The Matrix Revolutions Review Revisited (Part 2)

OK, so this will be my final post of the year (well it is Hogmanay!) and it is once again another revisitational one of a previous re-write of The Matrix Revolutions and since I recently got the Matrix trilogy on 4K Blu-ray, I figured I would give this one another look.


So, how does the finale of the trilogy hold up??? Well, let's take another look...

And the usual is coming up...


PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, the film begins with Neo (Keanu Reeves) lying unconscious in the medical bay onboard the hovercraft named the Hammer, and next to him lies, Bane (Ian Bliss) a lone survivor from one of the destroyed ships. Bane however at this point has been mentally taken over by Smith, who assimilated his avatar inside the Matrix, but Bane remains unconscious at this point.

Meanwhile he is in his unconscious state, Neo's mind is trapped inside a limbo zone between the Matrix and the Machine city, which takes the form of a train station.  In the station Neo talks with an Indian man named Ramanchandra (Bernard White) whop has a wife, Kamala (Tharina Mudaliar) and a young daughter called Sati (Tanver K. Atwal).  The father tells Neo that the train station was created by a program called the Trainman (Bruce Spence), who is actually holding Neo hostage for the Merovingian, who eventually arrives, allowing the family onboard the train, but he stops Neo from getting on, and overpowers him, the Trainman then leaves with the family on the train, with Neo stranded.

In the meantime, the Oracle's bodyguard, Seraph (Collin Chou) contacts Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who asks them to meet with the Oracle (Mary Alice).  On meeting the Oracle we see the Oracle has physically changed her appearance from before, and she tells them that Merovingian is holding Neo hostage.  Morpheus, Trinity and Seraph then go to Merv's club (called Club Hel, which is filled with goths!) where they confront him, and Trinity points a gun to his head, demanding that he let go Neo or she will kill everyone in the room.  In the next scene, at the train station, a train arrives and Trinity gets off, embracing Neo, they escape the station.

After this Neo visits the Oracle to ask her some questions about the Matrix, Smith and where he was in the train station.  The Oracle explains that the station was transition point between the Matrix the Machine world, and that Smith is intent on destroying all life within the Matrix and in the real world.  On leaving the Matrix, Neo asks for time to think over what he has been told before he can act on what he has to do.

Meanwhile in the Matrix, the Oracle recevies a visit from Smith and his clones, who assimilates her as well as Seraph and Sati who was freed from her family by the trainman.  Back in the real world, Neo after some time tells Morpheus and Trinity that he knows what he must do, and that is to take one of the ship's to the machine city, as that is the only way he can end the war.  Niobe, although she doesn't believe in the Oracle's prophecy, has faith in Neo, and let's him have her ship, the Logos.

Trinity goes along with Neo on the Logos, however before they can get off, they encounter a now conscious, and psychotic Bane who by this time has killed one of the medics on the Hummer, and stowed away onboard the Logos.  Bane, speaks like Smith from the Matrix, and fights with Neo, blinding him in the process, with a power cable.  Although he doesn't realise at first, it dawns on Neo that Bane is now Smith in human form, but as Bane moves in to kill Neo, Neo stops him, telling Bane that he can see him, despite his blindness, he kills Bane.

With Neo blind however, Trinity now pilots the Logos to the Machine city, however as they fall under attack from a swarm of sentinels, the ship crashes, and Trinity is fatally wounded on impact and in her dying words she professes her love, and tells Neo to not be afraid before she dies.

Meanwhile Zion falls under attack from a hoard of sentinels, and the humans make their stand to try and hold them back, with their military personnel, who use strap-in robots with arm loaded machine guns to destroy the sentinels, but they suffer heavy casualties in their battle.  Morpheus and Niobe in the meantime pilot the Hummer to try and leads the Sentinals through the tunnels into Zion, when they arrive, they blow the EMP to knock out the sentinels.  Despite this success, they await yet another attack from the sentinels, which is inevitable especially as the stern Commander Lock (Harry Lennix) informs them the EMP has knocked out all their equipment.

Neo arrives at the Machine city, where he speaks with the Dues ex Machine like machine leader, and warns it that Smith is growing beyond their control and is intent on destroying the Matrix and the real world, but he insists that he can stop him.  Neo also says he wants peace if he suceeds in defeating Smith, the machines allow him to plug into the Matrix, where he confronts Smith, who by now has turned the Matrix into a rain drenched, dark world, populated with Smiths as far as the eye can see.

And its here where the two men face each other in the ultimate showdown to decide the fate of the Matrix and Zion...

THOUGHTS

The Matrix Revolutions despite any of its flaws still remains a very entertaining action movie and a fitting conclusion to the trilogy despite the bad press it has gotten over the years, its actually a better film that it is given credit for. The film also manages to suceed in getting the audience a bit more involved in the people of Zion for a change, as they battle against the machines, it is quite a rousing battle sequence where you can actually root for the humans.  And where Revolutions scores better than Reloaded does is its pacing as it doesn't feel as padded out and it keeps the action and dialogue scenes on a fairly quick pace, whereas Reloaded had that rather tedious opening 30 minutes intro to Zion and well....that rave sequence which I won't mention again! 

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers!!!)

Performance wise Revolutions remains on par with its previous films as they are mainly good.

Starting with Keanu Reeves who while he isn't the world's best actor he still continues to do well enough in his role as Neo or "The One" even if his character is a bit one dimensional (but then again most of them are!).

Regardless of that though Reeves still has some good moments in the film such as the scene where he visits the Oracle and he wants answers to a few key questions. So, in the scene the Oracle asks Neo if he recognises her changed appearance "So you recognise me?" and Neo says "A part of you". So, Neo then asks the Oracle with some frustration "Why didn't you tell me about the Architect? About Zion and the ones before me? Why didn't you tell me the truth?!". The Oracle tells Neo "Because it wasn't time for you to know" and Neo asks "Who decided it wasn't time?" and the Oracle says "You know who" and and she indicates the placque on the wall above Neo which says "Know thyself" in Latin and Neo looking up at it, in realisation says "I did".

 Neo confronts the crazed Bane who has been taken over by Smith.  And in the scene Neo fights with Bane but is blinded by him after he attacks him with a loose power cable but as Bane moves in to finish off Neo with a pipe, Neo stops him and says "I can see you!" before he grabs the pipe and kills Bane.  And in the next moment Trinity finds Neo blinded and they hug and he says "I'm alright, Trin.  But I think you're gonna have to drive!".

Another good scene is when Neo finally arrives at the machine city and he faces the Deus Ex Machina and tells it that "The program Smith has grown beyond your control. Soon he will spread through this city, as he spread through the Matrix. You cannot stop him. But I can".  And as the Deus Ex Machina defiantly shouts "We don't need you!  We need NOTHING!" Neo calmly continues "If that's true then I've made a mistake and you should kill me now" prompting the Machina to ask "What do you want?" and Neo says "Peace" and as the machines plug Neo into the Matrix, the DEM asks Neo "And if you fail?" and Neo says calmly "I won't".

And then there is the final battle scene between Neo and Smith where Neo tells Smith "It ends tonight!".  And after they have an intense long battle with Smith seeming to gain the upper hand, a tired Neo slowly get's up and Smith angrily asks "Why, Mr Anderson???  Why do you persist?!" and Neo says "Because I choose to!" before they fight some more.  And just before Neo is assimilated by Smith he says to Smith "You said it yourself.  It was inevitable!".  

Then we get Hugo Weaving who easily delivers the film's best performance as the ruthless rogue program, Smith, who takes full control of the Matrix as the film progresses.  Weaving also has his share of good moments in the film such as the scene where Smith tracks down Seraph and the girl Sati and he says to her "So you must be the last exile" and Sati says to her "The Oracle told me about you" and he asks "Oh and what did she say about me?" and Sati says "That you are a bad man" and Smith smiles saying "Oh, I'm not so bad once you get to know me!".  And in the next scene Smith turns up at the Oracle's apartment with his clones and he smashes her plates of homemade cookies and says to her "Maybe you knew I was going to do that, maybe you didn't. If you did, that means you baked those cookies and set that plate right there deliberately, purposefully. Which means you're sitting there also deliberately, purposefully!".  And when the Oracle asks Smith what he did to Sati one of his clones answers her with a line she said to Sati earlier "Cookies need love like everything does!".  And the Oracle says coldly "You are a bastard!" prompting one of Smith's best lines "Well you would know, mom!".

Then there is the scene where Smith has his final showdown with Neo in the Matrix on a dreary stormy wet night.  And Smith emerges from his clones saying "Mr Anderson, welcome back.  We missed you!" and Neo says simply "It ends tonight" and Smith says " I know it does, I've seen it. That's why the rest of me is just going to enjoy the show because we already know that I'm the one that beats you!". 

