hugo weaving | the m0vie blog

147. The Matrix – Summer of ’99 (#18)

Posted on September 14, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Grace Duffy and Alex Towers, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, continuing our Summer of ’99 season, Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s The Matrix.

1999 was a great year for movies, with a host of massively successful (and cult) hits that would define cinema for a next generation: 10 Things I Hate About You, The Virgin Suicides, Run Lola Run, Election, Cruel Intentions, Fight Club. The Summer of ’99 season offers a trip through the year in film on the IMDb‘s 250.

Thomas Anderson lives a fairly ordinary life; an office drone by day, a computer hacker by night. However, Anderson’s life quickly begins to fall apart when he finds himself drawn to a mysterious hacker named Trinity. It soon becomes clear that Anderson’s life (and his very reality) is not at all what it appears to be.

At time of recording, it was ranked 18th on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the best movies of all-time.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: 1999, action movies, alex towers, existence, film, grace duffy, hugo weaving, Keanu Reeves, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, Movie, philosophy, reality, simulationism, stunts, the matrix | 2 Comments »

125. V for Vendetta (#153)

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta.

Accosted by “finger men” for breaking curfew, Evey Hammond is rescued by a mysterious stranger who only introduces himself as “V.” As Evey finds herself drawn deeper into the world of this violent vaudevillian figure and as she discovers more and more of his plot to topple the country’s totalitarian regime, Evey finds herself wonder whether this masked figure is a vigilante or villain.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 153rd best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: 9/11, alt-right, bush, conspiracy theories, donald trump, film, george w. bush, hugo weaving, Movie, podcast, politics, revolution, Stephen Rea, The 250, the bush white house, the wachowski sisters, the war on terror, trumpism, war on terror, white nationalism | Leave a comment »

My 12 for ’13: Cloud Atlas & Sheer Ambition

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Darren

This is my annual countdown of the 12 movies that really stuck with me this year. It only counts the movies released in Ireland in 2013, so quite a few of this year’s Oscar contenders aren’t eligible, though some of last year’s are.

This is number 1…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, arts, django unchained, hugo weaving, jim broadbent, Movie, tom hanks | 4 Comments »

Boy, Is My Face Yellow: The Cloud Atlas Yellow-Face Non-Issue

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Darren

Damn you, international release schedule! I really wanted to to weigh in on the whole Cloud Atlas “yellow face” controversy that was raging at the end of 2012, but thought it best to wait until I had actually seen the film to offer comment. That just seems like common sense, even if Spike Lee clearly doesn’t agree. Of course, by the time that Cloud Atlas was released in the UK and Ireland, the storm in a teacup had passed, but I still think it’s worth commenting upon.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Bae Doona, Ben Whishaw, Chung Ling Soo, Cloud Atlas, David Gyasi, Doona Bae, Halle Berry, hollywood, Hugh Grant, hugo weaving, Ireland, Jim Sturgess, tom hanks, Tom Tykwer, United States, Wachowski | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Cloud Atlas

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Cloud Atlas is a bold, imaginative, creative, frustrating, original, inventive, exhausting and ambitious piece of work. It’s a film that really forces the audience to collaborate, to try to force the pieces of story on the screen to fit together into a structure that is both rewarding and unique. Coming out of the film – which has been dubbed “the most expensive indie movie of all time” – I was left with the impression that Cloud Atlas is a film where everybody is going to hold a slightly different perception of what the film is, and what it’s about. I can very honestly say that Cloud Atlas is quite unlike any other film I have ever seen, and that sense of experimentation and the sheer skill to force the narrative into a shape that makes some sort of sense, unique to almost each viewer, is one massive accomplishment.

Sweet music…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adam Ewing, arts, Ben Whishaw, Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Edinburgh, Film festival, Film Festivals, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, hugo weaving, Movie, Soylent Green, tom hanks | 11 Comments »

Kurt Busiek’s and George Perez’s Avengers – Avengers/JLA (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

Read our review of The Avengers here.

