MARCH 31st - It Had Keanu Reeves



On this day in 1999, The Matrix was released. Keanu Reeves as a bad-ass, kung-fu messiah, lots of latex and leather, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Ann Moss, mind-blowing special effects, and a mind-melting plot. And once again, Keanu Reeves. Yes, please! It wasn’t the first science fiction film to ever deal with machines and alternate universes, but The Matrix did so in way that I’d never seen before. It was extremely clever in its explanations. The Matrix established a dystopia that seemed cool--made you almost yearn for it. Who wouldn’t want to be able to learn kung-fu in seconds? Or bend the laws of gravity? Or shoot the holy shit out of a bank lobby? Of course all this hinges on the premise that you, like Mr. Anderson, would be insane enough to take the red pill. I guess if they pulled some machine-parasite out of my belly button, I would consider it. But I’m pretty set in my policy of not taking random pills from strangers--I wouldn’t want to take the blue pill either. Though it didn’t seem Mr. Anderson had much of a choice. He had to take on or the other. I’ve seen other movies, like The Vanishing, in which a similar situation was provided--didn’t end well for the protagonist--even worse in the foreign original. I’m glad Neo kicked that red sucker back though, because The Matrix was badass. It probably should have won Best Picture. Should have at least been nominated. American Beauty was good, and there weren’t scrub nominees that year (The Green Mile, The Cider House Rules, and The Sixth Sense). But honestly I cannot remember what the hell The Insider was about, and The Matrix is better than The Sixth Sense (the Academy’s off-the-wall nominee that year). The Matrix has more going than any one of those other movies. Philosophy, politics, religion, human nature. If I had to guess, the religious undertones of the film hurt it. Even so, it was a seminal achievement for the Wachowskis. An original story that rewrote filmmaking rules. And it had Keanu Reeves.

This day has been Marked.

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