And as they fight long and hard, Smith appears to have finally gained the upper hand as he physically wears down Neo who slowly get's up prompting a speech from Smith, which is the best dialogue in the film.

So, Smith looks wearily at Neo and says "Why, Mr. Anderson? Why, why? Why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting... for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love!". 

And lastly (SPOILER!!!!!) as Smith becomes panicked by his powers of precognition, which he inherited from the Oracle, he realises what will happen in the future after which he assimilates Neo.  And after Smith has completed his assimilation of Neo, he asks the now Smith clone of Neo "Is it over?" and the Smith/Neo nods only then for a massive system shock to occur which starts to cause all the Smiths to glow with light and be destroyed as Smith realises what is happening he says "No!  No its not fair!" just before he glows with light and is destroyed too.   

As for the other cast members Carrie-Ann Moss does well in her role as Trinity and she adds a little bit of extra dimension to her character (if only a little!) in this film as she reveals a bit more of Trinity's vulnerability especially as she and Neo face their mission to travel to the machine city. 

Carrie-Ann also has some good moments in the film especially the early on fight scene at the Merovingian's club where Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph arrive there to bargain with Merv for Neo's life.  And the Merovingian makes a pretentious and long winded demand to "bring me the eyes of the Oracle and I will release your man" and Trinity simply says "I don't have time for this shit!" and they all start a fight which ends with Trinity pointing her gun right at Merv's head.  And she says "You wanna make a deal? How about this? You give me Neo or we all die, right here, right now!" and Merv looks surprised saying "Interesting deal.  You really are ready to die for this man?" and Trin cocks her gun saying "Believe it!".  And after the Merovingian says "It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity" Trinity says her best line in the film "Time's up.  What's it gonna be, Merv???".

Laurence Fishburne again is good in his role as Morpheus but this time he is largely sidelined in the movie, which is a bit of a shame given that Fishburne is one of the best actors in the film.  And Fishburne still has some good moments in the film such as the scene where Neo says goodbye to Morpheus as he departs for the machine city and Neo says to him "Its been an honour, sir" and Morpheus says "No, the honour is still mine".  And then there is the scene where Morpheus speaks to the councillors in Zion where he tells them of Neo "I don't know what he can do to save us. But I do know that as long as there is a single breath left in his body he will not give up and neither can we".  And then there is the scene where Morpheus co-pilots alongside Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and after they successfully manage to get into the dock Morpheus says to her "You're a hell of a pilot" and Niobe says "Some things in this world never change" and Morpheus says "But some things do?" and she smiles "Luckily....some things do".

As for the supporting cast there are some good performances to be found such as Mary Alice as the Oracle who replaced Gloria Foster who died before filming was completed.  Alice has some good moments in the film also such as the scene where the Oracle meets with Neo and tells him of the Architect's lack of understanding choices "He doesn't understand them - he can't. To him they are variables in an equation. One at a time each variable must be solved and countered. That's his purpose: to balance an equation" and Neo asks her "What's your purpose?" and she says "To unbalance it!".  And when Neo asks who Smith is she says "He is you. Your opposite, your negative, the result of the equation trying to balance itself out".  And in the film's last scene the Oracle is reunited with Sati who asks her "Will we ever see him again?" and the Oracle says "I suspect so. One day".  

Jada Pinkett Smith is also pretty good in her role as Niobe and this time she get's a little more screen time to develop her role a bit more and makes it a bit more evident that her and Morpheus had previous history with one another. 

Jada also has some good moments in the film such as the scene where Niobe and the other ship commanders have a meeting with the councillors on Zion and one of the other commanders, Roland argues with her about giving her ship to Neo.  And as Roland says to Niobe "Niobe!  You can't do that!" she turns to him and firmly says "Don't you even begin to tell me what I can and can't do with my ship after that little speech!".  And Morpheus surprised says to Niobe "You never believed in the one" and Niobe says "And I still don't" and Morpheus asks her "Then why are you doing this?" and she says of Neo "I believe in him". 

And then there is the scene where Niobe desparately tries to pilot her ship through the tunnels of Zion being followed by a swarm of sentinels and she accidentally crashes the side of the ship against one of the tunnels prompting her to say "Ah shit, she's got a fat ass!".   

Lambert Wilson also does a good job in reprising his role as the Merovingian and he has some fun with his role again in the scene where he is confonted by Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph. 

And Wilson only really has one scene here and its the one where Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph turn up at Merv's nightclub as they want to bargain with him to get Neo back. So, the Merovingian says to them "Well, there is something that I want and they see they have to be taken and cannot be given. The eyes of the Oracle". So, Merovingian says "Bring me the eyes of the Oracle, then I would give you back your saviour. Does that sound like a good deal? Yes? No?".

Trinity however then says "I haven't got time for this shit!" and starts fighting with Merv's men as does Morpheus and Seraph and Trinity holds her gun right at Merv's head and tells him "You wanna make a deal. How about this? You give me Neo, or we all die, right here, right now!". So, Merovingian says "Interesting deal. You are really ready to die for this man?" and Trinity cocks her gun and says "Believe it!". So Merv's wife, insists that she will do it as she is in love and Merv says "Its remarkable how the similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity!".

Bruce Spence does well too in his role as the Trainman, who holds Neo hostage for the Merovingian.  And Spence has a good scene where the trainman (who for some reason wears a dozen watches on his arm!) stops Neo from leaving the train station and he says to him "You don't get it.  I built this place.  Down here I make the rules.  Down here I make the threats!" and he punches Neo who flys into the wall and he continues "Down here I'm God!".

And last last of all is Ian Bliss who does a good job as Bane, the sub-villain of the film who was taken over by Smith during Matrix Reloaded.  Bliss also does a pretty good impression of Hugo Weaving's Smith which was ultimately what got him cast in the part so Bliss also get's some good lines in the film as he basically spouts Smith's demented ramblings. 

And as such here are a few examples such as the scene where Bane speaks to one of the crew medics, Maggie and says to her "What if I blew that EMP? What if I did destroy those ships and I am responsible for the deaths of all those men? If I did that, it wouldn't be very safe for me here, would it?".  And Maggie realises that Bane is crazy too late as he stabs her and he says "Of course, it might not be very safe for you, either!". 

And then there is Bane's showdown with Neo on the Logos where Neo has trouble identifying Bane as being taken over by Smith "Still don't recognize me?  I admit it is difficult to even think encased in this rotting piece of meat!".  And then it slowly dawns on Neo who Bane reminds him of and Bane says "Yes. That's it, Mr. Anderson. Look past the flesh. Look through the soft gelatin of these dull cow eyes and see your enemy!".  And as Neo looks on in belief and says "It can't be!" Bane says "There's nowhere I can't go. There's nowhere I won't find you!" and Neo shocked says "Its impossible!" and Bane replies "Not impossible.  Inevitable!  Goodbye, Mr Anderson!".  

DIRECTION AND MUSIC

Now moving onto the director and music section of the post starting with the film's writers and directors, the Wachowski's.... well they continue to do a pretty good job here in Revolutions even though the pacing of the film is still a bit inconsistent in places.  However the Wachowski's know how to stage their action scenes and there are still some good ones to be had particularly the fight scene at Merv's club, the huge battle on Zion and of course Neo's final showdown with Smith even if it is a bit overblown and long.


As for the music score it is done again by Don Davis and it is a very good one overall and it is also notable for its use of choir singers during Neo and Smith's final battle, which for me is the stand-out track of the score.  The choir singers are actually as it turns out singing excerpts from Hindu scriptures known as the Upanishads.  And this time around it doesn't really involve any other tracks from other artists as before so its pretty much Davis's score on its own and it holds up well and is easily for me his best score of the three films.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for the film's flaws.........yeah OK Revolutions has its snags and for starters I have a bit of a problem with Neo not recognising Bane earlier on to be really be Smith especially as he kept saying "Mr Anderson" to him over and over.  And in all the time in the movies who else called Neo "Mr Anderson" OTHER than Smith???  So I find it a bit daft how Neo didn't even think when Bane popped onboard the Logos acting all psychotic and calling him Mr Anderson that he didn't think to say "Mr Anderson????  Wait a minute!  Only Smith calls me that!" and put two and two together!

But in a way its almost like they are poking fun at how Neo is actually pretty slow on the uptake when it comes to most things.  And as an example it takes him a long time to figure he has to go to the machine city after meeting with the Oracle, he's also pretty blinded by the fact that Trinity was initially into him all along from the beginning and again he can't figure that something is up with Bane calling him Mr Anderson!