Avengers/JLA is about as nerdy as a comic book crossover can get. Really. It takes two teams of superheroes which were both formed to allow existing heroes to team up… and then teams those two teams up. It’s pure geek chic, after all. I have no shame in admitting that I enjoyed on a purely fanboyish level, my inner eight-year-old ecstatic at the idea of taking so many toys out of so many different boxes and bashing them together which such delightful cheer. It’s not an essential story, nor a brilliant one, nor a creative one – but it does exactly what it says on the tin. It gives us a gigantic crossover between two of the more recognisable Marvel and DC superhero teams.

The very definition of awesome...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Avenger, avengers, avengers jla, avengers/jla, batman, Busiek, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, crossover, dc comics, dc universe, george perez, hugo weaving, iron man, jla avengers, jla/avengers, joss whedon, justice league of america, kurt busiek, marvel, marvel comics, marvel universe, marvel/dc, Perez, retrospective, review, superman, World War Hulk | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Darren

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no more f%$#ing Abba!

The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert is one of those wonderfully fun and upbeat little movies that often can’t help but draw a smile from even the most cynical of viewers. Despite a somewhat bitchy and frothy exterior, the film is a charming little road movie about a quirky little pseudo-family unit making their way through the heartland of Australia.

Bus-ted...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Australia, Benny Hill, film, films, Guy Pearce, hugo weaving, Movies, non-review review, review, Terence Stamp, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Tony Sheldon, Village People | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Matrix Revolutions

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Darren

Today I’m taking a look at the Matrix trilogy. All three films, all watched and reviewed in one day. Join us for the fun! All three reviews will be going on-line today.

I remarked in my earlier review of The Matrix Reloaded that I feel I’m in the minority in regarding the final part of the trilogy as a much stronger film than the second film in the cycle. I mean, if you look at the Rotten Tomatoes score, the second film is almost regarded as highly as the first (higher among top critics), while the third is very clearly “rotten.” On the IMDb, the second film scores higher among audiences than the third. However, while neither sequel comes close to matching the impact of the original, I do have a fondness for the third over the second. Perhaps my preference derives from the same reason many find it weaker – the fact that the only way to enjoy it is to really disengage from the underlying philosophical questions posed by the second film.

Whoa...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: existential philosophy, existentialism, film, films, free will, hugo weaving, Ian Bliss, Keanu Reeves, Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, Movie, Mr. Kennedy, Neo, non-review review, philosophy, review, revolutions, rotten tomatoes, sentinels, the matrix revolutions, the matrix trilogy, Wachowski Brothers, Zion | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Matrix Reloaded

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Darren

Today I’m taking a look at the Matrix trilogy. All three films, all watched and reviewed in one day. Join us for the fun! All three reviews will be going on-line today.

No, what happened happened and couldn’t have happened any other way.

How do you know?

We are still alive.

– Morpheus and Neo have one of the least obtuse conversations in the film

The reaction to the second and third films in The Matrix series has always somewhat surprised me. I don’t mean that I can’t see the criticism typically levelled at the films – I can see it and I agree with most of it. I mean that most viewers regard the second film as stronger than the third, while I always considered it the other way around. Rewatching all three films in one day just cemented that opinion – but I’m still curious about why cinema fans tend to favour the middle instalment over the last. Neither is as efficient or effective as the first film, but while I appreciate the sense of closure (and action) of the third film, I find myself regarding a significant portion of the second film as just idle padding – the franchise positioning itself for a final film, which would then go on to ignore a lot of what was suggested here.

Blade of glory?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: agent smith, arts, coen brothers, destiny, determinism, fauxlosophy, film, films, free will, hugo weaving, Matrix, morpheus, Movies, Neo, non-review review, philosophy, review, star wars, the matrix reloaded, the matrix trilogy, the wachowski brothers | 2 Comments »

Captain America 101: An Introduction to the Star-Spangled Avenger…

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Darren

I did a post a little while back that was intended to serve as an introduction to the world of the Green Lantern, what with the movie coming out this year. The post proved so popular that I thought I’d take perhaps put a similar post together on Captain America. The first trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger premiered at the Super Bowl yesterday, so it seems to be the perfect time for a bit of an introduction to the star-spangled superhero. Check out the 30-second spot below.