young.
I don't remember when I first.
I think it was a little bitlater, around then, or it might have
been a few years later.
I'm fuzzy on when I actuallysaw it.
It definitely was on TV that Iwatched it the first time because
I didn't have an ability to gosee it in theaters at my young age
or anyone that would take me.
So I don't exactly Rememberwhen I saw, I just remember the first
(10:28):
thing.
We were playing Ninja Turtles,a video game in my friend's basement.
We were talking about themovie the Matrix.
Like it was all over theplace, had trickled down to an 8
year old and that's how, youknow how big it was.
But then at some point Iwatched it and I mean, like you,
Tyne had talked about, just atranscendent movie is amazing.
Like just so good.
(10:50):
Like everything.
I mean, I could go on and oneven having just watched it again
for I don't know how manytimes I watched this movie.
Not nearly to the extenteither of you probably have because
I don't rewatch movies as much.
But I love this movie.
Like I, I don't even.
There's probably a littlenitpicky things to say, but just
such an imaginative,different, thought provoking movie
(11:12):
and it's just cool.
That's what I remember.
It's like smooth and cool.
When did you see this for thefirst time?
Yeah, I don't know.
I do know I was 5, almost 6when this movie came outside.
Didn't see it then.
(11:33):
Ye was busy watching, I don'tknow, Teletubbies.
I was getting ready tograduate high school.
I think I actually saw thismovie the first time with Javier.
I want to say and something Ialways forget when watching this
is how much of a setup thefirst one is.
Yeah.
(11:54):
Like it just as it startsfeeling like it's going to ramp up,
it's over.
Yeah.
And so I like that.
I like the world building thatgoes into it.
It's something that we don'tget a lot of just to begin with.
Certainly not anymore.
Right now you'd have threeMatrix movies that are all the same
copy paste.
(12:15):
Instead of having one filmthat stretches over three time periods
that do the world building,character building and story all
combined into one.
And so that's what keeps megoing back to it is the, the novelty,
I guess is the best way to putit of the fact that where they should
like start their third act iswhere they end the movie.
(12:37):
Yeah.
And I, I mean I, I don't knowhow you were able to stand it, JJ
waiting a couple years untilthe second one came out or, you know,
not even knowing if therewould be a second one because by
the time I got around towatching this, I mean they were almost
four.
It's fair.
(12:58):
I.
Here's the weird thing aboutthis movie for me, like I would have
been perfectly okay and let mebe clear, I would still be perfectly
okay.
If they never made thesequels, if.
It was a one and done.
I knew you're gonna say it.
I think, and there's a couplereasons why that are weird and goofy,
but I think the major reasonwhy is because I think this movie,
(13:21):
the way it ends, allows you togo, this is interesting.
And like, it's in.
And I think there would havebeen room for like, you know, maybe
some books, comics, whatever,which they did, but I didn't need
two and three for me to.
And look, I watched them and Ienjoyed them to a certain degree,
(13:42):
but I think this movie was sowell contained and done.
And to your point, it was different.
Even the structure of themovie was like you said, you get
a 10 minute sequence at theend, that's the third act and you're
like, whoa, wait, what?
But I like the way that itends, minus the flying away thing.
That part always.
I was like, what?
(14:02):
That's weird.
You had to turn him into Superman.
Like, I don't like that.
But that was my only beef withthis entire movie.
The first time I watched itwas like, ah, just have him hang
up the phone and walk away.
Like, that would have beenenough for me.
But like, that's so nitpicky.
But I was.
Yeah, I would have beenperfectly fine if they'd never made
additional movies of this.
(14:23):
In fact, I think one of itsbiggest problems is down the road
when it gets to two and three,because this one was such a massive
success, it boosted up thebudget, which let him do a bunch
of cgi, which at the timedidn't look real great in a lot of
cases.
Especially like in the fightscenes when they're digitizing Keanu
Reeves.
I'm like, oh, let's switchback and.
(14:44):
Forth between, oh, the polescene, which, yeah, is cool with
the agents, but like alsotakes it to tracks, but is also super
cool.
I, I have a war in my headabout that.
Yeah, well, I mean, I forgivethe awful visuals because it's such
a cool moment that all of that is.
They were, they were pushingthe boundaries, but it was.
This is a bit much, but it's.
(15:06):
But to me, like, that was the,it's the biggest detriment to an
independent, not huge budgetfilm like this when it then makes
a ton of money over top of its budget.
So I think this thing madelike almost $200 million on a budget
of less than under a hundredmillion, for sure.
I think it might have beeneven under 50 million.
(15:28):
Like it was a.
I don't remember what it was,but it was lower.
So it made a ton of money.
And of course Warner Brothersat the time was like, well let's
make more.
And the Wachowskis did andthe, and they're.
They were very successful.
It was very interesting storyoverarching when you get into the
second and third.
But I would have beenperfectly happy if they never made
them.
I thought this was movie waswonderfully self contained.
(15:50):
Well, it's easier to say thatnow because while, I mean, don't
get me wrong, I watch 2 and 3and I enjoy them.
Certainly not so much 4 butthey're weird at the same time.
There's some.
We're not going to go intothat today so much.
But they try to get reallyphilosophical and do some of the
things that it's not that itdoesn't work, but it kind of doesn't
(16:12):
work.
Kind of does work and it gets,it's just a lot.
They're trying to cram it a lot.
When at least this movie wasmuch more simplistic about how you
knew the One and his crew weregoing to try and take down the Matrix.
But then they throw in theseother variables and it's, it's just,
it just.
Yeah, it goes places that evennow like when I've watched them I've
(16:35):
gone to like threads or chatGPT and explain like all the intricacies
of how this could work and weird.
And if you think about justthis movie, the way it ends, you're
like there's so muchpossibilities you could think of
how it could be done and everything.
The reason two and three Istill get by is because the fighting
just gets better.
I mean those things just getway better, better better because
(16:55):
this movie, for all intensivepurposes, I think some of the.
If I was the nitpick, I waslike I just want to see a little
bit more like give me ramp upa little as Alec was saying.
But I'm okay with it because Iknow what they're building and how
they're getting there.
Because there's parts of thismovie that are a little slow.
But having seen this so much,I know what's coming and I, I love
the rise of Neo and I'm okaywith it every single time.
(17:19):
But do you just say thismovie's boring?
Tay Taz thinks the Matrix is boring.
That's, that's hurtful.
Someone's living in the Matrix.
I know, but I also forgot howmuch Neo speaks in this or Neo and
why am I forgetting his name?
Keanu Reeves speaks in this movie.
(17:40):
He actually Does a pretty good job.
But this movie, in thisfranchise without Hugo Weaving is
nothing to me.
Like, he is incredible.
Oh yeah.
Mr.
Anderson.
And like his dialogue and hismodel, some of those things.
Like, that's my.
Honestly, he's my favorite character.
I love his Persona and whathe's about.
And the more you learn abouthis motivations and that part, I
(18:04):
do think they do well in thelater movies.
But I love his character.
And to me, this movie isnothing without him because everyone,
every actor is great in this.
But Hugo Weaving, he's a scene stealer.
For me, for sure.
Hugo, even without this movie,we don't have him as Elrond.
I don't think so that helpedthat too.
(18:26):
But yeah, he absolutely likehis speech to.
To Morpheus while he's tryingto break him.
Like, it's the smell.
Like, I just like that wholemonologue to me is.
Might be.
I mean, it's definitely toptwo or three moments in the whole
movie.
Like, I just love that you'rea disease.
(18:46):
Like, and just the way hedelivers it in that just flat, almost
monotone and yet very pissed off.
And, like, you can feel theangst pouring off of this program,
right?
Like, you're just like, thisis wild.
So, yeah, he absolutely makesthis movie.
And then the.
I think, to me, though, like,the way that they build the characters
(19:08):
in general in such a shortamount of time, this isn't a long
movie.
And so, like, you get on theNebuchadnezzar and you only get these
characters, like, the otherparts of the team for a few moments.
But, like, I love Apoc andSwitch and Mouse.
And like, I can't help but go,I want to know more about Dozer and.
(19:30):
And you know what I mean?
Like, tell me about Tank andhow these things work.
And like, how did.
Why do we have that?
So it's like.
And I like them.
I'm actually pissed when theystart to die.
I'm like, no, that.
That.
What a up way to go too.
Like, this is so that too thestorytelling, the introduction and
use of the characters and thereally smart and well done.
(19:53):
Because we get emotionally attached.
At least I do.
You get to a certain level ofemotional attachment to these characters
and you only know them for afew minutes and it's not like they
do anything significant.
I mean, Mouse's biggest claimto fame is the lady in red, right?
Like the woman in the red dress.
But that little moment wherehe's like.
And you get.
(20:13):
I think it's a Pocker is likethe Digital pimp part at work.
Like, it just.
Like it's so relatable evenin, you know, they're far in the
future in this terrible circumstance.
But yeah, you can't help butrelate to them.
So it's just genius writingfor how that went for this movie
too.
Like just clutch.
(20:35):
But I like all the characters.
It's wild.
But I think Morpheus too.
Lawrence Fishburne, he'sanother one that.
Oh yeah, about him.
It's funny because Neo is themain character, but Neo could have
been anybody.
I think anybody could haveplayed Neo.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'mglad it was Keanu Reeves.
He played it well.
But anybody could have playedhim and it would have worked.
(20:56):
Morpheus and Smith, on theother hand, not so much.
Well, didn't this movie putLawrence Fishborne on the map too?
Or is he already on the mapbefore this?
He was already a kind of.
Well, I mean, it took him to.
A.