I also have a problem with the film's climactic (or anti-climactic depending on your point of view!) showdown between Neo and Smith as it is far too long and overblown even if it is still fairly impressive visually.  And the fight scene also has some silly extreme close-ups of Neo and Smith punching each other like its something out of a Rocky film!

And the film's climax in general is problematic as it just isn't clear what the hell is going on with Neo and Smith after Smith assimilates him!  In fact it raises more questions than it answers as we are left to guess if Neo really is Smith and if by connecting himself into the Matrix and by allowing Smith to assimilate him does this mean that Neo has cancelled Smith out altogether???  And if Smith is a virus then Neo is surely just the anti-virus solution to wipe him out!  So in the end Neo isn't so much Neo he is more in fact Norton! (OK that was a very bad joke!).  This also makes you wonder if Smith fully assimilated everyone in the Matrix such as even the Merovingian or does he exist outside the Matrix in the machine world????  Again its pretty confusing and never clearly explained and you are left to do a whole lot of guessing and head scratching at the end of the film.

Another issue I have with the film is one of its most irritating characters, the kid (played by Clayton Wilson) who is just an annoying little dweeb at first but in the end he plays a vital part in the battle against the sentinels as he manages to use one of the machine loaders to open the gate for the ship piloted by Niobe.  And in the scene he utters one of the film's most naff lines "Neo, I believe!".  Acchhhh shut it!  I mean believe what???  What exactly did Neo tell you to believe in??  Basically Neo couldn't be bothered being around this little gimp so why would he think that Neo told him to believe anything!  In fact Neo spent more time being embarrassed by the attention he gained in being the one than anything else.  Anyway the kid also yells in delight to everyone at the end of the film that "the war is over!" as the sentinels fly away and as he does everyone just decides to take his word for it!  And why not?!

And last of all (and this is an intruiging one) can we actually even say from all this that Neo is in fact NOT the one???  Because having watched an interesting Youtube theory on the whole Matrix-Neo- being-the-One thing its possible that Neo isn't the one but in fact the real one is Smith.  And this is because Smith is the one that makes all key and vital changes within the system and he even stands out as an individual agent within the Matrix as we see in the scene from the original where he interrogates Morpheus and tells him how he "hates this world" and "needs to get out".  And after Neo destroys Smith as an agent he is ressurected as a rogue program who has the power to clone himself and its a power that eventually sees him take over the entire Matrix and in the end Neo manages to destroy Smith by becoming him (again doesn't make much sense!).

But the one thing that make sense about Neo not being the One comes in the scene where Niobe lets Neo take her ship to the Machine city and Morpheus questions why she let him take the ship as he says to her "You never believed in the One".  And then Niobe says in response that she doesn't but "I believe in him" (i.e. Neo) which means that Neo isn't necessarily the One in the first place even if he does have the power to end the war and in a way that makes more sense.  Its not about him being the One its about him believing in what he has to do and making that decision to do it.  And it all goes back to the Oracle originally telling Neo that "he's not the one" in the first place which actually makes some sense as she just gives him cryptic clues to give him the confidence to make a decision but that doesn't necessarily make him the Messiah just "know thyself".  But again you could drive yourself batty if you think about it too long!  But in short Smith is the one (no pun intended!) that calls the shots at the end and in the end Neo is not necessarily the true One he is probably more just a troubleshooter sent in to deal with the evil One! (OK this is getting confusing but its food for thought I guess).

SUM UP

So to sum up, The Matrix Revolutions is a worthy end to the Matrix trilogy and it has plenty of tense action sequences that work very well and this time round we get a bit more emotional development from the characters particularly Neo and Trinity and the battle of Zion is quite an intense rousing one that get's you to root for the human characters there also. The film also features solid direction by the Wachowski's and an excellent score by Don Davis, which I would have to say was his best of the three films and the cast as usual do their best with the material they are given.

The film of course does have its flaws and its certainly not perfect and the fight between Neo and Smith is pretty overblown and at times even boring and the ending will kind of have you scratching your head aswell.  But all that aside this is still a pretty good film overall, which is actually underrated and I would have to say that neither Reloaded or Revolutions deserve the bashing they get and this film is worth a second look.

Right, so that's it for now and all that remains for me to say is I hope you all have a Happy New Year and I'll see you in 2019.

Till then its bye fer now!

Doctor Who - Shada Review

Right, time for another review and this is a NEW review folks (yep shocking I know!) and it will be on a Doctor Who story from the Tom Baker era that was never completed back in the day as its production was halted by the BBC strikes of the time and the story in question is Shada, which was written by then script editor, Douglas Adams.

So, after all this time, how does Shada stand up???  Well, let's find out...

And yep the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

Well, the story is a fairly elaborate one but it starts with the Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companion, Romana (Lalla Ward) in Cambridge where they are responding to a distress call sent by Professor Chronotis (Denis Carey) who is in actual fact, a Time Lord posing as a college professor. Chronotis himself is visited by a student, Chris Parsons (Daniel Hill) who ends up unwittingly giving him an ancient Gallifreyan tome, who he later shows to his colleague, Claire Keightley (Victoria Burgoyne) and they are both puzzled by its structure as it is clearly no ordinary book.

The Doctor and Romana soon visit Chronotis, who tells them that Parsons took the tome but the Doctor warns him how the book could be dangerous should it fall into the wrong hands. And to prove the Dcotor's point, a mad scientist named Skagra (Christopher Neame) is on the lookout for that very same tome as he intends to use it to find the location of a prison planet named Shada. Skagra soon turns up at Chronotis's study and uses a sphere to extract his knowledge that appears to leave him in a coma state. The Doctor is soon captured by Skagra along with Romana and Chris and Skagra uses the sphere on the Doctor in order to decode the tome and the Doctor manages to survive keeping his mind intact.

However from here the Doctor must try and find a way to stop Skagra from locating Shada and his plan to find there an imprisoned renegade Time Lord named Salyavin, who could project thoughts into the minds of others with Sakgra intending to use those powers to control every mind in the universe....

THOUGHTS

Well, Shada always has had a problematic history given that the original production of the story had never been completed due to a strike at the BBC, which left the serial incomplete. However since then of course, the story has been restored and completed and released on DVD with the missing footage linked by cartoon animations and the original cast returned to record the audio for this as well.

So, as for how the story stands up??? Well pretty well it has to be said as it is a very enjoyable story with plenty of good moments and enjoyable dialogue from Douglas Adams's script and the performances from the cast are also pretty good and the fact that they reunited to complete the story is also nice even if you can hear their voices have changed over the years!

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENE (Warning: this section may contain some spoilers!)

As for the performances they are all pretty good here.


Starting with Tom Baker, who is great once again as the Doctor and by this time he nearing the end of his run in the role but his enthusiasm and energy is as great as it ever was here.

And Tom has his share of good scenes but I will only mention a couple to keep things shorter here than normal.

The first scene I will mention is the one where the Doctor and Romana are having a punt up the river at Cambridge and the Doctor quotes a number of poets to Romana. So, the Doctor says "Wordsworth, Rutherford, Christopher Smart, Andrew Marvel, Judge Jefferies, Owen Chadwick..." and Romana asks "Who?" and the Doctor says "Owen Chadwick. Oh, yes. Some of the greatest labourers on Earth have thought here". Romana then rests back and says "Oh, I love the spring. All the leaves, the colours..." and the Doctor tells her "Its October" and Romana rather annoyed says "I thought you said we were coming here for May week!" and the Doctor tells her "I did! May week's in June!". Romana then shakes her head and says "I'm confused" and the Doctor grins and says "So, the TARDIS! Ha ha!".

So, as the Romana corrects herself on the season she says "Oh, I do love the Autumn. All the leaves, the colours..." and the Doctor says "Yes. Well, at least with something as simple as a punt nothing can go wrong. No coordinates, no dimensional stabilisers, nothing. Just the water, a punt, a strong pair of hands and the pole". However, as the boat is about to go under an arched bridge, the Doctor nearly loses his balance and almost falls in but holds on just enough from doing so.

Then there is the scene where the Doctor along with Romana and Chris, travel in the TARDIS and arrive in a field where Skagra's invisible ship is and they just happen to see a sphere disappear into the ship. So, the Doctor looks on in surprise and asks Romana and Chris "Did you just see what I didn't see?!" and Romana says "No" and the Doctor says "Me neither!". Chris, puzzled then says "It just vanished" and the Doctor says to him "That's what I said" and he indicates to something in the field and tells Chris "Watch that cow pat!".   

