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Reviews
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
what the hell happened?
While I was a big fan of the first movie, I was startled at how incredibly BAD this movie was. True, it was packed to the brim with amazing effects, and there are a few sequences in the movie that are really impressive, but this sequel lost the charm, clarity, and conceptual neatness of the original. The dialog is ponderous, pretentious, and down-right silly. There is a painful sequence combining what looked like a beer ad shot at a caveman rave, cut together with an embarrassing love scene. The film is packed with minor, irrelevant characters (introduced in the sequel) and dull and distracting subplots. Even the action sequences all start to look like really really fancy PS2 games.
This movie is almost as bad as AI.
On the other hand, I took a certain perverse delight in the movie. If you're like me and enjoy a certain degree of silliness and pomposity, you'll suck some enjoyment from watching it. You won't completely suffer.
Bongwater (1998)
a wry commentary on the old days
Watching this film now, 5 years after it was built and after the massive collapse of the previous carefree era of Fun and only Fun, it seemed a hilarious satire of the self-absorptive allure of a particular flavor of substance saturated post-college scene. It reminded me of an updated Repo Man in many ways -- a celebration as well as a repudiation of hedonistic fun.
You have to enjoy a certain flavor of bludgeoningly subtle pointlessness to enjoy this movie. Personally, I thought it was great.