I mean it pushed him way overthe edge.
But he was.
He's around Lawrence Fishburne.
He never broke any movies likethis one.
(21:17):
The only reason that youwanted to be Keanu Reeves after the
fact is because his dedicationto physical acting.
He was able to take this movieto new heights in that regard where
someone else, like they couldhave cast that could have been a
better dialogue actor may nothave put in as much time and effort
as he.
Because that's the part ofthis movie that I mean, the fight
(21:38):
scenes, just when he's in slow mo.
When he figures out he's theone and doing all this thing.
Say what you want about KeanuReeves, but dude exudes confidence
with physical acting.
Like almost no one I've ever seen.
Yeah, well, and I like himtoo, because where he struggles with
actual dialogue a lot of timesbecause like he has a hard time delivering
(21:59):
it.
Sometimes it's just how hisvoice is.
But at the same time, like nondialogue scenes.
The guy is a genius at acrossthe board.
Not just in this one, but itcomes through in this one.
Because while he talks a lotmore than he usually does in a lot
of movies, like he doesn'ttalk a ton.
Like he has very little.
Everyone has very minimaldialogue in this movie except for
(22:22):
Hugo Weaving.
For the most, he probablytalks the most besides maybe Laurence
Fishburne.
But it works.
Like in the moments where allhe said, like.
And even his stupid.
Like.
Like when Morpheus jumps thefirst time across the building, he's
like, whoa.
Like that.
Even.
Like normally I'm like,there's Keanu Reeves.
But it worked in that moment,I was like, okay.
(22:45):
I think all of us would belike, whoa.
So.
Which I also love that moment too.
That's another one that getsyou all excited for the character
building is they're allstanding around watching Neo.
Like, I love that part whereMouse comes running.
He's like, Morpheus isfighting Neo.
And they all.
It's like the super bowl, dude.
(23:06):
They all come running out andthey're watching it.
And.
Yeah, like, that's just.
They're standing there andthey're chewing on their fingernails,
and when he's getting ready tojump, nobody makes the first time,
but what if he does?
He won't.
And then he falls.
That shit's funny.
I love, like, that.
Just scenes like that justmake me smile.
I'd watch in this movie.
(23:27):
The other things that standout to me in this movie are the one.
The music.
They.
They kind of blend twodifferent things.
Like that.
Kind of like that rock thing that.
Didn't we know the.
The Matrix theme song.
But then also, like, the.
The heavy beating of, like, Idon't know what they are.
It's not symbols or chimes orsomething, but they, like, stark
when they.
When the fighting is happeningin, like, the brass that plays always.
(23:50):
You could play those littleruns, and I'd be like, oh, I know
what movie that's from.
That's.
That's definitely a Matrix sound.
And I think they use both of those.
Their advantage to one, makethis movie, like I said earlier,
smooth and cool.
Because this movie's got swagto it.
Like, absolute swag.
When they're going into thebank and trying to.
To free Morpheus, they justlook cool.
And they bring in, like, theBDSM community to an extent, like,
(24:14):
and.
And popularize that type ofculture and make it cool.
And I'm sure it had an effectafter the fact from this movie.
The music, the.
The sound, and then obviouslyjust the.
The fighting.
Like, I mean, think about whenyou're a kid, like, later on, everybody
was doing the Matrix.
Like, the whole.
(24:34):
Can you stand there and do the limbo?
Put your arms back.
Like, it definitely had a lotof pop culture implications even
to this day.
Like, and that's.
Those are, to me, alwaysmarkings of a movie that transcended
what it originally eventhought it could be.
And that's definitely this movie.
(24:54):
Agreed.
I.
I'm curious.
Like, we know you'd stay inthe Matrix.
I get that.
Like, do you like this movie, Alec?
I feel like you're just kindof like it's fine.
I, I'm not a big fan ofdocumentary but this is one of the
better ones that's out there.
(25:18):
I, I enjoy it.
I mean I, I don't have likethe, like I'm pretty sure the first
time I saw it I was like 16 or17, so like I don't have the nostalgic
emotional tie ins to it.
I was like, oh, that's a cool movie.
And then as I watched moreman, I was like, oh, this is a really
great documentary.
I got swindled into watching a documentary.
(25:38):
But yeah, so I mean I like itbut like, oh, she loves this movie
but she also shot when itfirst came out type of a thing and
so she has that emotionalattachment to it that I just don't
have.
And so I'm like, yeah, it'sgreat but I don't have that, you
know, real kind of tie intoother movies that or tie in that
(25:59):
I get with other films.
So I'm like, yeah, it's good,I love it, it's great.
But I don't get.
I like I never tried tobendwards backwards limbo and dodge
the dodgeballs that cameflying through.
I made fun of that kid.
But I think I've never tried it.
This is always a movie.
(26:19):
I'm movies for me that when Ido rewatch them I think I go some
somewhat long in between so Ican like try to forget like little
things that I've.
I know I would remember.
This is that movie like man,the Matrix if it's on tv, which is
like never happens muchanymore unless I'm trying to find
something in between likecommercials on a football game which
(26:40):
still does happen.
If this movie's on, itprobably takes me away from the football
game.
Yeah.
And that's power because Ilove football.
Yeah.
It's an interesting point ofview, Alec.
I never really thought aboutlike when this came out for me.
This revolutionized movies ina lot of ways.
Like the whole bullet timething, like the amount of movies
(27:04):
that use bullet time, quoteunquote, bullet time after this movie
came out was outrageous a lotbecause it and it and it was different.
Like I remember, I vividlyremember sitting in the theater with
my buddy Kyle and when Trinityat the beginning, like that very
first and the way they set it up.
(27:24):
I don't know if you've everseen the behind the scenes stuff
like when she jumps up in theair and they've got her on the ropes
and she's got her legs allcoiled and then it Freezes in circles
her.
Like they had this big like Uof cameras that it would run along
and then it was reallyinteresting tech.
Nobody didn't ever doneanything like that before.
So when it happened in themovie, like, I remember, like, you
(27:46):
guys ever see that Joe Roganclip where he's what he's bought
side ringside of like thefights and he, he's like, I did that.
I smack Kyle.
What the just happened?
Like, and then she's runningon the walls and like this is one
of the first ones thatrevolutionized like string work too.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, this movie made a lot ofhuge differences in action sequences
(28:12):
that we'd never seen before.
And they still use this today, right?
So it's for me, like, thismovie is a game changer because when
it came out, there had beennothing like this even remotely like
this.
I mean, outside of like, youknow, Dune touched on certain things
to beat the 80s version ofDune, had tried to match some technology,
(28:33):
things like that.
But like, nobody was assuccessful at it as the Matrix because
the timing all fell in placefor him.
So it was just really cool.
So it's interesting to hearthat point of view.
I never really considered.
I was always like, man,everybody's got to think the Matrix
is just like this wild assrevolutionary movie, right?
Like evolutionary movie.
But like, and if you see it 20years after it comes out the first
(28:55):
time or 15 years, you're like,ah, this shit's.
It's actually kind of jankycompared to what they do in some
places now.
But like.
And I don't know, I think theother thing that impresses me about
this one version, like thefirst Matrix movie is it holds up.
Like, I don't have anycomplaints, especially this one,
about the visuals in the movie.
(29:18):
Get into the second and thirdone, there's complaints.
But this one, I don't have anybecause it wasn't like they digitized
a human being in it, right?
Like, it was just.
They just slowed everythingdown and did this interesting camera
trick to make everything look interesting.
So I loved it.
And it has one of the greatestaction sequences ever in the bank.
(29:42):
Oh, the bank scene is wild.
It's crazy.
And I will say when thatmoment when they drop the bomb in
the elevator and that doorgoes flying through the whole thing.
So cool.
Right in front of the bigfireball that comes out of it.
I do often wonder is like,wouldn't that whole building have
just collapsed?
But sure, whatever.
(30:03):
It's not, I'm not gonna argueabout it.
It looks great, but I lovethat scene, like, when they're freaking
doing flips and.
And grabbing guns and Caseywas laughing.
She watched it, and it'sprobably been years, decades maybe,
since she watched the movie.
And we're watching it and it's.
They're shooting.
She's like, I feel likethey're wasting ammo.
Like, it's like they probably are.
(30:27):
She goes, I feel like he threwthat gun down way too early, but
whatever.
There's probably still bulletsin there.
We need bullet counter.
Javier.
Yeah, no, no, but I was like, two.
When he opens that jacket, Iwas like, man, had to been hard to
walk with all that hardware in there.
(30:48):
Lots of guns.
Yeah, yeah, that whole thing.
But that's like.
That's like the swagger partof it.
Like, they just.
They hit that so well.
Yeah.
One, like, as a video gamer,like, that part.
The whole virtual reality kindof shit.
Like, the other piece that asa kid was like was like, okay, you
(31:11):
plug a needle in the back ofyour head, which was really long,
by the way.
Like, every time I watch this,I'm like, how they first show that.
I'm like, that would come out.
It's going to your eyeball.
I'm like, it's right there toyour temporal lobe, like, right before.
Yeah.
And I mean, in theory, youwould think it would have to at least
connect to your brain, right,to be able to inject the information.
(31:35):
But that was something I waslike, I want to plug in and learn
kung fu.
Like, that's one of the greatlines too, is it comes out, I know
kung fu.
Like, great.
I want to learn how to fly afreaking helicopter in two seconds.
That shit's awesome.
I love that part of that movie.
He's like, yeah, he's beengoing at it 12 hours straight.
(31:59):
Or some.
Like, he's a machine.
It's just such a simplisticstorytelling movie.