Another good scene is when the Doctor and Parsons arrive on a space station and Parsons refuses to believe that they have just travelled in space.

So, Parsons says to the Doctor "I don't believe that we travelled hundreds of light years!" and the Doctor asks him "Why not?" and Parsons says "You cannot travel faster than light. Einstein!". The Doctor then looks at Parsons and asks him "What? Do you understand Einstein?" and Parsons says "Yes" and the Doctor then asks "And quantum theory?" and Parsons says "Yes" and the Doc asks another "What?! And Planck?" and Parsons says "Yes" and the Doctor asks "What? And Newton?" and Parsons says "Yes" and the Doctor continues and asks "What? And Schoenberg?" and Parsons now getting a little impatient says "Of course!" and the Doctor gives him a look and says "Ah, you've got alot to unlearn!".

WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD AS THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH REFERS TO THE FINAL SCENE OF THE STORY!

And last of all is the final scene of the restored version where we see the Doctor and Romana have returned to the TARDIS and back on the road so to speak! And in the scene, the Doctor is working underneath the TARDIS console and Romana is out of the room as they talk to each other. So, Romana says to the Doctor "It seems hard to believe the Professor was the great Salyavin. He's such a nice old man. I wonder if the stories of Salyavin were exaggerated?!". And then the Doctor reappears and we see that he his the elderly Tom Baker who says "More than likely. The Time Lords over-react to everything. Look at the way they treat me. I expect at some time in the future, about two hundred years time, someone will meet me and say, is that really the Doctor? He seemed such a nice old man!" and he looks right at the camera and grins. 

Lalla Ward up next is also very good in her role as Romana, the Doctor's trusty companion, who helps him in his struggle against Skagra.

And Lalla has some good scenes as well such as her first one which I have already mentioned with the Doctor and Romana punting up the Backs in Cambridge. And the Doctor quotes a number of renowned scholars, who have studied at Cambridge over the years to Romana. So, Romana offers another one "Isaac Newton of course" and the Doctor agrees and says "Oh, definitely Netwon!" and Romana with almost smug air says "So, Newton invented punting!" and the Doctor says "Oh, yes. There's no limit to Isaac's genius!". Romana then adds "Isn't wonderful how something so primitive can be so..." and the Doctor offers "Restful?" but Romana says "No, simple. You just push in one direction and the boat goes in the other".

Romana then rests back and says "Oh, I love the spring. All the leaves, the colours..." and the Doctor tells her "Its October!" and Romana rather annoyed says "I thought you said we were coming here for May week!" and the Doctor tells her "I did! May week's in June!". Romana then shakes her head and says "I'm confused" and the Doctor grins and says "So's the TARDIS! Ha ha!". 

Another good scene from Lalla is when just after Professor Chronotis has been attacked by Skagra's sphere he has entered a comatose state and Romana finds him and tells Parsons to get a medical kit from the TARDIS.

So, as K-9 examines Chronotis and says "He is weakening fast" Romana says to Parsons "Do you want to make yourself useful?" and Parsons says "Well, if I can". So, Romana quickly tells Parsons "Go and get the medical kit from the Tardis" and Parsons confused asks "The what?" and Romana indicates the Doctor's TARDIS in the corner "Over there. First door on the left, down the corridor, second door on the right, down the corridor, third door on the left, down the corridor, fourth door on the right..." and Parsons offers "Down the corridor?" but Romana says "No, white cupboard opposite the door, top shelf!".



And last of all is the scene near the end (KIND OF SPOILER!!) where Romana gives the Doctor an idea on how to defeat Skagra in his plan to create a universal mind to control the universe. So, Romana asks "Doctor?" and the Doctor says "Yes" and Romana asks him "May I just remind you of something?" and the Doctor says "Yes" and Romana tells him "All the minds that Skagra has stolen are in the melting pot" and the Doctor says "Yes" and Romana reminds him "That means your mind is in there too". So, the Doctor triumphantly says to Romana "Yes! Romana?" and Romana says "Yes, Doctor?" and the Doctor takes a medal and pins it onto Romana's blouse and her formally kisses her on both cheeks and they give each other a salute with Romana looking pleased with her contribution. The Doctor then satisfied with Romana's information says to himself "Now I can think!".

As for the supporting cast they are all very good too!

Starting with Denis Carey who is excellent in his role as Professor Chronotis, the elderly Time Lord, who poses as a Cambridge college professor but has a mysterious past that will play a key part in the story.

And Carey has some good scenes of his own that include the one where the Doctor and Romana first meet with Chronotis in his study and he comes out with a tea tray and he says "Oh, Doctor! How splendid to see you!". The Doctor smiles and says "You too, Professor" and he indicate Romana "This is Romana" and Chronotis smiles and says to Romana "Oh, delighted, delighted! I've heard so much about you" and the Doctor a little surprised asks "Have you really?" and Chronotis says "Well, not yet, but I will have done. When Time Lords get to my age they tend to get their tenses muddled up!".

Another good scene is when the Doctor having warned Chronotis about the dangers of taking a Gallifreyan tome away from Gallifrey and discovers he no longer has the book in his study, they look for it. So, Chronotis suddenly remembers what might have happened to it and tells the Doctor "There was a young man here earlier. Came to borrow some books. He might have taken it while I was out in the kitchen making tea".

The Doctor then urgently asks "What his name, Professor? What was his name???" and Chronotis struggles to remember Oh, if only I could remember. Oh dear, I've got a memory like a. Oh dear, what is it I've got a memory like? What's that thing you strain rice with?". The Doctor then becomes impatient asks "What was his name, Professor?" and Romana offers "Was he tall? Short?" and Chronotis suddenly says "I remember!" and the Doctor asks "What?" and Chronotis says "A sieve! That's what it is. I've got a memory like a sieve!".


WARNING: ANOTHER SPOILER COMIMG UP!

Last of all is the scene where Chronotis is aided by another Cambridge student, Claire Keightley with the repairs to his TARDIS (which is disguised as his study!). So, in the scene as Claire tries to help Chronotis, he speaks of the Time Lord criminal, Salyavin and Claire asks who he was and Chronotis tells her "Salyavin? He was a criminal. His exploits have been wildly exaggerated. He was a hotheaded, brilliant young man with a peculiar talent. I can't fix this!". So, Claire asks "Can I help?" and Chronotis tells her "Difficult, very difficult. To repair an interfacial resonator requires two operations which must be performed absolutely simultaneously. And to be honest, my dear, I don't think you have the knowledge".


So, Chronotis suddenly has a though and says to Claire "Listen to me. Listen to me very carefully. What I am about to do, you are never to speak of, and this is the only time I will ever do it" and Claire, confused, asks "What are you talking about?" and Chronotis asks her "Do I have your promise?" and she says "Yes, yes all right". So, Chronotis points to a piece of equipment in Claire's hand asks her "What is that piece of equipment in your hand?" and Claire looks at it and says "This? I have no idea" so Chronotis says "Good". And then Chronotis takes off his glasses and his eyes glow as he looks right at Claire and afterward, he asks her again "Now, what is that piece of equipment?" and Claire without a flinch says "This? Er, it's a conceptual geometer relay, with an agronomic trigger, a totally defunct field separator. But it doesn't matter. We can dispense with it if we can get that interfacial resonator working again". So, Chronotis pleased says to her "Splendid!" and Claire smiles and says "Well, let's do that then".   

Daniel Hill and Victoria Burgoyne next up are both pretty good in their roles as the young students, Chris Parsons and Clare Keightley, who uwittingly both end up helping out the Doctor and Romana in their struggle against Skagra after Parsons takes the Gallifreyan tome from Chronotis's study.

And just to save time I will mention just one of their scenes they share together, which is the one where Parsons shows the Gallifreyan tome to Clare (which is animated scene in the DVD release).

So, Clare holding the book asks "So, what's it called?" and Parsons "Called? How should I know? Keightly, this book..." and Clare interrupts and says her first name to him as she clearly doesn't like being addressed by her surname. So, Parsons continues and tells Clare "This book will do to science what the Japanese did to Pearl harbour?" and Clare asks "What bomb it??!" and Parsons incredulously asks "What???". And the two of them touch the book and Clare says "Feels like paper, it smells like paper, doesn't behave like paper. Plastic". Parsons then says "Not a single polymer in sight" and Clare asks "Metal?" and Parsons says "No crystalline structure" and Clare suggests a "A single crystal then". Parsons then says "Well, if it is, our mystery Don's got a lot of explaining to do. Half of it's stable all of the time, half of it none of the time. There's absolutely no way of telling what it's made of!".

