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To: Coyote who wrote (2)	4/25/1999 11:06:00 AM
From: MechanicalMethod	Respond to of 11

Intrinsic value is their reward, these types rarely seek recognition, often working for free while witholding their best work from general release although sometimes it shows up on the market long after they've passed beyond this world. Love of their work is reward enough . . .

To: Coyote who wrote (2)	5/21/1999 2:27:00 PM
From: BillCh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11

Existentialism Plus Kung Fu Make 'The Matrix' a Winner By DEAN NAPOLITANO Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The most enjoyable thing about "The Matrix" is the gleeful conceit displayed by the film's directing and writing team, the Wachowski brothers -- Andy and Larry. In their bullet-paced science-fiction parable, they combine elements of religion, ancient legend and contemporary fantasy, and stuff them all into a bag of magic tricks with modern commercial trappings: Hong Kong-style kung fu and action, Japanese animation, and the hip, self-conscious humor so common now in Hollywood blockbusters. Most evident, though, are the special effects, which glitter and strut with a crude arrogance. Keanu Reeves plays a reclusive computer hacker who goes by the cyber alias of Neo. He's heard a cryptic conversation about the Matrix, knowing intuitively that it's something he's searching for, and the mysterious Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) finally draws Neo toward its center. She leads Neo to Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), the reverent leader of a small band of rebels seeking to destroy the Matrix. "The Matrix is everywhere," Morpheus tells Neo. It's the artificial intelligence of computers that has subverted humans to roles of servitude -- without our knowledge -- creating a world where nothing is real and everyone lives in a dreamlike state of ignorance. The year isn't 1999, Neo discovers, it's 2199. Morpheus believes that Neo is The One, the divine savior -- known about only from prophecies -- who will liberate legions of embryonic humans, which the Matrix harvests for energy. ("The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world created in order to make us into this," Morpheus explains to Neo, holding up a Duracell battery.) Neo accepts his messianic destiny, which is to defeat the Matrix, never knowing exactly when he's part of the real world or living in a dream induced by the Matrix, which is out to eliminate him. The ideas in "The Matrix" are not unlike the ones tossed out at a Saturday night party by a 20-year-old philosophy major. (What is real? Can you prove that life isn't a dream?) These questions aren't meant to evoke logical responses, of course, but allow right-brain creative types to have some giddy fun at the expense of left-brain pragmatics. The Wachowski brothers pursue their horseplay with overt references to Greek mythology, early Christianity, new-age Zen and classic children's fiction -- "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz" in particular. "The Matrix" is deliberately confusing in a prankish sort of way, which suggests that the only thing we should take seriously is the sophistication of its special effects. The action scenes borrow openly from Hong Kong movies. Mr. Reeves's most prominent costume in the movie -- a long, black coat and sunglasses -- is a direct nod to Chow Yun-fat in "A Better Tomorrow" (1986). The looting of John Woo movies is even more obvious when Neo shoots his way -- in slow motion -- through a row of enemies, guns in both hands. Yuen Woo-ping, the director of Jackie Chan's star-making "Drunken Master" (1978), choreographed the movie's computer-enhanced kung fu scenes, which leave the actors hovering like hawks frozen in mid-air. By the end of the movie, I wondered whether Mr. Yuen was aware that the filmmakers would twist and stretch his traditional wire-stunt stagings in an almost profane manner. But it's these kung fu spectacles that are the movie's most memorable sequences, and we end up wanting more.