But there's so much complexityin it, too.
And so I just really love thestory and how they play it out.
And so many just memorable moments.
Like.
And then there's some KeanuReeves moments, too.
Like the ones that when he'scrawling out the window, he's like,
(32:22):
I'm gonna die.
Like, I was like, oh, God,that's such a terrible delivery of
that line with his face, theway it sc.
I'm like, oh, that's a KeanuRose Grease moment.
Then what was the other one?
That really.
Oh, like, when he's at thedoor with the girl and she turns
her shoulder and the whiterabbits, the tattoos there.
And he's like, yeah, I'll go.
(32:42):
I'm like, oh God, there he is.
But for the most part, like Ican't even complain about that.
And I love Keanu Reeves.
I just have to say thatsometimes his delivery of lines,
it's like what.
It's easily glossed over andhonestly I don't even think I think
about it.
Yeah, it's very easilyforgiven in this movie because the
(33:03):
rest of it is so just godamngood that I.
Yeah.
Hugo Weaving, best part.
He's yeah.
Incredible.
And I never thought someonecould smile and look so sinister
but not like scary but likeconfidently terrifying or something.
(33:25):
I don't know if they.
And and the other thing thatthis movie did, I'll never forget.
I remember Laurence Fishbourne's.
His sunglasses, the rimless sun.
Like that was another iconicthing that is like just never.
I'd never seen anything likethat before and I was like, that
would.
It's such like a Matrix thing.
Like it.
I never thought you could evendo that.
Yeah.
And it's not anything like groundbreaking.
(33:46):
We really think about it.
But just another little thingthat just added to like the aura
of the movie.
Yeah, that was dope.
I loved it.
I, I love.
And the fight scenes are cool too.
Like I think one of myfavorites is like the very short
lived fight between Morpheusand Smith like in that bathroom thing.
(34:07):
And just like the way he'sjumping up and avoiding and like
the just fast paced punchesand blocks and like really cool the,
the choreography.
Well, I liked how they shootthe choreography but when they showed
how fast the agents were thatthey made a couple.
Like the one that always comesto mind for me was with Neo when
you were like, oh, he's gonna,he's gonna get worked when he's getting
(34:28):
punched in the subway.
And they show the actual speedof how these agents are hitting because
sometimes they're like wait,are they really like, they're just,
they're just fighting.
It's the same thing.
Are they really better?
And then you're like, oh,they're way faster.
And then you kind ofunderstand that and they do a really
good job of putting that fearin, in you.
(34:51):
So it's just such a cool premise.
I could keep going on and onand on.
Alex probably like, I'm good,but I.
Love listening to the two youtalk about this movie.
It's great.
Yeah.
Because Alex, like I don't, Idon't feel the same way, but it's
fun.
Well, I Think too.
Like, one of the things thatgets me with this movie now that
since we just.
It was mentioned a little bittoo, was like, it doesn't end like
(35:16):
it ends the way you think it'sgoing to end, but it takes as fast
as the ending is, it takes awhile to get there because you're
like.
He turns around the subway andyou're like, oh, yeah, he's gonna
beat the out of Smith.
No, he gets his ass kicked.
And the only reason he getsout of is because Smith's a cocky
prick and wants to kill himusing a train.
It's the only reason he getsout of it.
And yes, he fights him andhe's good and he may.
(35:36):
But you can tell at the endwhen Smith grabs him, throws him
against the wall and then doeslike the super fast punches.
He was with him the whole time.
Like, he could have defeatedhim anytime he wanted to, but he
was like, I'm gonna beat the.
Take the time because he's asinister prick.
I'm gonna beat the out of him.
Then I'm gonna kill him in themost obscure way by holding him in
a train because it doesn'tmatter to me, but it'll kill him.
(35:59):
And I'm like, oh, that's funny.
And it wasn't until the very,very end that Neo figures out to
action he has to die to do itin order to, you know, the whole
resurrection reborn, howeveryou want to go down that savior pathway,
but, like, that's whattriggers it.
And so I love that she whispered.
(36:19):
In my ear, JJ and then I coulddo it all things.
Yeah.
I think if it was.
If I wasn't so forgiving, thatmovie would knock that.
That part of like her telling him.
Yeah.
What the oracle says is like,she did that man.
And the man that I love wouldbe the one.
I'm like, oh, that wholesequence was pretty roug.
(36:40):
I think about it objectively,but subjectively, I don't give a.
All right, should we rate it?
Let's do it.
You're up, Jay.
I'm up.
I get to go first.
It doesn't happen very oftenthese days.
You pick booty cheeks movies,but yeah, better movies.
(37:01):
You.
I pick great movies.
You.
Charles just likes to pickyour guys's obscure, shitty one that
was picked to torture our asses.
This.
And that.
It did everybody but only you.
Anyway, I'm gonna give it a five.
I think it is one of thosemovies that when you look back on
(37:26):
the history of Hollywood, likeit was a game changer.
It shifted the dynamic ofHollywood and moviemaking because
of what it did.
The simplicity and yetcomplexity at the same time of the
story.
And, like, it takes a lot toget your shit in a pile and ducks
in a row to tell a story thatis going to have that much world
building and, you know,questions of, like, machines taking
(37:48):
over the world and using us as batteries.
And, like, it's.
It's wild to build that kindof thing and yet to tell it in a
simplistic form where, much tomy chagrin, there's a lot of exposition.
But they do it in a way thatis fun to watch, where they're walking
down a busy city streetlooking like New York.
Morpheus is navigating itperfectly, and Neo's getting his
(38:11):
ass beat by people bumpinginto him.
And, like, it's just thesubtleties and the.
The little ways that they tella story in this.
And such a simple.
With underlying complexity is.
Is just genius to me.
And the acting is great.
The story's fun, it'sinteresting, it's relatable.
Characters are great.
I'm giving it a five.
(38:31):
I will watch this movieanytime, anywhere.
It's one of my favorite moviesof all time.
Not because it's one of thebest ever, but because of what it
was and the fact that it wasvery different.
And it's a very cool story.
Still to this day, nobody'sdone it quite as well.
And there was a lot of moviesat the time that tried to do something.
There's one called Existencewith, like, Jude Law, and it.
(38:53):
It's awful.
And so at the time, at thistime frame, there was some movies
coming out trying to tellthis, like, are we in a simulation
or type deal?
But this one did it and did itwell, so love it.
Five.
Great movie.
All right, Alec, I'm gonnagive it four and a half.
(39:13):
I think you have some.
Some pretty big storytellingholes in the movie or I don't know
if it's storytelling holes,plot hole, something.
There's.
There's big gaps in there, butthey do a very good job of covering
them up.
So you do not care.
Yeah, like, that's.
That's brilliance at its finest.
Because they.
(39:34):
They wrote the story, you havethose gaps, and then they just almost
feel like they wrote anotherplot point in the story that you're
like, oh, okay, yeah, thatmakes sense.
100.
Get it.
We're good now.
And that kind of brilliance isvery few and far between.
So I'm gonna give four and a half.
Nice.
It's a good point.
All right, look, I've just allover this movie.
We already know it's a five.
(39:57):
I mean, Jay just kind of saidit all.
But the last thing I wanted tosay, and we've talked about a little
bit with the pills, is thesubculture that this movie opened
up as well about are we allliving in a simulation?
Like that's something thatgets talked about even more now than
it did then.
Just another thing that thismovie brought to light.
So I think that's whatimpresses me the most.
The further away we get from99 when this movie came out, the
(40:20):
more relevant this movie feelsto an extent.
Because now we're talkingabout AI and, and how it's going
to continue to run our liveseven more and the, the rise of humanoid
machines and I mean Matrix isgetting more relevant than.
Less relevant to an extentwhich I think is super cool.
And just the foresight thatthis movie had.
(40:40):
And then like I said to me,this movie, it just has the, it appeal,
it's sexy, it's an interestingconcept and the action's cool.
Just an awesome, awesome movie.
This movie's so good, I couldgo downstairs right now and start
watching it and I would bevery happy I.
Considering it.
(41:01):
I am also considering, I cantell you, for me to say that as you
guys know, I.
There are a short list ofmovies on one, if not maybe, maybe
a second hand that I could godo that right now and do it.
And I'm not like jj, Alec,who's watching tons of stuff.
I don't do that.
Like, it's just not my thinggladly do with this movie.
(41:23):
Absolutely.
Very happy to do it.
Incredible movie, happily reviewed.
I can't believe it's taken usso long to review this movie.
Well, we did the fourth one.
Were you on that one, Alec, orwas that before you joined us?
I think I was on that one.
With the, the newest one with.
Yeah, that one was to anextent, JJ's point of like, if this
(41:43):
movie had just ended when itdid, would we be happy?
I get, I could say yes.
But man, the fighting is so good.
And some of the others that I.
Well, I was just sitting herethinking about that actually and
I was like, I, I do, I standby that.
Like, I'm fine.
I would have been fine if wenever got any other Matrix movies.
However, how good one of the.
(42:03):
For me, the final saying ofhow good this movie is to me is it
makes me want to watch.
Yeah.
The inferior sequels.
Yeah, it does too.
Just to continue living inthat world and you know, it's a funn.
You're on like a.
It's like a waterfall.
You're like that one, two, like.
And I know they become more ofa progressive train wreck, but I'm
(42:26):
still so invested that I still.
I mean, even the others thatwe reviewed them, they're not as
great or even close, but I'llstill watch them.
Yeah.
And there's still some amazingparts to them.
Like, I enjoy them.
There's just parts where I'mlike, you didn't think that through.
So it was like.
But I love some of the complexity.