Clare then suggests "X-ray tomography?" and Parsons says "Oh, yeah, I got a positive result on the x-ray" and Clare asks "What?" and Parsons says "It blew up! Not only can't I tell what the structure is, it actually doesn't seem to have a structure. Pure matter. Non-atomic matter" and Clare says to him "You can't have matter without atomic structure. Its fundamental!". So, Clare asks Parsons "So, what is it all about?" and suggests "Why don't you ask old What's his name?" and Parsons says "Chronotis? Yes, I suppose that's the obvious thing to do" and Clare teases him and says "Is that why you haven't done it yet?". So, Parsons takes the book and makes to leave and says to Clare "Make yourself at home, Keightley" and he goes leaving Clare to sigh and say to herself "Its Clare!".

David Brierely is also pretty good in his vocal role as K-9 (Mark II) the Doctor's loyal robotic dog, who is invaluable in the story. And I won't really mention any of David's dialogue but he has several amusing moments where certain cast members keep saying "Blast!" as an exclamation of frustration and K-9 keep raising his blaster nozzle to fire off a shot! 

And last of all is Christopher Neame as the villain, Skagra, who does a good job in his role and he actually looks across between Robert Webb (of Peep Show) and film star, Paul Bethany!

Neame has some good scenes aswell but I will just mention the one where Skagra enters Chronotis's study and demands the tome from him.

So, in the scene Skagra enters as Chronotis has gone into the kitchen and when he returns, Skagra asks him "Professor Chronotis?" and Chronotis asks "Who are you?" and Skagra says "I have come for the book" and Chronotis asks "What book?" and Skagra threateningly says "You know what book!". So, Chronotis anxiously says "I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't got any books. That's to say, I've got plenty of books. What book would you like?" and Skagra says "The book you took from the Panopticon Archives" and Chronotis looks serious and asks "What do you know about the Panopticon?". Skagra then firmly says to Chronotis "The book, Professor. You are to give it to me" and Chronotis asks "On who's instruction?" and Skagra firmly says "Mine!" and Chronotis asks "Who are you?" and he says "My name does not concern you. Give me the book!".


And as Chronotis says "I don't know where it is", Skagra opens the bag he carries and a sphere rises out of it and he tells Chronotis "If you will not give me the information voluntarily, I will deduct it from you. I'm sure there is much else in your mind that will interest me!". The sphere then attaches itself to Chronotis's head, who struggles and falls to his knees and Skagra stands over him and says "Do not fight it, professor! Do not fight it, or you will die!".







DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the director, Pennant Roberts does a fine job here with the original incomplete footage, which at the time due to the BBC strike, only half of the story had been filmed but what was shot is entertaining and well paced by Roberts. However, another director that also deserves credit is Charles Norton who directed the 2017 restored version for the DVD that featured animated sequences with the original cast reprising their roles. In fact for this production they even used the original sound engineer and audio equipment that used in 1980! 

Anyway both Roberts and Norton do fine work here respectively in assembling the story in their own separate ways even if they were 37 years apart in doing so! ;-)

As for the music well the original score composed by the late great Dudley Simpson still appears here and its another pleasant jaunty effort. However for the restored version on DVD there was additional music by Mark Ayres who was a composer on the show during the 1980's and he too provides some fine work here also.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for flaws...yes OK, Shada is not quite perfect but at the same time I don't have too many gripes with it either.

But as for the flaws what I would say to start off is that the plot is a bit on the elaborate side and it can be difficult to follow at times. This tended to be the case with Douglas Adams's scripts for the show back then as I also found The Pirate Planet to be a bit confusing as well.

Another issue was to do with Skagra being a rather bland-ish villain even though Christopher Neame does a good enough job with his role but at the same time its hard to take him seriously as a villain with that ridiculous white outfit he wears throughout the story and that white hat! It makes Skagra look more like some sort of Sloane Ranger than an actual Doctor Who villain!

Then there is the whole idea of Professor Chronotis later being revealed as Salyavin, which OK I do sort of get it but what I do find strange is just how did Skaga's sphere not detect that it was him when it scanned him??? I guess that Skagra's sphere isn't that bright itself as it also later on tries to extract the Doctor's mind as well but it ends up failing to do so of course!

And this brings me onto the whole concept of Chronotis being Salyavin and how Chronotis keeps condemning Salyavin all the time only for him to later reveal that he IS him! And the whole time, Chronotis is portrayed a forgetful old man but it makes you wonder if he was really just playing with everyone all along and pretending that he was as its funny how the story spends all this time building up the surprise. Again its not clearly defined in the story as to how Chronotis cannot differentiate between his two alter egos until later on when it is conveniently revealed as a plot twist.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Shada is a very enjoyable story and its good to see it be recreated into a complete story courtesy of the feature length DVD/Blu-ray release that combines the live footage and animated sequences very well. The performances are also very good here, even if the audio performances by the older cast members clearly indicates how much their voices have changed since 1980! Douglas Adams script is also intelligent and funny and has plenty of amusing dialogue throughout.

And yeah OK the plot can be a bit confusing to follow at times but for the most part it is an entertaining adventure and one that is well worth checking out.

Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with hopefully one last post before 2019 arrives.

So, until then its bye for now! 

The Matrix Reloaded (Revisited) Part 2 "He's doin his Superman thing!"

OK, as we are nearing Christmas I thought I would do another post just before we hit Christmas day and this one is yet ANOTHER revisitation (I know! I know!) and this will be of the sequel to the Matrix: Matrix Reloaded.

The sequels of course never have received the accolades of the original and generally considered as being inferior, but are they? And is Reloaded that mediocre??? Well, let take another look...

And yep there will be the usual warning ahead...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!! 

STORY 

So, the film begins roughly 6 months after the events of the first Matrix film, with Neo (Keanu Reeves) now firmly having established his full powers in the Matrix and his function as "the One" who is still a crew member on Morpheus's ship, and he and Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) and now a couple.  Neo however is troubled with nightmares of Trinity falling to her death after engaging in battle with an agent. 

Meanwhile however Morpheus receives a message from one of the human resistance group's spaceships, lead by Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett) who organises a full meeting of the other ships to meet in the Matrix.  At the meeting it is revealed that one of the ship's last messages before it was destroyed was there will be an army of sentinels (the machines from the first film that attacked Morpheus's ship at the end) that will breach Zion within 72 hours, intent on destroying the city and its people.

After the meeting Neo encounters a few agents, defeating them, he flies to find the Oracle, who is nowhere to be seen in her apartment.  Later on Morpheus and his crew arrive back in Zion, and at a large meeting later on Morpheus tells the people that the machines are coming to the city, but they should not fear as they will stand their ground and fight, after this a party (or rave if you like!) ensues. 

After the party is over, Neo receives a message from the Oracle asking that he meet with her, as he goes to, he first has to fight her bodyguard Seraph (Collin Chou) to prove he is "the one" to him. The oracle at their meeting explains that she is part of the Matrix, and in order for the one to save Zion, he must reach the source, but in order to do that, Neo will need to find another program called the Keymaker, who can open the hidden portals to the source, but he is held by another program called the Merovingian.  After their meeting is over, Neo is confronted by a familiar figure, Smith (Hugo Weaving) who explains he is now unplugged from the system and a rouge program and he attacks Neo with his multiple clones but Neo manages to fight them off and escape.

Soon after Neo, Morpheus and Trinity meet with the French accented Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), a powerful program, who refuses to give up the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim).  However after their meeting, Merv's wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci) betrays him by leading Neo to the Keymaker, which lead the Merovingian to send his men to attack Neo and others.  Neo manages to fight off Merv's men, who escapes before Neo can get to him, meanwhile Morpheus and Trinity flee into the city as they are chased by the Merovingian's bodyguards, the Twins, who are shape shifting programs that walk through solid matter.  Morpheus eventually manages to defeat the twins, but soon after is confronted by agents who are out to eliminate the Keymaker.  Just before Morpheus and the Keymaker are about to be killed by two agents who crash two big trucks into each other, Neo flies in and rescues them both (as one of his superhuman abilities is the power of flight).

As the clock is ticking down in the real world for Zion, Morpheus and Neo go into the Matrix with the Keymaker to reach the source.  The Keymaker leads them to a portal, but they are ambushed by a group of Smiths, who Neo and Morpheus fight off, but as the Keymaker opens the door that leads to the source, the Smiths open fire at the Keymaker, who closes the door just after Neo and Morpheus get into the room, riddling him with bullets.  And just before he dies the Keymaker tells Neo which door leads to the source, and gives him the key to open the door, and other door will take Morpheus home. 

