The Matrix Resurrections (R)
Keanu Reeves is once again Neo — or is he Thomas Anderson, sometimes delusional but wildly successful video game developer? — in The Matrix Resurrections, a nearly 20-years-in-the-making sequel to the late 1990s/early 2000s Matrix trilogy.
Was Neo the hero who fought for the freedom of humans stuck in a machine-run simulacrum called the Matrix (which placated people while sucking their energy to power the machines)? Or was Neo simply the main character in a trilogy of hugely popular video games called The Matrix, designed by Thomas Anderson? Mr. Anderson doesn’t seem entirely sure of either answer but he’s willing to believe option B — that he is a wealthy video game developer who has somewhat stabilized his mental health with the help of his analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) and some blue pills. But then his boss/business partner Smith (Jonathan Groff, really doing a great job of capturing the oily evil of Hugo Weaving) tells him that Warner Bros. wants to make a new entry in the Matrix franchise and Thomas will have to lead the team, no matter how much he finds the subject of the Matrix triggering. There a lot of fun here about the nature of sequels and the commodification of art into “content” and we get a perfect Christina Ricci cameo that feels like the working out of some frustration about studio notes on the part of Lana Wachowski (this movie’s director and co-writer and half of the Wachowskis sibling duo that wrote and directed the first three movies).
As Thomas gets deeper into the in-movie Matrix 4 project, he finds himself clearly questioning reality again, in particular his relationship to Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss), the married mother of two who does not answer to the name “Trinity” but does seem to feel some kind of connection to Thomas.
All the while, as Thomas takes his blue pills and checks his mirrors for liquidity, Bugs (Jessica Henwick), who is exactly what you’d picture if I said “scrappy hacker type,” and Sequoia (Toby Onwumere), the guy whose job it is to look at the code-covered computer screens and give ominous warnings, are trying to convince Thomas that the Matrix games aren’t just valuable IP but his actual memories. They are aided in this by an agent who hunted them but then, like, awakened as Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), but a younger and hotter version (no disrespect intended, Laurence Fishburne).
The story here has a real “big bag of things” feel that includes commentary about being forced to make a sequel, some genuine fondness (and maybe just a little too much reverence) for the original Matrix movies, some self-awareness about the lasting impacts of the Matrix movies and maybe even a little bit about how insufferable parts of Matrix fandom, and everything that’s happened with the term “red pill,” have become.
The movie offers a fair amount of exposition, about the world it’s set in now and story points from the original movies, so I don’t think you’ll be lost if you’ve never seen a Matrix movie before. But you will get a lot of story, a lot of “after this thing happened, here’s a bunch of explanation about these other events which leads to this,” that drags on this two-hour-and-30-minute movie.
I would also estimate that about half the action is fun — Keanu Reeves, particularly old Keanu, doing martial arts is both a skillful display of choreography and, like, a hoot — and half feels like the part where you’d go look for drink refills. I like the young new Matrix Babies just fine but I think I most enjoyed the parts of the movie that are focused on Reeves and Moss. I was reminded that even through all of the slick Matrix costumes and slo-mo fighting, the two actors have actual chemistry (maybe not super-hot romantic chemistry, but good screen-duo chemistry).
The Matrix Resurrections has a lot of interesting ideas — more than it’s able to really examine. Nostalgia and the general quality of the storytelling here make it a fun enough watch. B-
Rated R for violence and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Lana Wachowski with a screenplay by Lana Wachowski & David Mitchell & Aleksander Hemon, The Matrix Resurrections is two hours and 28 minutes long and distributed by Warner Bros. in theaters and on HBOMax.
The King’s Man (R)
The government-unaffiliated intelligence service known as the Kingsmen gets its World War I-set origin story in The King’s Man, a movie you’ve probably been watching trailers of for two and a half years.
At least two and a half years, maybe more — Wikipedia says the movie originally had a November 2019 release date before being moved into February 2020 and then later playing Covid-related hopscotch through the calendar. I know there have been at least two, maybe three, widely released versions of the trailer and I mention all of this because I don’t think that seeing this much advance footage of this movie did it any favors.
Duke Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) and his wife Lady Emily (Alexandra Maria Lara) are pacifists who work with the Red Cross. Though dedicated to non-violence, Emily is killed while in South Africa, making Oxford promise her that he will keep their son Conrad (Harris Dickinson as an adult) out of war.
Years later, as Europe is on the precipice of World War I, Conrad is eager for any kind of action in life but Orlando is still trying to shelter him. What Conrad doesn’t know is that Orlando has started a sort of proto-Kingsmen that uses a network of domestic service workers to attempt to advance the cause of peace. It is in this spirit, and at the behest of Field Marshal Kitchner (Charles Dance), that Orlando and Conrad are in Sarajevo when Franz Ferdinand is shot. Despite all attempts at smoothing over the egos of the U.K.’s King George, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm and Russia’s Tsar Nicholas (all Tom Hollander), Europe slides into war but Orlando and his team, including Polly (Gemma Arterton) and Shola (Djimon Hounsou), continue to work for peace. Conrad, meanwhile, remains eager to serve as a soldier — even after a trip to Russia and a visit with Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) give him a taste of the spy life.
The King’s Man is festooned with real-life people and events but this has the odd effect not of rooting it in history but of making it seem even more outside it. If you remember even a little history from high school, the movie doesn’t offer much in the way of tension. The movie creates the idea of a sprawling sinister force but other than name-check historical features, its goals are not even as exciting as the villains of the modern-day Kingsman movies.
The movie does have some fun action set pieces — a mission involving a mountain-top-located, goat-filled barn is fun logistically even if I didn’t care about the story related to it, a couple of stretches set in the trenches of the battlefield were surprisingly emotionally rich and had some good edge-of-your-seat moments. But it also has some real draggy stretches — I have definitely seen the Rasputin parts in too many trailers and the whole deal with him goes on too long with ultimately little payoff.
This movie just overall has less zip than the first, silly-but-fun Kingsman movie. C
Rated R for sequences of strong/bloody violence, language and some sexual material, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Matthew Vaughn with a screenplay by Matthew Vaughn & Karl Gajdusek, The King’s Man is two hours and 11 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Twentieth Century Studios.
FILM
Venues
AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com
Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com
Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com
Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem
Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com
Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu
Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com
The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com
LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com
The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org
O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com
Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com
Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org
The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com
Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456
Shows
• Nightmare Alley (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 2, at 12:30, 4 & 7:30 p.m.
• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 2, at 12, 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.
• The Tragedy of MacBeth (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Friday, Dec. 31, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 1, and Sunday, Jan. 2, at 1, 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.
• The Metropolitan Opera — Cinderella on Saturday, Jan. 1, at 12:55 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $26.
• Grandma’s Boy (1922), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Sunday, Jan. 2, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.
• Nanook of the North (1922), a silent documentary, on Sunday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.
• For Heaven’s Sake (1926), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Suggested donation of $10.
• Dark Mountain (2021) on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets cost $12.
• Blood and Sand (1922), on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.
• When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), a silent film starring Marion Davies, on Sunday, Feb. 20, at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.
• Girl Shy (1924), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.
• Smilin’ Through (1922) on Sunday, March 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.
• Robin Hood (1922) on Sunday, March 27, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.
• Flesh and Blood and The Man from Beyond (1922) on Sunday, April 10, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.
• Othello (1922) on Sunday, April 24, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.
Featured photo: The Matrix Resurrections.