Like, one of my.
Just not to jump out of this movie.
(42:46):
But one of my favorite partsin the second movie is when they
meet with.
When he meets with the architect.
And, like, the fact that I hadto watch the architect scene.
I went back to the theater andwatched that, the second one, at
least two or three times justto see that.
Because at the time, Icouldn't just stream it.
A month later, I knew I wasgonna have to wait a year or two
before I could rent it or buy it.
(43:07):
I wanted to watch that scenebecause I knew there was some serious
exposition in there that Ineeded to understand the world.
Then when I finally got it,I'm like, that's genius.
We're talking about.
They.
There's.
These machines are so smart.
They had.
They built in a formula thatwas incomplete.
And so there's ratio.
There's like integers left.
(43:27):
And so that's what he is.
Is like this.
Yeah.
Conflagration of most of like,not imperfect calculations.
And so it's like, holy.
So there's parts of thesemovies that.
Even though there's parts thatare terrible, there's genius in there.
Yeah.
They just lost a little bit ofthe way to help that translate to
a more basic audience.
(43:49):
And I think they got out oftheir own.
They got in their own waybecause they got so much money, they
could introduce.
Yeah.
New technology that justdidn't help the visuals at all.
But I don't know how you do itwithout Alec.
Have you seen the others?
Only a couple times.
Like, maybe twice.
But you've seen.
Okay, but you've seen them, though.
All right.
Yeah.
Anyway, there it is.
(44:09):
Yeah.
This.
Very high scores.
Great movie.
Of all the movies we'vereviewed, because we've done like,
the Patriot and the Dark,like, this is on.
This is on my short list.
This might make my.
If I.
If I had to rethink my topthree, like, I think it might be
in it.
Yeah, it's top Five.
Top five.
Easy, easy.
Top five.
(44:29):
Yeah, without a doubt.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's great.
It's a great top hundred.
Top hundred.
I love watching Alex face.
He's like, you.
You're crazy.
Top five.
Hey, man, nostalgia's a thing.
Boy, I tell you what it is.
Being having my mind blown at 18.
(44:50):
Stuck around for a lot ofyears now.
Whatever.
Have we decided what we'redoing next month for our listeners?
We're doing the arbitration month.
Are we bringing it?
Oh, I've been requesting this for.
For many a month.
We're going OG status arbitrations.
Tell her.
Tell our listeners what thatis, because many of them probably
(45:12):
don't even know.
Yeah.
If you haven't listened to usbefore, you can go back and listen.
We used to do arbitrationepisodes where we do twin movies
or similar movies.
It wasn't always twin moviesbecause there's some pretty, pretty
strict guidelines for them tobe called twin movies, but similar
movies of a vein.
Like we've done 007 andMission Impossible together.
(45:34):
This absolutely predated Alec, right?
Oh, yeah.
Easily.
I don't think he's ever donean arbitration.
I haven't.
Yeah.
My arbitration cherry.
In fact, the first arbitrationwe ever did, Matson and I were by
ourselves.
That we were.
Yeah, that was.
We did Knives out in theMurder on the Ordinance.
(45:54):
That was the first five thatwas ever given too.
I gave a five to Knives Out.
Those were good movies.
So, yeah, we're gonna do that.
I gotta get those posted today.
I'm very excited for our.
All of our listeners.
It's a little bit more workfor us, but I also think it's.
It's fun if we can get thatback in rotation because it.
This group is nothing but opinionated.
(46:16):
Should be a good time.
What?
Looking forward to it.
Yeah, it should be fun.
And yeah, I'll have those posted.
So in.
In going along with what Alexabout to tell you about here in a
second.
Go check us out on Patreon.
And you can vote on those arbitrations.
Yes, you can.
So, yeah, go.
Go check it out.
(46:37):
Our people.
Should I say my people?
That's right.
And then they.
They give back to us, like inthe form of Carl sending me a leg
lamp.
So we appreciate our patronsaround this joint.
We do some shitty movies forthem and they get to vote.
So come join us.
Sure.
Now that I've stolen at leasta quarter of your thunder, tell everybody
(46:57):
where they can find us.
This is great.
I'm just deleting everythingthat you know I spent 30 seconds
right now.
Never gonna get that 30seconds back.
So anyways, yeah, so thank youfor tuning in to the Matrix.
This wraps up our month oforiginal screenplays, so appreciate
you guys tuning in andwatching through that question for
the comments is I want to knowred pill or blue pill?
(47:19):
I think most of us,circumstances notwithstanding, probably
pick blue pill and go rightback into the Matrix.
But want to see if there's anyyou red pill folks out there and
then also let us know what youthought of the Matrix.
Are you a big fiverr likeMatson and JJ or could you do a little
bit less?
We'll see a shout out to ourpatrons, Richard and CB for picking
(47:42):
this movie, putting it on thelist, and for helping us like topics
like JJ was talking about.
That's the place to go, guys.
Get involved.
Also see all the behind thescenes content and extra episodes.
So if you're finding a littlelackluster, what's our verge in your
life, go ahead and tune in there.
You can get hours, hours uponhours of content right there on the
(48:04):
Patreon at what's our verdict?
So with that, I will kick itback to our fearless leader, the
King of Crash, the Titan ofterror, a jj.
I don't know about fearless.
If you guys follow me, that'syour own problem.
But with all that, weappreciate you tuning in and we'll
catch you on the next one.
You just say this movie's boring.
Tay Tay thinks the Matrix is boring.
That's.
That's hurtful.
Someone's living in the Matrix.
I know.
Welcome to the what's up?
Every podcast, we fashionourselves cinematic judge and Jerry.
(00:22):
My name is J.J.
crowder.
I'm here with my co hosts,Matt Ander.
Better Red Than Dead and Alec Burgess.
Let's get it.
We appreciate you tuning in.
Go and hit that.
Follow.
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Tell a friend about us.
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(00:46):
That's fair.
I mean, do, but don't.
Wait, I don't know how thatwould work.
But anyway, hackers don't.
Just don't tell any reallystrange people in business.
Suits and sunglasses.
Definitely don't do that.
Yeah, we're wrapping up themonth of original screenplays, and
(01:10):
we're doing it with a bang.
And we're gonna talk this week about.
The Matrix was released March31, 1999.
On my 18th birthday.
Fellas, shut up.
It was written and directed bythe Wakowskis.
I'm gonna leave it at that.
(01:31):
And it stars Keanu Reeves,Lawrence Fishburn, Carrie Anne Moss,
Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster,Joe Pantoliano, Marx Chong, Julian
Arahanga.
There we go.
And Belinda McClory.
(01:51):
It was about a weird.
When a beautiful strangerleads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding
underworld, he discovers theshocking truth.
Life, he knows, is theelaborate deception of an evil, evil
cyber intelligence.
That's a terrible synopsis,but sure, whatever.
Yeah, that was not their best version.
(02:11):
Yeah, whoever wrote that one,kind of silly, but this was my movie.
My one and only pick this month.
I love this movie.
I saw this movie on my 18th birthday.
It was interesting because mybuddy Kyle at the time, he's talked
(02:33):
to us a couple times on Here Red.
He.
He talked me into going to seeit because he.
I don't know, he got an earlyscreening or something, I don't remember.
But he, like, convinced me togo see it because I was like, I don't
know, dude.
Keanu Reeves, like, he was in,like, this interesting mode where
he'd done some major movies,but he'd also done some really weird
(02:54):
ones.
And so, like, I was like, Idon't know, this just kind of seemed
like a weird movie to me.
So.
But he convinced me, and I satdown, watched.
It went like.
At the time, I was like, thatmight be the greatest movie I've
ever seen.
Like, just because it was sodifferent and it introduced so much
new technology that you justhad never seen anything like that
before.
And then.
(03:15):
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure we'lltalk a lot more about it.
But, like, it intrigued mebecause it was.
It was so different.
And then, like, the idea,like, it kept me on the.
It was weird.
And I guess I'll start this.
It's not really a twist to me.
Like, Right.
Like, the whole, like, you're.
You're fed starts off keepingme going because it gives you this,
(03:37):
like, weird intro, really.
Oh, how was she able to do that?
Kind of.
And then it goes to, like, this.
What feels like as normal asyou can be with Neo waking up.
Right.
And then, like, his computer target.
So it's just this constantbarrage of, like, where's this going?
And then when it gets there,you're like, oh, that's a cool idea.
(03:58):
And then the real twist, ifyou will, if there is a twist, is
that first moment where JoeyPants is sitting in the restaurant
eating the steak.
But even that wasn'tnecessarily much of a twist.
But it was just such a goodstory that you're just like, I need
to know more about this.
And then, like, the worldbuilding that they did.
And so this one really stuckwith me.
(04:18):
I think I saw it in thetheater like, three or four times.
But, yeah, it was.
It was amazing.
What did you guys think of it?
Hold up.
Red or blue pill?
Oh, see this?
Yeah.
This is a question.
I think in the moment, I woulddefinitely take, you know, the red
pill or the blue pill.
(04:38):
Whatever the one it was.
I don't remember.
I would have wanted to not bein the Matrix anymore at the beginning.
Alec.
Oh, I'm taking the blue pillthat I am staying in the Matrix.
I got a job as a softwarewriter and I, you know, a little
(05:00):
side hustle on the side.
Going anywhere?
Well, yeah, I mean, I think.
I'd like to think I'd take the.
I think it's the red pill thatgets you out and, like, do that and
be the hero.
I probably would end up takingthe blue.
I don't know, man.
(05:20):
It's just.
Life's a lot better.
And sure, I'm in hissimulation, but it's a pretty good
one, I think, too.