Neo uses the key to open the door to the source, which is then flooded with bright shining light, in the room he meets with an old bearded man, wearing a white suit, who calls himself the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), who reveals some rather shocking truths to Neo about the Matrix, which will have a devastating effect for Zion and for Trinity...

THOUGHTS 

It has to be said that even though The Matrix Reloaded isn't quite in the same class as the original, it does succeed in expanding on the Matrix universe and it introduces Zion properly and the rest of the human resistance and it is still quite entertaining as an action film.  And it does allow an audience to see how these characters fit into their real world as opposed to the computer generated virtual reality world of the Matrix itself. 

The story also neatly brings in the concept of Smith no longer being an agent, or another way of putting it, a computer program conforming to its function of the Matrix and instead he has become more a computer virus spreading his way throughout the system.  The film also works well when it comes to its action scenes which are excellent and its main highlights include the long freeway scene and the burly brawl between Neo and the multiple Smiths.        

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

Performance wise things are mainly good here even if they aren't all quite top notch. 

And to start off Keanu Reeves despite his wooden moments, still delivers a likeable performance as Neo, although you could say he is a man who shows as little emotion at times as Ivan Lendl does! (who was a former World No.1 tennis player and former coach to also former World No.1, Andy Murray).  Reeves delivers all his lines in a hushed monotone and as a result he doesn't make that great an impact on an audience but regardless of that though Reeves still has his good moments in the film and he is more than capable of handling the film's action scenes.

And as for some of Keanu's good scenes for starters there is the scene where he confronts the three new agents that barge in on the resistance meeting and as he effortlessly blocks one of the agent's moves he says "Huh!  Upgrades!" before he easily fends them off. 

Then there is the scene where he is forced to fight Seraph, the program that protects the Oracle, in order to truly prove his identity to him.  And Seraph says "I needed to make sure that you are the One" and Neo simply says "You could have just asked!". 

Then of course there is the aforementioned big fight scene between Neo and Smith and his clones where Smith unsuccessfully tries to copy Neo into one of himself.  And after Neo escapes and jacks out of the Matrix safely, Morpheous asks of Smith "What was he doing to you?" and Neo says "I don't know what he was doing.  But I remember what it felt like" and Trinity asks what and Neo says "It felt like I was back in that hallway...it felt like dying". 

Then there is the scene where Neo meets with the Architect and at the end of their meeting, Neo is clearly fed up with the Architect's pompousness and says to him just before he leaves "If I were you, I'd hope we don't meet again!" and the Architect tells Neo "We won't!". 

BIG SPOILER COMING UP IN NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!

Another good scene from Keanu is when Neo rescues Trinity from falling to her death after her fight with the agents and he flies her up to a rooftop however Trin passes away from her gunshot wound but Neo refuses to let her go. So, Neo holds Trinity tightly and says "Trinity, I know you can hear me, but I'm not letting go! I love you too damn much!" and he puts his inside her and restarts her heart, bringing her back to life!

And last of all is the moment where Neo tells Morpheus and Trinity what the Architect told him and how prophecy of the "One" ending the war is false. So, Neo tells Moprheus "The prophecy was a lie. The One was never meant to end anything. It was all another system of control". Morpheus however looks hurt and shocked by this new and he says "I don't believe that" but Neo says to him "But you said it yourself. How can the prophecy be true if the war isn't over? I'm sorry. I know it isn't easy to hear, but...I swear to you it's the truth".

Next up is Laurence Fishburne who does fair better as the great Morpheus but he too has to endure playing what is a pretty one dimensional character.  Nonetheless Fishburne has some good scenes in the film such as his opening scene where Neo says to his new sceptical operator, Link "Given your situation, I can't say I fully understand your reasons for volunteering to operate on my ship. However, if you wish to continue to do so, I must ask you to do one thing" and Link asks "What's that, sir?" and Morpheus simply says "To trust me". 

Another good scene is after Morpheus, Neo and Trinity meet with the Merovingian and they leave empty handed without the keymaker and Neo says "Well that went well!" and Trinity says "Maybe we did something wrong?" and Morpheus says "No, what happened, happened and it couldn't have happened any other way".  And Neo asks "How do you know?" and Morpheus says "We are still alive!" before exiting the lift.
 
And then we have one of Fishburne's best scenes, the freeway scene, which itself must rank as one of the best action scenes in modern cinema and Fishburne get's one of his best lines where he tells Trinity to drive onto the freeway and she says "You always told me to stay off the freeway" and Morpheus says "That's true" and Trinity says "You said it was suicide" and Morpheus says "Then let us hope I was wrong!". 

And this is followed by Morpheus's pretty cool fight scene with the agent in which Morpheus actually manages to hold his own against the superior agent before he and the keymaker get caught into a sticky situation as both remaining agents turns their trucks and drive right for each other on a collision course.  And in the scene Morpheus looks on worried and says to himself "Neo, if you're out there I could use some help!". 

And last of all in what is a pretty pretentious moment but still an enjoyably cheesy one is the line where Morpheus looks on in shock as he sees the sentinels (SPOILER) have destroyed the  Nebuchadnezzar and he says "I have dreamed a dream, but now that dreamed has been taken from me!".

Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, who does well in her role as Trinity even though her character is a little one dimensional (well they are all mostly!) but at the same time we do get to see more of Trinity's human side here, which works well. 

And Carrie-Anne has some good scenes that include the one where Trinity and Neo arrive back on Zion and when they finally get a chance to themselves in the lift they drop their things and kiss each other.  And Neo between kisses says to her "How long to recharge the Neb?" and Trinity says "24, maybe 30 hours" and Neo says "Some people go their entire lives without hearing news that good!". 

Then there is the scene Neo, Trinity and Morpheus go to meet with the Merovingian and as their meeting finishes one of Merv's guards is about to put their hand on her and she says "Touch me and that hand will never touch anything again!".  

And lastly there is the scene where Trinity infiltrates the building where Neo, Morpheus and the Keymaker are to turn the power off to let them into the room to access the source.  And as Link says there is a problem as the power is still on, Trinity sets herself to go into the Matrix and she says "I will not stand here and do nothing and watch them die" and Link says "Trinity we've got five minutes" and Trinity says "In five minutes I'll tear that whole goddamn building down!".  And after that there is of course Trinity's fight scene with the agent which leads into the opening scene of the film where Trinity dives out the window of the building in bullet time slow-mo.

Hugo Weaving next up is great here once again as Smith and he provides the film's most entertainign performance as the former agent, who is now a powerful rogue program that is roaming the Matrix cloning himself. 

Weaving has his fair share of good moments which include his first main scene where he meets with Neo and they engage in their "burly brawl".  And Weaving also get's the best lines in the film as well such as in the same scene where he tells Neo "We're not here because we're free. We're here because we're not free. There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist!". 

And as Smith surrounds Neo with his clones he says to Neo "We are here, Mr Anderson to take back what you tried to take from us..." and thrusts his hand into Neo's stomach and he says "Purpose!" as he tries to copy Neo but ultimately fails.  And in the same scene as one of the agents arrives on the scene, Smith stops him and the agent looks at him and says with surprise "You!" and Smith says "Yes me!" and he clones him saying "Me, me, me!" and after he clones the agent, the cloned Smith says "Me too!".

And later on there is the scene where Smith stops Neo from entering the room leading to the source and he says to him "Sorry but this is a dead end!".  And Neo asks him what he wants and Smith teases him by saying "Still using all the muscles except the one that matters?" and he says "I want what you want.  I want everything!" and as Morpheus produces his gun and says "Would that include a bullet from this gun?" Smith smiles saying "Go ahead!  Shoot!  The good thing about me is there are so many "me's!" just before his clones surge out and attack Neo and Morpheus.

And the last few cast members I will mention include Gloria Foster who makes her last appearance as the Oracle before she passed away and her character succeeds in adding a little extra colour to the proceedings. 

Foster's main scene is a good one where the Oracle meets with Neo and she has a good line at the end of their meeting where she tells him "It seems that every time we meet, I have nothing but bad news. I'm sorry about that, I surely am. But for what it's worth, you've made a believer out of me. Good luck, kiddo!".

Lambert Wilson is also pretty good in his role as the Merovingian, the French crimelord (or whatever he is) who holds the keymaker and likes to cheat on his wife Persephone (Monica Bellucci). 

Wilson also has some good moments especially in his first scene where he talks about how much he loves the French language and he speaks a little in French and says after "Its like wiping your arse with silk!".  And later as he finishes his meeting with Neo, Trin and Morph (for short to save me typing a few more keys!) he says to them "The Keymaker is mine and I see no reason to give him up... No reason at all..".  And as he is about to leave Persephone asks him where he is going "Cause and effect, my love.  I drink too much wine I need to take a piss!" (but he tends to follows an attractive women into the toilets!). 

