The Matrix Freeloaded
      I just found this previously unposted 2-year-old Weak in Review while cleaning out my hard drive.  It is a timely find because it contains a movie review of the original The Matrix and it just so happens that The Matrix Reloaded mania is currently sweeping the nation.  This old-ass Weak in Review will allow Watsoncrombie.com to capitalize on Matrix Mania without having to wait in line to see the new movie.
      Without further delay, here is what we were thinking one year and ten months ago:
 
 
 

  • Home is where the water don't taste funny

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         Last week at the beach, my sunglasses just plumb disappeared.  There was no logical explaination for where they went, but I didn't worry too much about it-- I had had them for 2 years and one of the arms was held on by one of those twist-tie things from a bread bag.  I just figured that their time had come.
          This week, I bought five new pairs of cheap sunglasses at a Dollar Store in Durham that was going out of business.  They were marked down to one dollar each from twelve dollars each, so, knowing that cheap sunglasses have a short half-life, I stocked up.  What amazed me was that by the time I got home only four of the five pairs were still in my vehicle.  I guess you get what you pay for.
          Usually stuff that you lose a lot of, you also expect to find a lot of:  for example, golf balls and undergraduate lab assistants.  It's simple conservation of matter.
          A pair of really goofy women's frame sunglasses have been sitting on the back part of my toilet for a few months now.  I always assumed that my roommate knew where they came from, but now I'm not so sure:  they may be further evidence of spontaneous generation/degeneration of cheap sunglasses.
     

    Movie Review:  The Matrix  ****/**** (four astriks out of four)
         This was one of those rare movies that withstands expectation inflation:  it is still surprisingly good even after everyone tells you that it is going to be good.   In my opinion, this is the best of the "why are we stuck with the lives that we're stuck with" movies.
          Having made that bold statement, the only other movie I can think of in that particular category is The Truman Show, which did not live up to the hype.  The Truman Show turned out to be a gimmick movie like Indecent Proposal where the "what if" that the movie is based on ends up being more interesting than the movie itself.
          In The Truman Show, Truman is stuck in his life because, although he doesn't know it, he is the star of a reality TV show and the show's producers control the boundaries of his life.  In The Matrix, people are stuck with their lives because they're really being kept in jars by evil robots and what they perceive as their life is really just a dream generated by the evil robot's computers.
          It's kind of a corny premise but, unlike the Truman Show, the whole movie is not staked on this gimmick.  The plot also tackled (or Matrix floaty-fought) the issues of fear of freedom, selling out  vs. doing your own thing, and, most importantly, the question of who you could be and what you could do if all your fear and anxiety were replaced by confidence.   The Matrix equals the philosophy of Yoda plus the action of Jackie Chan on digital-effects crack.
          Perhaps the most profound philoshophical question that the The Matrix raised regarding unfulfilled potential in our lives was this:  what would The Matrix have been like if I had seen it in the theater instead of on VHS and a 13-inch TV?
     

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