Like.
Yeah, we're getting in.
I was gonna ask this question later.
We're getting into it.
I.
I think from Neo'sperspective, I take the red pill
and I stick with it.
Because he's like, they knowthat this group that he's.
(05:41):
That he's after specifically,Morpheus is after him and want him.
So the.
The agents aren't going toleave you alone at that point.
And then obviously in the.
In this movie, we didn't knowwhere we were headed with some of
this and the fact that hebasically had to take the red pill
for the whole thing to function.
But in this movie, I mean, Ithink you're.
(06:02):
He's screwed.
So he has to take it and getout because otherwise they're not
going to let him stay in therewith them chasing them like that.
On the flip side, though, ifI'm any of the other people that
they've pulled out at thispoint, like, I'm not the one that
I'm Joey Pants in this movie, dude.
(06:25):
You.
I'm Cipher.
I'm going.
You guys are not.
I'm going back.
But, like, watching him eatthat steak, like, I love that scene.
It's just like, I know thesteak isn't real, but ignorance is
bliss.
Yeah, I love that.
I think the criminals thatknow that they're.
They're the tweeners, theyknow that it's not real, but they
(06:47):
take advantage of it.
Like, that seems like an Alecmove especially.
And I could see myself doingthat as well, where you're like,
hey, you know it?
But you're.
You're in command of it andyou can benefit more from it.
Pretty good life.
Well, I'm not bungling theoperation where you turn in Morpheus.
Yeah.
Like, dude, that's one thingyou got to get right.
(07:10):
Yeah.
Well, why, Like, I alwayslaugh at cyber.
Because he's like, he throwsdown the weapon.
I'm like, you don't put yourweapon down.
Double tap.
Yeah, you fry them all tillthey look like dozers.
Like, sorry.
It's just.
You make sure they're notgetting back up, and then it's a
(07:30):
whole different animal.
But, yeah, that's one thing Ilove that they did in this movie
is the contrast between theMatrix and, like, the real world
and the clothes and the colorsand the environment.
Like, you just felt a littledepressed anytime you saw them outside
the Matrix.
And I mean, clearly that wasby design because it's the whole
(07:50):
point of it and the juxtaposition.
And then in the Matrix, didn'tthe Matrix movies, didn't they have,
like, a slight green hue?
Yep.
Everything.
You're in the Matrix,everything's kind of got a green.
And it was more pronounced inthe second and third one because
I remember it even more sothan maybe even the first one.
But again, all of it by design.
And that's one thing I loveabout this movie, is they make you
feel it and make you feel it immediately.
(08:12):
And you have that tug of warof like, oh, am I more like a Cipher?
Am I going to be, like, a Neo?
And you're like.
But then the more you watch,you're like, well, I can understand
why someone would want tosabotage this, because why do they
want to go back to this drabship in pipes and they're trying
to, like, fight off thesemachines that look like squids.
And it just all seems ratherdepressing when you could be back
(08:34):
in and eating a steak that youknow is fake.
But, hey, your fake taste budsmake it taste fake good.
Like sweet.
Send me back.
Oh, yeah.
Well, and it's to theircredit, like, getting Joey Joe Pantaleone
to do Cipher was just geniusbecause he has that likability, but
(08:57):
he also, like, has that just villainous.
Like, you believe that he'sdoing this because he's sick and
tired of being out.
It's not that he doesn't likethese people and he wants to, like,
hurt them, but, Yeah, I.
I get it.
Like, that sucks, dude.
I wouldn't want to be stuck in that.
He's the type of actor thatwhen he came out of his mother's
(09:20):
womb, like, I feel like hejust had a sinister face and then,
like, a happy one and, like,went sinister again.
He just yo.
Yoed.
What's weird is seeing the manwith Hair, like, that's the one that
anytime he's got hair in,like, some old movies, I'm like,
joey pants with hair.
That's weird.
I would have sworn he came outjust bald and never grew it, like,
because I can't imagine, like,again, the.
(09:44):
The original Bad Boys moviewhen he had hair.
I'm like, that just doesn't.
It just doesn't look right.
Like, yeah, for me with this movie.
I remember when it came out,Alec, I was in my friend's basement,
and I was 8, and it had comeout in theaters, and I didn't see
it immediately, but we had alltalked about it.
(10:06):
I was, like, kind of young.
I don't remember when I first.
I think it was a little bitlater, around then, or it might have
been a few years later.
I'm fuzzy on when I actuallysaw it.
It definitely was on TV that Iwatched it the first time because
I didn't have an ability to gosee it in theaters at my young age
or anyone that would take me.
So I don't exactly Rememberwhen I saw, I just remember the first
(10:28):
thing.
We were playing Ninja Turtles,a video game in my friend's basement.
We were talking about themovie the Matrix.
Like it was all over theplace, had trickled down to an 8
year old and that's how, youknow how big it was.
But then at some point Iwatched it and I mean, like you,
Tyne had talked about, just atranscendent movie is amazing.
Like just so good.
(10:50):
Like everything.
I mean, I could go on and oneven having just watched it again
for I don't know how manytimes I watched this movie.
Not nearly to the extenteither of you probably have because
I don't rewatch movies as much.
But I love this movie.
Like I, I don't even.
There's probably a littlenitpicky things to say, but just
such an imaginative,different, thought provoking movie
(11:12):
and it's just cool.
That's what I remember.
It's like smooth and cool.
When did you see this for thefirst time?
Yeah, I don't know.
I do know I was 5, almost 6when this movie came outside.
Didn't see it then.
(11:33):
Ye was busy watching, I don'tknow, Teletubbies.
I was getting ready tograduate high school.
I think I actually saw thismovie the first time with Javier.
I want to say and something Ialways forget when watching this
is how much of a setup thefirst one is.
Yeah.
(11:54):
Like it just as it startsfeeling like it's going to ramp up,
it's over.
Yeah.
And so I like that.
I like the world building thatgoes into it.
It's something that we don'tget a lot of just to begin with.
Certainly not anymore.
Right now you'd have threeMatrix movies that are all the same
copy paste.
(12:15):
Instead of having one filmthat stretches over three time periods
that do the world building,character building and story all
combined into one.
And so that's what keeps megoing back to it is the, the novelty,
I guess is the best way to putit of the fact that where they should
like start their third act iswhere they end the movie.
(12:37):
Yeah.
And I, I mean I, I don't knowhow you were able to stand it, JJ
waiting a couple years untilthe second one came out or, you know,
not even knowing if therewould be a second one because by
the time I got around towatching this, I mean they were almost
four.
It's fair.
(12:58):
I.
Here's the weird thing aboutthis movie for me, like I would have
been perfectly okay and let mebe clear, I would still be perfectly
okay.
If they never made thesequels, if.
It was a one and done.
I knew you're gonna say it.
I think, and there's a couplereasons why that are weird and goofy,
but I think the major reasonwhy is because I think this movie,
(13:21):
the way it ends, allows you togo, this is interesting.
And like, it's in.
And I think there would havebeen room for like, you know, maybe
some books, comics, whatever,which they did, but I didn't need
two and three for me to.
And look, I watched them and Ienjoyed them to a certain degree,
(13:42):
but I think this movie was sowell contained and done.
And to your point, it was different.
Even the structure of themovie was like you said, you get
a 10 minute sequence at theend, that's the third act and you're
like, whoa, wait, what?
But I like the way that itends, minus the flying away thing.
That part always.
I was like, what?
(14:02):
That's weird.
You had to turn him into Superman.
Like, I don't like that.
But that was my only beef withthis entire movie.
The first time I watched itwas like, ah, just have him hang
up the phone and walk away.
Like, that would have beenenough for me.
But like, that's so nitpicky.
But I was.
Yeah, I would have beenperfectly fine if they'd never made
additional movies of this.
(14:23):
In fact, I think one of itsbiggest problems is down the road
when it gets to two and three,because this one was such a massive
success, it boosted up thebudget, which let him do a bunch
of cgi, which at the timedidn't look real great in a lot of
cases.
Especially like in the fightscenes when they're digitizing Keanu
Reeves.
I'm like, oh, let's switchback and.
(14:44):
Forth between, oh, the polescene, which, yeah, is cool with
the agents, but like alsotakes it to tracks, but is also super
cool.
I, I have a war in my headabout that.
Yeah, well, I mean, I forgivethe awful visuals because it's such
a cool moment that all of that is.
They were, they were pushingthe boundaries, but it was.
This is a bit much, but it's.
(15:06):
But to me, like, that was the,it's the biggest detriment to an
independent, not huge budgetfilm like this when it then makes
a ton of money over top of its budget.
So I think this thing madelike almost $200 million on a budget
of less than under a hundredmillion, for sure.
I think it might have beeneven under 50 million.
(15:28):
Like it was a.
I don't remember what it was,but it was lower.
So it made a ton of money.
And of course Warner Brothersat the time was like, well let's
make more.
And the Wachowskis did andthe, and they're.
They were very successful.
It was very interesting storyoverarching when you get into the
second and third.
But I would have beenperfectly happy if they never made
them.
I thought this was movie waswonderfully self contained.
(15:50):
Well, it's easier to say thatnow because while, I mean, don't
get me wrong, I watch 2 and 3and I enjoy them.
Certainly not so much 4 butthey're weird at the same time.
There's some.
We're not going to go intothat today so much.
But they try to get reallyphilosophical and do some of the
things that it's not that itdoesn't work, but it kind of doesn't
(16:12):
work.
Kind of does work and it gets,it's just a lot.
They're trying to cram it a lot.