And later on Persephone betrays her husband by handing over the Keymaker to the Neo, Trin and Morph and as three of them have to face off Merv's men, Neo says "I'll handle them".  And the Merovingian says "Handle us!  He'll handle us!  You know your predecessors had much more respect!!" before his men open fire on Neo who simply freezes the bullets in the air and they drop and Merv says "OK so you have some skill!  Kill him!".

And the last two I will mention are Monica Bellucci as Persephone who is good in her role as Merv's sexy wife who ends up betraying him as she is "so tired of his bullshit!".  And in the scene where Persephone releases the Keymarker, Merv then barges in with his men and he protests to her in French and asks her after "How could you do this?  You betrayed me!" and Persephone says "Cause and effect my love!".  And Merv is outraged "Cause?!!  There is no cause for this!  What cause?!" and Persephone says "What cause?  What about the lipstick you are still weaing?" and Merv aghast says "What lipstick?!  There is no lipstick!" and she says "She wasn't kissing your face, my love!" and he nervously rubs his face.

And quickly Jada Pinkett-Smith (Will Smith's Mrs's) does OK in her role as Niobe who it is reveal was once the love interest of Morpheus (and its later hinted that she might be again in the Matrix Revolutions) but despite her character being one of the slightly more interesting ones, she is underused in the film.  Niobe would however feature more prominently in The Matrix Revolutions as well as the video game that was released at the time, Enter the Matrix, which also featured various cut scenes and characters that were a whole lot more interesting than Neo, Morpheus or Trinity!      

And the last two I will mention are Harold Perrineau as Link, the Neb's operator who is somewhat sceptical of Morpheus and Neo's power at first but soon comes to believe in them both.  And Harold's most notable scene comes near the start of the film after Neo fights off the agents and takes to the skies and Morpheus asks him "Where is he Neo" and Link says "He's doing his Superman thing again!".  And lastly there is the scene where Neo saves Morpheus and the Keymaker just in time from being burned alive after the agents collide their two trucks together which burst into flames and Link then shouts "Yes!!" and collapses with relief into his console.

And last last of all is Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect, who designed the Matrix. 

And Helmut delivers his dialogue in a very pretentious manner and also in a way which is pretty confusing as he keeps using words such as "Apropos" and Vis-a-vis" not to mention "concordantly" which also tends to be quite annoying! 

Nevertheless Helmut has some good lines, particularly last monologue where he indicates the two doors to either side of Neo. So, the Architect tells Neo "There are two doors. The door to your right leads to the Source and the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to the Matrix, to her... and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice. But we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction: the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you to the simple and obvious truth: she is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it!".

So, Neo decides to take the door that leads back to Trinity and the Architect scoffs and says to Neo "Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness!". Neo then looks coldly at the Architect and with a quiet threatening tone says to him "If I were, I would hope we don't meet again" and the Architect looks at him and says "We won't!" just before Neo walks out.


DIRECTION AND MUSIC

Finally getting onto the directors (and writers) of the film, The Wachowskis do an excellent job here (who are now of course both living as trans-gender women and are named Lana and Lilly!).  And despite some lapses in pacing and filling the film up with pretentious dialogue they know how to stage action scenes and there are plenty of awesome ones at that here particularly the freeway sequence, which must rank (in my humble opinion!) as one of the finest action sequences in modern cinema.  

And music wise the Wachowski's reuse their composer from the first film, Don Davis who provides another pretty solid score, which fits the tone of the film very well even if it is at times a bit overbearing in its intensity and volume.  The film also makes good use of another Rage against the machine track "Calm like a bomb" as it plays over the film's end credits and the film's soundtrack must rank as must listen for any home cinema enthusiast as its an amazing mixture of surround sound explosions and gunfire as well as some awesome deep bass for the bullet time moments.  

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for The Matrix Reloaded's flaws.....yeah ok the film of course is not without its flaws and to start off the pacing of the film is a bit inconsistent especially as the first 30 or 40 minutes are definitely a bit too slow, as it reveals Zion and the people of the city, which while its important it also makes for a rather boring sequence at times.  And film's opening sequence is also pretty cheesy and ridiculous with its various camera zooms and pans of the Matrix code along with Don Davis's overblown intro music. 

There is also of course a new annoying character the Kid (Clayton Wilson) who is some young eager wannabe, who was freed from the Matrix, who desperately wants to be a part of Morpheus's crew, although I'm sure Neo probably wished they had re-inserted him back into the Matrix judging by his expression!  And as I said there are probably too many characters to introduce to the film, with so many human resistance crewmembers, you can't devote too much time to them and basically why bother, as you only have two hours to tell the story. 

Then we have that cringeworthy rave sequence in Zion not to mention Morpheus's rather pretentious speech in which he goes on and on and finally finishes by shouting "Tonight, let us tremble these halls of earth, steel, and stone, let us be heard from red core to black sky. Tonight, let us make them remember, THIS IS ZION AND WE ARE NOT AFRAID!".  Uggghh!  Not to mention the film also features that very awkward looking sex scene between Neo and Trinity during the rave sequence as well and their love story remains a pretty awkward one but to be fair I think it does develop a bit better in The Matrix Revolutions. 

And this brings me onto the characters in general as the Matrix trilogy really does suffer from a lack of colourful three dimensional characters with the three leads being a tad dull and one-note although Neo and Trinity do have the odd moment of humour here and there but Morpheus is pretty much straight up serious all the way!  There are exceptions of course with Smith, the Merovingian and the Oracle, who are all quite colourful and interesting personalities in their own different ways. 

And nowww we get to the Architect who has to be the trilogy's most pretentious and confounding character as surely left many a viewer infuriated by his vagueness and obscurity and he simply cannot saying ANYTHING in a straight forward way.  Such examples of this include when he talks to Neo and derides for having hope and he says "Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness!".  And another is this one "It is interesting reading your reactions. Your five predecessors were, by design, based on a similar predication: a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the One. While the others experienced this in a general way, your experience is far more specific. Vis-à-vis: love".  Acchhh just get to the point already!!

In fact that remains a problem with the trilogy in general in that none of these characters can communicate in a concise manner they ALL have to deliver pretentious long drawn out speeches when they could just say what they mean to say in or two lines!  But instead we get the Merovingian spouting about human desires in such a long winded way, the Architect blabbing on in such an incoherent manner.  And lastly not to mention even Morphues yakking on about how they can end the war by reaching the source as he sermons " I see purpose. I believe it our fate to be here. It is our destiny. I believe this night holds for each and every one of us, the very meaning of our lives!".  Aghhhhhh shaddupp!!  

Anywayys that's me finished looking at the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up (again!) the Matrix Reloaded for all its faults, for me is still a very entertaining and even underrated sequel, which has some of the trilogy's best action scenes too.  So it remains a bit of a curate's egg as there is definitely some good stuff here but at the same time you need to take the film's shortcomings as well.  But if you can forgive that its still an enjoyable film and I personally think its not quite as bad as people give it stick for.

OK, so that's it for now and I'd just like to finish by wishing you all Merry Christmas and hope you a good one and I'll be back on here with yet ANOTHER post or two before the year is out!

So, till then Merry Christmas!

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Revisited (Part 2!)

Right OK, so this is YET another revisitation of a post I already have done a re-write of, which will be my post for the crime action video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and as I am currently re-playing it just now I thought I would give the review another lick of paint.  

So let's take yet another look at this classic and expand further on what was already a very LONG post!

Oh and three warnings are coming up, first off: this post will contain explicit language and secondly, this post is going to be even LONGER than before (or to put it the gangster way a LONG-ASS READ!) and thirdly......

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY 

So it all begins in Los Santos (based on Los Angeles) back in 1992, when Carl "CJ" Johnson (voiced by hip-hop artist Young Maylay) returns back to his home to attend his mother's funeral.  CJ goes back home to his neighbourhood where he meets up with his brother, Sweet (Faizon Love), and his gangster friends Ryder (MC Eiht) and Big Smoke (Clifton Powell).  Together they go about trying to re-establish themselves as the main gang in Los Santos, and they also hijack shipments of weapons, and starting turf wars with their main rivals, the Ballas and the Vagos.

CJ is also along the way also forced to help two corrupt police officers, Frank Tenpenny (Samuel L.Jackson) and Eddie Pulaski (Chris Penn) into doing their dirty work for them.  CJ manages however to maintain good relations with his brother and his friends, as well as earning respect in their neighbourhood.  But its not long before things start to turn sour again as CJ receives a tip from Caesar Vialpando (Clifton Collins Jr) who is his sister's boyfriend.