When at least this movie wasmuch more simplistic about how you
knew the One and his crew weregoing to try and take down the Matrix.
But then they throw in theseother variables and it's, it's just,
it just.
Yeah, it goes places that evennow like when I've watched them I've
(16:35):
gone to like threads or chatGPT and explain like all the intricacies
of how this could work and weird.
And if you think about justthis movie, the way it ends, you're
like there's so muchpossibilities you could think of
how it could be done and everything.
The reason two and three Istill get by is because the fighting
just gets better.
I mean those things just getway better, better better because
(16:55):
this movie, for all intensivepurposes, I think some of the.
If I was the nitpick, I waslike I just want to see a little
bit more like give me ramp upa little as Alec was saying.
But I'm okay with it because Iknow what they're building and how
they're getting there.
Because there's parts of thismovie that are a little slow.
But having seen this so much,I know what's coming and I, I love
the rise of Neo and I'm okaywith it every single time.
(17:19):
But do you just say thismovie's boring?
Tay Taz thinks the Matrix is boring.
That's, that's hurtful.
Someone's living in the Matrix.
I know, but I also forgot howmuch Neo speaks in this or Neo and
why am I forgetting his name?
Keanu Reeves speaks in this movie.
(17:40):
He actually Does a pretty good job.
But this movie, in thisfranchise without Hugo Weaving is
nothing to me.
Like, he is incredible.
Oh yeah.
Mr.
Anderson.
And like his dialogue and hismodel, some of those things.
Like, that's my.
Honestly, he's my favorite character.
I love his Persona and whathe's about.
And the more you learn abouthis motivations and that part, I
(18:04):
do think they do well in thelater movies.
But I love his character.
And to me, this movie isnothing without him because everyone,
every actor is great in this.
But Hugo Weaving, he's a scene stealer.
For me, for sure.
Hugo, even without this movie,we don't have him as Elrond.
I don't think so that helpedthat too.
(18:26):
But yeah, he absolutely likehis speech to.
To Morpheus while he's tryingto break him.
Like, it's the smell.
Like, I just like that wholemonologue to me is.
Might be.
I mean, it's definitely toptwo or three moments in the whole
movie.
Like, I just love that you'rea disease.
(18:46):
Like, and just the way hedelivers it in that just flat, almost
monotone and yet very pissed off.
And, like, you can feel theangst pouring off of this program,
right?
Like, you're just like, thisis wild.
So, yeah, he absolutely makesthis movie.
And then the.
I think, to me, though, like,the way that they build the characters
(19:08):
in general in such a shortamount of time, this isn't a long
movie.
And so, like, you get on theNebuchadnezzar and you only get these
characters, like, the otherparts of the team for a few moments.
But, like, I love Apoc andSwitch and Mouse.
And like, I can't help but go,I want to know more about Dozer and.
(19:30):
And you know what I mean?
Like, tell me about Tank andhow these things work.
And like, how did.
Why do we have that?
So it's like.
And I like them.
I'm actually pissed when theystart to die.
I'm like, no, that.
That.
What a up way to go too.
Like, this is so that too thestorytelling, the introduction and
use of the characters and thereally smart and well done.
(19:53):
Because we get emotionally attached.
At least I do.
You get to a certain level ofemotional attachment to these characters
and you only know them for afew minutes and it's not like they
do anything significant.
I mean, Mouse's biggest claimto fame is the lady in red, right?
Like the woman in the red dress.
But that little moment wherehe's like.
And you get.
(20:13):
I think it's a Pocker is likethe Digital pimp part at work.
Like, it just.
Like it's so relatable evenin, you know, they're far in the
future in this terrible circumstance.
But yeah, you can't help butrelate to them.
So it's just genius writingfor how that went for this movie
too.
Like just clutch.
(20:35):
But I like all the characters.
It's wild.
But I think Morpheus too.
Lawrence Fishburne, he'sanother one that.
Oh yeah, about him.
It's funny because Neo is themain character, but Neo could have
been anybody.
I think anybody could haveplayed Neo.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'mglad it was Keanu Reeves.
He played it well.
But anybody could have playedhim and it would have worked.
(20:56):
Morpheus and Smith, on theother hand, not so much.
Well, didn't this movie putLawrence Fishborne on the map too?
Or is he already on the mapbefore this?
He was already a kind of.
Well, I mean, it took him to.
A.
I mean it pushed him way overthe edge.
But he was.
He's around Lawrence Fishburne.
He never broke any movies likethis one.
(21:17):
The only reason that youwanted to be Keanu Reeves after the
fact is because his dedicationto physical acting.
He was able to take this movieto new heights in that regard where
someone else, like they couldhave cast that could have been a
better dialogue actor may nothave put in as much time and effort
as he.
Because that's the part ofthis movie that I mean, the fight
(21:38):
scenes, just when he's in slow mo.
When he figures out he's theone and doing all this thing.
Say what you want about KeanuReeves, but dude exudes confidence
with physical acting.
Like almost no one I've ever seen.
Yeah, well, and I like himtoo, because where he struggles with
actual dialogue a lot of timesbecause like he has a hard time delivering
(21:59):
it.
Sometimes it's just how hisvoice is.
But at the same time, like nondialogue scenes.
The guy is a genius at acrossthe board.
Not just in this one, but itcomes through in this one.
Because while he talks a lotmore than he usually does in a lot
of movies, like he doesn'ttalk a ton.
Like he has very little.
Everyone has very minimaldialogue in this movie except for
(22:22):
Hugo Weaving.
For the most, he probablytalks the most besides maybe Laurence
Fishburne.
But it works.
Like in the moments where allhe said, like.
And even his stupid.
Like.
Like when Morpheus jumps thefirst time across the building, he's
like, whoa.
Like that.
Even.
Like normally I'm like,there's Keanu Reeves.
But it worked in that moment,I was like, okay.
(22:45):
I think all of us would belike, whoa.
So.
Which I also love that moment too.
That's another one that getsyou all excited for the character
building is they're allstanding around watching Neo.
Like, I love that part whereMouse comes running.
He's like, Morpheus isfighting Neo.
And they all.
It's like the super bowl, dude.
(23:06):
They all come running out andthey're watching it.
And.
Yeah, like, that's just.
They're standing there andthey're chewing on their fingernails,
and when he's getting ready tojump, nobody makes the first time,
but what if he does?
He won't.
And then he falls.
That shit's funny.
I love, like, that.
Just scenes like that justmake me smile.
I'd watch in this movie.
(23:27):
The other things that standout to me in this movie are the one.
The music.
They.
They kind of blend twodifferent things.
Like that.
Kind of like that rock thing that.
Didn't we know the.
The Matrix theme song.
But then also, like, the.
The heavy beating of, like, Idon't know what they are.
It's not symbols or chimes orsomething, but they, like, stark
when they.
When the fighting is happeningin, like, the brass that plays always.
(23:50):
You could play those littleruns, and I'd be like, oh, I know
what movie that's from.
That's.
That's definitely a Matrix sound.
And I think they use both of those.
Their advantage to one, makethis movie, like I said earlier,
smooth and cool.
Because this movie's got swagto it.
Like, absolute swag.
When they're going into thebank and trying to.
To free Morpheus, they justlook cool.
And they bring in, like, theBDSM community to an extent, like,
(24:14):
and.
And popularize that type ofculture and make it cool.
And I'm sure it had an effectafter the fact from this movie.
The music, the.
The sound, and then obviouslyjust the.
The fighting.
Like, I mean, think about whenyou're a kid, like, later on, everybody
was doing the Matrix.
Like, the whole.
(24:34):
Can you stand there and do the limbo?
Put your arms back.
Like, it definitely had a lotof pop culture implications even
to this day.
Like, and that's.
Those are, to me, alwaysmarkings of a movie that transcended
what it originally eventhought it could be.
And that's definitely this movie.
(24:54):
Agreed.
I.
I'm curious.
Like, we know you'd stay inthe Matrix.
I get that.
Like, do you like this movie, Alec?
I feel like you're just kindof like it's fine.
I, I'm not a big fan ofdocumentary but this is one of the
better ones that's out there.
(25:18):
I, I enjoy it.
I mean I, I don't have likethe, like I'm pretty sure the first
time I saw it I was like 16 or17, so like I don't have the nostalgic
emotional tie ins to it.
I was like, oh, that's a cool movie.
And then as I watched moreman, I was like, oh, this is a really
great documentary.
I got swindled into watching a documentary.
(25:38):
But yeah, so I mean I like itbut like, oh, she loves this movie
but she also shot when itfirst came out type of a thing and
so she has that emotionalattachment to it that I just don't
have.
And so I'm like, yeah, it'sgreat but I don't have that, you
know, real kind of tie intoother movies that or tie in that
(25:59):
I get with other films.
So I'm like, yeah, it's good,I love it, it's great.
But I don't get.
I like I never tried tobendwards backwards limbo and dodge
the dodgeballs that cameflying through.
I made fun of that kid.
But I think I've never tried it.
This is always a movie.
(26:19):
I'm movies for me that when Ido rewatch them I think I go some
somewhat long in between so Ican like try to forget like little
things that I've.
I know I would remember.
This is that movie like man,the Matrix if it's on tv, which is
like never happens muchanymore unless I'm trying to find
something in between likecommercials on a football game which
(26:40):
still does happen.
If this movie's on, itprobably takes me away from the football
game.
Yeah.
And that's power because Ilove football.
Yeah.
It's an interesting point ofview, Alec.
I never really thought aboutlike when this came out for me.
This revolutionized movies ina lot of ways.
Like the whole bullet timething, like the amount of movies
(27:04):
that use bullet time, quoteunquote, bullet time after this movie
came out was outrageous a lotbecause it and it and it was different.
Like I remember, I vividlyremember sitting in the theater with
my buddy Kyle and when Trinityat the beginning, like that very
first and the way they set it up.
(27:24):
I don't know if you've everseen the behind the scenes stuff
like when she jumps up in theair and they've got her on the ropes
and she's got her legs allcoiled and then it Freezes in circles
her.
Like they had this big like Uof cameras that it would run along
and then it was reallyinteresting tech.
Nobody didn't ever doneanything like that before.
So when it happened in themovie, like, I remember, like, you
(27:46):
guys ever see that Joe Roganclip where he's what he's bought
side ringside of like thefights and he, he's like, I did that.
I smack Kyle.
What the just happened?
Like, and then she's runningon the walls and like this is one
of the first ones thatrevolutionized like string work too.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, this movie made a lot ofhuge differences in action sequences
(28:12):
that we'd never seen before.
And they still use this today, right?
So it's for me, like, thismovie is a game changer because when
it came out, there had beennothing like this even remotely like
this.
I mean, outside of like, youknow, Dune touched on certain things
to beat the 80s version ofDune, had tried to match some technology,
(28:33):
things like that.
But like, nobody was assuccessful at it as the Matrix because
the timing all fell in placefor him.
So it was just really cool.
So it's interesting to hearthat point of view.
I never really considered.
I was always like, man,everybody's got to think the Matrix
is just like this wild assrevolutionary movie, right?
Like evolutionary movie.
But like, and if you see it 20years after it comes out the first
(28:55):
time or 15 years, you're like,ah, this shit's.
It's actually kind of jankycompared to what they do in some
places now.
But like.
And I don't know, I think theother thing that impresses me about
this one version, like thefirst Matrix movie is it holds up.
Like, I don't have anycomplaints, especially this one,
about the visuals in the movie.
(29:18):
Get into the second and thirdone, there's complaints.
But this one, I don't have anybecause it wasn't like they digitized
a human being in it, right?
Like, it was just.
They just slowed everythingdown and did this interesting camera
trick to make everything look interesting.
So I loved it.
And it has one of the greatestaction sequences ever in the bank.
(29:42):
Oh, the bank scene is wild.
It's crazy.
And I will say when thatmoment when they drop the bomb in
the elevator and that doorgoes flying through the whole thing.
So cool.
Right in front of the bigfireball that comes out of it.
I do often wonder is like,wouldn't that whole building have
just collapsed?
But sure, whatever.
(30:03):
It's not, I'm not gonna argueabout it.
It looks great, but I lovethat scene, like, when they're freaking
doing flips and.
And grabbing guns and Caseywas laughing.
She watched it, and it'sprobably been years, decades maybe,
since she watched the movie.
And we're watching it and it's.
They're shooting.
She's like, I feel likethey're wasting ammo.
Like, it's like they probably are.
(30:27):
She goes, I feel like he threwthat gun down way too early, but
whatever.
There's probably still bulletsin there.
We need bullet counter.
Javier.
Yeah, no, no, but I was like, two.
When he opens that jacket, Iwas like, man, had to been hard to
walk with all that hardware in there.
(30:48):
Lots of guns.
Yeah, yeah, that whole thing.
But that's like.
That's like the swagger partof it.
Like, they just.
They hit that so well.
Yeah.
One, like, as a video gamer,like, that part.
The whole virtual reality kindof shit.
Like, the other piece that asa kid was like was like, okay, you
(31:11):
plug a needle in the back ofyour head, which was really long,
by the way.
Like, every time I watch this,I'm like, how they first show that.
I'm like, that would come out.
It's going to your eyeball.
I'm like, it's right there toyour temporal lobe, like, right before.
Yeah.
And I mean, in theory, youwould think it would have to at least
connect to your brain, right,to be able to inject the information.
(31:35):
But that was something I waslike, I want to plug in and learn
kung fu.
Like, that's one of the greatlines too, is it comes out, I know
kung fu.
Like, great.
I want to learn how to fly afreaking helicopter in two seconds.
That shit's awesome.
I love that part of that movie.
He's like, yeah, he's beengoing at it 12 hours straight.
(31:59):
Or some.
Like, he's a machine.
It's just such a simplisticstorytelling movie.
But there's so much complexityin it, too.
And so I just really love thestory and how they play it out.
And so many just memorable moments.
Like.
And then there's some KeanuReeves moments, too.
Like the ones that when he'scrawling out the window, he's like,
(32:22):
I'm gonna die.
Like, I was like, oh, God,that's such a terrible delivery of
that line with his face, theway it sc.
I'm like, oh, that's a KeanuRose Grease moment.
Then what was the other one?
That really.
Oh, like, when he's at thedoor with the girl and she turns
her shoulder and the whiterabbits, the tattoos there.
And he's like, yeah, I'll go.
(32:42):
I'm like, oh God, there he is.
But for the most part, like Ican't even complain about that.
And I love Keanu Reeves.
I just have to say thatsometimes his delivery of lines,
it's like what.
It's easily glossed over andhonestly I don't even think I think
about it.
Yeah, it's very easilyforgiven in this movie because the
(33:03):
rest of it is so just godamngood that I.
Yeah.
Hugo Weaving, best part.
He's yeah.
Incredible.
And I never thought someonecould smile and look so sinister
but not like scary but likeconfidently terrifying or something.
(33:25):
I don't know if they.
And and the other thing thatthis movie did, I'll never forget.
I remember Laurence Fishbourne's.
His sunglasses, the rimless sun.
Like that was another iconicthing that is like just never.
I'd never seen anything likethat before and I was like, that
would.
It's such like a Matrix thing.
Like it.
I never thought you could evendo that.
Yeah.
And it's not anything like groundbreaking.
(33:46):
We really think about it.
But just another little thingthat just added to like the aura
of the movie.
Yeah, that was dope.
I loved it.
I, I love.
And the fight scenes are cool too.
Like I think one of myfavorites is like the very short
lived fight between Morpheusand Smith like in that bathroom thing.
(34:07):
And just like the way he'sjumping up and avoiding and like
the just fast paced punchesand blocks and like really cool the,
the choreography.
Well, I liked how they shootthe choreography but when they showed
how fast the agents were thatthey made a couple.
Like the one that always comesto mind for me was with Neo when
you were like, oh, he's gonna,he's gonna get worked when he's getting
(34:28):
punched in the subway.
And they show the actual speedof how these agents are hitting because
sometimes they're like wait,are they really like, they're just,
they're just fighting.
It's the same thing.
Are they really better?
And then you're like, oh,they're way faster.
And then you kind ofunderstand that and they do a really
good job of putting that fearin, in you.
(34:51):
So it's just such a cool premise.
I could keep going on and onand on.
Alex probably like, I'm good,but I.
Love listening to the two youtalk about this movie.
It's great.
Yeah.
Because Alex, like I don't, Idon't feel the same way, but it's
fun.
Well, I Think too.
Like, one of the things thatgets me with this movie now that
since we just.
It was mentioned a little bittoo, was like, it doesn't end like
(35:16):
it ends the way you think it'sgoing to end, but it takes as fast
as the ending is, it takes awhile to get there because you're
like.
He turns around the subway andyou're like, oh, yeah, he's gonna
beat the out of Smith.
No, he gets his ass kicked.
And the only reason he getsout of is because Smith's a cocky
prick and wants to kill himusing a train.
It's the only reason he getsout of it.
And yes, he fights him andhe's good and he may.
(35:36):
But you can tell at the endwhen Smith grabs him, throws him
against the wall and then doeslike the super fast punches.
He was with him the whole time.
Like, he could have defeatedhim anytime he wanted to, but he
was like, I'm gonna beat the.
Take the time because he's asinister prick.
I'm gonna beat the out of him.
Then I'm gonna kill him in themost obscure way by holding him in
a train because it doesn'tmatter to me, but it'll kill him.
(35:59):
And I'm like, oh, that's funny.
And it wasn't until the very,very end that Neo figures out to
action he has to die to do itin order to, you know, the whole
resurrection reborn, howeveryou want to go down that savior pathway,
but, like, that's whattriggers it.
And so I love that she whispered.
(36:19):
In my ear, JJ and then I coulddo it all things.
Yeah.
I think if it was.
If I wasn't so forgiving, thatmovie would knock that.
That part of like her telling him.
Yeah.
What the oracle says is like,she did that man.
And the man that I love wouldbe the one.
I'm like, oh, that wholesequence was pretty roug.
(36:40):
I think about it objectively,but subjectively, I don't give a.
All right, should we rate it?
Let's do it.
You're up, Jay.
I'm up.
I get to go first.
It doesn't happen very oftenthese days.
You pick booty cheeks movies,but yeah, better movies.
(37:01):
You.
I pick great movies.
You.
Charles just likes to pickyour guys's obscure, shitty one that
was picked to torture our asses.
This.
And that.
It did everybody but only you.
Anyway, I'm gonna give it a five.
I think it is one of thosemovies that when you look back on
(37:26):
the history of Hollywood, likeit was a game changer.
It shifted the dynamic ofHollywood and moviemaking because
of what it did.
The simplicity and yetcomplexity at the same time of the
story.
And, like, it takes a lot toget your shit in a pile and ducks
in a row to tell a story thatis going to have that much world
building and, you know,questions of, like, machines taking
(37:48):
over the world and using us as batteries.
And, like, it's.
It's wild to build that kindof thing and yet to tell it in a
simplistic form where, much tomy chagrin, there's a lot of exposition.
But they do it in a way thatis fun to watch, where they're walking
down a busy city streetlooking like New York.
Morpheus is navigating itperfectly, and Neo's getting his
(38:11):
ass beat by people bumpinginto him.
And, like, it's just thesubtleties and the.
The little ways that they tella story in this.
And such a simple.
With underlying complexity is.
Is just genius to me.
And the acting is great.
The story's fun, it'sinteresting, it's relatable.
Characters are great.
I'm giving it a five.
(38:31):
I will watch this movieanytime, anywhere.
It's one of my favorite moviesof all time.
Not because it's one of thebest ever, but because of what it
was and the fact that it wasvery different.
And it's a very cool story.
Still to this day, nobody'sdone it quite as well.
And there was a lot of moviesat the time that tried to do something.
There's one called Existencewith, like, Jude Law, and it.
(38:53):
It's awful.
And so at the time, at thistime frame, there was some movies
coming out trying to tellthis, like, are we in a simulation
or type deal?
But this one did it and did itwell, so love it.
Five.
Great movie.
All right, Alec, I'm gonnagive it four and a half.
(39:13):
I think you have some.
Some pretty big storytellingholes in the movie or I don't know
if it's storytelling holes,plot hole, something.
There's.
There's big gaps in there, butthey do a very good job of covering
them up.
So you do not care.
Yeah, like, that's.
That's brilliance at its finest.
Because they.
(39:34):
They wrote the story, you havethose gaps, and then they just almost
feel like they wrote anotherplot point in the story that you're
like, oh, okay, yeah, thatmakes sense.
100.
Get it.
We're good now.
And that kind of brilliance isvery few and far between.
So I'm gonna give four and a half.
Nice.
It's a good point.
All right, look, I've just allover this movie.
We already know it's a five.
(39:57):
I mean, Jay just kind of saidit all.
But the last thing I wanted tosay, and we've talked about a little
bit with the pills, is thesubculture that this movie opened
up as well about are we allliving in a simulation?
Like that's something thatgets talked about even more now than
it did then.
Just another thing that thismovie brought to light.
So I think that's whatimpresses me the most.
The further away we get from99 when this movie came out, the
(40:20):
more relevant this movie feelsto an extent.
Because now we're talkingabout AI and, and how it's going
to continue to run our liveseven more and the, the rise of humanoid
machines and I mean Matrix isgetting more relevant than.
Less relevant to an extentwhich I think is super cool.
And just the foresight thatthis movie had.
(40:40):
And then like I said to me,this movie, it just has the, it appeal,
it's sexy, it's an interestingconcept and the action's cool.
Just an awesome, awesome movie.
This movie's so good, I couldgo downstairs right now and start
watching it and I would bevery happy I.
Considering it.
(41:01):
I am also considering, I cantell you, for me to say that as you
guys know, I.
There are a short list ofmovies on one, if not maybe, maybe
a second hand that I could godo that right now and do it.
And I'm not like jj, Alec,who's watching tons of stuff.
I don't do that.
Like, it's just not my thinggladly do with this movie.
(41:23):
Absolutely.
Very happy to do it.
Incredible movie, happily reviewed.
I can't believe it's taken usso long to review this movie.
Well, we did the fourth one.
Were you on that one, Alec, orwas that before you joined us?
I think I was on that one.
With the, the newest one with.
Yeah, that one was to anextent, JJ's point of like, if this
(41:43):
movie had just ended when itdid, would we be happy?
I get, I could say yes.
But man, the fighting is so good.
And some of the others that I.
Well, I was just sitting herethinking about that actually and
I was like, I, I do, I standby that.
Like, I'm fine.
I would have been fine if wenever got any other Matrix movies.
However, how good one of the.
(42:03):
For me, the final saying ofhow good this movie is to me is it
makes me want to watch.
Yeah.
The inferior sequels.
Yeah, it does too.
Just to continue living inthat world and you know, it's a funn.
You're on like a.
It's like a waterfall.
You're like that one, two, like.
And I know they become more ofa progressive train wreck, but I'm
(42:26):
still so invested that I still.
I mean, even the others thatwe reviewed them, they're not as
great or even close, but I'llstill watch them.
Yeah.
And there's still some amazingparts to them.
Like, I enjoy them.
There's just parts where I'mlike, you didn't think that through.
So it was like.
But I love some of the complexity.
Like, one of my.
Just not to jump out of this movie.
(42:46):
But one of my favorite partsin the second movie is when they
meet with.
When he meets with the architect.
And, like, the fact that I hadto watch the architect scene.
I went back to the theater andwatched that, the second one, at
least two or three times justto see that.
Because at the time, Icouldn't just stream it.
A month later, I knew I wasgonna have to wait a year or two
before I could rent it or buy it.
(43:07):
I wanted to watch that scenebecause I knew there was some serious
exposition in there that Ineeded to understand the world.
Then when I finally got it,I'm like, that's genius.
We're talking about.
They.
There's.
These machines are so smart.
They had.
They built in a formula thatwas incomplete.
And so there's ratio.
There's like integers left.
(43:27):
And so that's what he is.
Is like this.
Yeah.
Conflagration of most of like,not imperfect calculations.
And so it's like, holy.
So there's parts of thesemovies that.
Even though there's parts thatare terrible, there's genius in there.
Yeah.
They just lost a little bit ofthe way to help that translate to
a more basic audience.
(43:49):
And I think they got out oftheir own.
They got in their own waybecause they got so much money, they
could introduce.
Yeah.
New technology that justdidn't help the visuals at all.
But I don't know how you do itwithout Alec.
Have you seen the others?
Only a couple times.
Like, maybe twice.
But you've seen.
Okay, but you've seen them, though.
All right.
Yeah.
Anyway, there it is.
(44:09):
Yeah.
This.
Very high scores.
Great movie.
Of all the movies we'vereviewed, because we've done like,
the Patriot and the Dark,like, this is on.
This is on my short list.
This might make my.
If I.
If I had to rethink my topthree, like, I think it might be
in it.
Yeah, it's top Five.
Top five.
Easy, easy.
Top five.
(44:29):
Yeah, without a doubt.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's great.
It's a great top hundred.
Top hundred.
I love watching Alex face.
He's like, you.
You're crazy.
Top five.
Hey, man, nostalgia's a thing.
Boy, I tell you what it is.
Being having my mind blown at 18.
(44:50):
Stuck around for a lot ofyears now.
Whatever.
Have we decided what we'redoing next month for our listeners?
We're doing the arbitration month.
Are we bringing it?
Oh, I've been requesting this for.
For many a month.
We're going OG status arbitrations.
Tell her.
Tell our listeners what thatis, because many of them probably
(45:12):
don't even know.
Yeah.
If you haven't listened to usbefore, you can go back and listen.
We used to do arbitrationepisodes where we do twin movies
or similar movies.
It wasn't always twin moviesbecause there's some pretty, pretty
strict guidelines for them tobe called twin movies, but similar
movies of a vein.
Like we've done 007 andMission Impossible together.
(45:34):
This absolutely predated Alec, right?
Oh, yeah.
Easily.
I don't think he's ever donean arbitration.
I haven't.
Yeah.
My arbitration cherry.
In fact, the first arbitrationwe ever did, Matson and I were by
ourselves.
That we were.
Yeah, that was.
We did Knives out in theMurder on the Ordinance.
(45:54):
That was the first five thatwas ever given too.
I gave a five to Knives Out.
Those were good movies.
So, yeah, we're gonna do that.
I gotta get those posted today.
I'm very excited for our.
All of our listeners.
It's a little bit more workfor us, but I also think it's.
It's fun if we can get thatback in rotation because it.
This group is nothing but opinionated.
(46:16):
Should be a good time.
What?
Looking forward to it.
Yeah, it should be fun.
And yeah, I'll have those posted.
So in.
In going along with what Alexabout to tell you about here in a
second.
Go check us out on Patreon.
And you can vote on those arbitrations.
Yes, you can.
So, yeah, go.
Go check it out.
(46:37):
Our people.
Should I say my people?
That's right.
And then they.
They give back to us, like inthe form of Carl sending me a leg
lamp.
So we appreciate our patronsaround this joint.
We do some shitty movies forthem and they get to vote.
So come join us.
Sure.
Now that I've stolen at leasta quarter of your thunder, tell everybody
(46:57):
where they can find us.
This is great.
I'm just deleting everythingthat you know I spent 30 seconds
right now.
Never gonna get that 30seconds back.
So anyways, yeah, so thank youfor tuning in to the Matrix.
This wraps up our month oforiginal screenplays, so appreciate
you guys tuning in andwatching through that question for
the comments is I want to knowred pill or blue pill?
(47:19):
I think most of us,circumstances notwithstanding, probably
pick blue pill and go rightback into the Matrix.
But want to see if there's anyyou red pill folks out there and
then also let us know what youthought of the Matrix.
Are you a big fiverr likeMatson and JJ or could you do a little
bit less?
We'll see a shout out to ourpatrons, Richard and CB for picking
(47:42):
this movie, putting it on thelist, and for helping us like topics
like JJ was talking about.
That's the place to go, guys.
Get involved.
Also see all the behind thescenes content and extra episodes.
So if you're finding a littlelackluster, what's our verge in your
life, go ahead and tune in there.
You can get hours, hours uponhours of content right there on the
(48:04):
Patreon at what's our verdict?
So with that, I will kick itback to our fearless leader, the
King of Crash, the Titan ofterror, a jj.
I don't know about fearless.
If you guys follow me, that'syour own problem.
But with all that, weappreciate you tuning in and we'll
catch you on the next one.
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