Caesar meets with CJ secretly under a bridge where they spy on Big Smoke and Ryder coming out garage with a green sabre, the car which was seen during the drive-by hit on CJ's mother.  CJ realises then that Sweet, who is going on a gang mission, that he is walking into a trap set up by Tenpenny.  CJ arrives too late on the scene to prevent the ambush, and Sweet is injured by a gunshot, and after making a last stand, the police arrive and CJ is arrested, and taken out into the San Andreas countryside by Tenpenny.

Tenpenny wants CJ to assassinate a witness who is a threat to him and his partner Eddie, and with little choice CJ does the hit.  CJ soon after is also called up by a stranger called the Truth (Peter Fonda) who was recruited by Tenpenny as well to prepare in discrediting a district attorney.  The Truth is an old hippie and marijuana farmer, who naturally pretty spaced out, and sends CJ to do different missions.  CJ also is set up to meet one of Caesar's cousins, the crazed Catalina (Cynthia Farrell) who he does some robberies with, and also engages in some rather kinky sex (we hear it rather than see it!).

CJ through Caesar also hears about some underground street races out in the country, and he ends up racing against Catalina, and after winning the race, she hands over the deeds to a garage she owns in San Fierro (the equivalent of San Francisco).  CJ along with Caesar, and his sister Kendl (voiced by rapper Yo-Yo) and the Truth all travel out to San Fierro, however they find the garage to be empty and deserted, which angers CJ.  Kendl manages to persuade CJ to turn it into a business, and he ends up recruiting a couple of mechanics and an electronics whiz named Zero (David Cross) in order to do so.  As the business starts to turn a profit, CJ also befriends a Triad leader, the blind Wu Zi Mu "Woozie" (James Yaegashi) and does some business with him as well.

Eventually CJ also travels out to Las Venturas (based on Las Vegas) where he meets up with some more business associates.  Along the way however he is intercepted by a secret government agent by the name of Mike Toreno (James Woods) who asks him to do some work for him, and in return he will secure Sweet's release.  And to cut a long story short, its not long before CJ eventually makes his way back to Los Santos, where things have gone from bad to worse, where Big Smoke rules the roost and has filled the city with drug addled gangsters and its to CJ to put an end to it once and for all.   

THOUGHTS AND GAMEPLAY  

There is no doubt that San Andreas is a great game and its ambitious scale alone makes it a very worthy gaming experience.  The transition to not only a new city, but a new state also expands on the game's appeal considerably, as now the main character can travel from place to place over a vast area.  The gameplay mechanics have also improved quite a bit as well, as now with the main character, CJ, he can also sorts of things such as learn new differet styles of attacks such as boxing, martial arts as well as dirty street fighting.

CJ can also do something about his physical appearance as he can work out at the gym, and either build up his body by lifting weights, or build up stamina and endurance on an exercise bike or a treadmill, and he can even put on weight by eating too much!  Apparently there was even a rumour going around that CJ could eat too much and become so overweight that he would eventually keel over and die, but I tried stuffing CJ full of food for ages and it never happened! However every time CJ overeats, he will throw up and lose a bit of his health bar so he could die that way right enough!

Unlike the previous main characters such as Claude and Tommy (in GTA III and Vice City respectively) CJ now has the ability to swim and climb over fences, as well as to crouch while moving. CJ can also even get a new haircut as well as get tatoos, and in addition to the pre-determined outfits you get from Vice City, here CJ can go into cloth stores and chose his own gear, which can also add to his sex appeal (which is shown as bar meter along with his other aspects such as muscle, stamina, fat and weapon skill).

CJ can also go out on dates with girls and there is of course a progress metre for that as well, and CJ can pick up different girlfriends in the different locations in the game, all of whom have different tastes for food, bars, events etc.  And if the date goes well then some idyllic, romantic music is played but if it goes badly then rather amusingly we hear "Killing in the name of" by Rage Against The Machine play over the cutscene!     

Again there is a huge variety of missions here as well, with CJ having more than just the option of playing the story missions (which are really varied as it is) but he can also play minigames such as burgalries, go on trucking missions, take lessons at an advanced driving school, get involved in street races, and also playing pool, arcade games and basketball.

Another key factor in the game is also the gang wars, where CJ will have to take over different turfs in the city, owned by other gangs such as the Ballas, which is done by killing a few gang members, which sparks a gang war, after which CJ must survive a wave of attacks from the gangs, after which he takes over the turf.  This plays a crucial part later on in the game when CJ returns to Los Santos as he must take over at least 35% of the gang turfs in Los Santos in order to activate the final story mission.

In addition to this, there are also a large variety of vehicles to use, as in addition to the usual cars, there are bicycles, a combine harvester, a trailer, street sweeper being some of the more novelty type modes of transportation.  There is also the inclusion of planes and helicopters as there is a variety of these two, although CJ's necessity to learn to fly prompts one of the game's most frustrating missions, which I will say a bit more about later.

VOICE ACTING AND MUSIC (Warning: this section contains explicit language and spoilers!)

As for the voice acting, again things are top notch, with real life hip-hop artist, Young Maylay putting in an excellent performance as the central character, Carl "CJ Jonhson, who returns to Los Santos after five years and makes a name for himself again.  CJ is a pretty likeable character despite all his crimes, most of them are done out of either survival, necessity or being purely manipulated, but as a character he nevers get ahead of himself, and he carries that way till the end.

Maylay also get's some great lines throughout the game such as when he is driving and he bumps into someone and he comes out with lines such as "Are you a professional moron, or just a gifted amateur??!" or "Did you steal your licence???!".

Maylay also has some great scripted moments in the game's cutscenes that include the scene where CJ arrives at the empty garage in San Fierro, which Catalina gave him the deeds for.  And when he arrives he angrily shouts about Claude "Mother-fucker! That mute asshole! That fucking snake without a tongue! Gave me this shit-hole instead of a pink slip? I must be the biggest fucking idiot in the whole fucking world!".  

Then there are the scenes where CJ is out robbing with Catalina and he talks to her of her psychotic behaviour when they are driving and he says to her "You're a great girl and all, but you've gotta calm down!  I know some cold blooded cats that wouldn't act the way you do!".  Or there is the moment where CJ and Catalina rob a bank together and she tells him what to do crowd control and not to take any "shit!" and CJ sarcastically replies "Yes, Miss Catalina, Miss!!".

In another mission cutscene, Maylay has a good dramatic moment where CJ sits in deep thought, feeling guilty (SPOILER!!) over killing his former "homie" Ryder.  And as Caesar arrives to congratulate CJ on taking down Ryder and his drug syndicate saying that people think he is a hero, and CJ somberly says to him "Shit's still fucked up. Man, I got homies I used to run with that turn their back on me, over this".  And CJ continues, lamenting over Ryder "Fucking Ryder man! That was my homie! And I've killed him!".  

Another good moment in one of the mission's "Vertical Bird" (also one of the most frustrating!) is when CJ steal a jet fighter and uses to bomb some ships in the ocean and Mike Toreno keeps in contact with CJ by radio.  And Toreno says to CJ "You see?? Child's play!" and CJ yells "FUCK YOU, TORENO!!  I NEVER WANNA GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN!! I THINK I'M GONNA HURL!!".  And Toreno teases Carl and CJ shouts at him "Shut up, Toreno!! Where do you want this thing???!" and Toreno fobs him off by saying "I don't know what you're talking about!" and CJ continues to yell at him "TORENO!!".

Samuel L. Jackson as you would expect does a great job as the corrupt copy, Tenpenny, who uses CJ as his own personal puppet and forces him to do his dirty work throughout the game.

Sam naturally of course has some great lines and moments in the story that include the cutscene in the mission "Burning desire" where Tenpenny warns CJ that he owns him.  And Tenpenny says to CJ "Now you get this straight. We own you! You're ours. We can shit on you from such a height you'll think God himself has crapped on you! You understand?!".  

Another good moment from Sam comes in the cutscene for "The Green Sabre" where Tenpenny and his crooked cop partner, Pulaski take CJ out into the middle of the country.  And CJ asks where he is and Tenpenny says to him "The middle-of-fucking-nowhere!  Nice, clean air".  And CJ asks of Sweet (who was badly injured during the events of the mission" and Tenpenny tells him "Sweet is alive. Alive and inside. He's in a prison hospital being treated for gunshot wounds, awaiting trial".  And then Tenpenny warns CJ to say away from Smoke and himself "Now you stay the fuck away from Smoke, and stay the fuck away from us. Otherwise Sweet is going to find himself on a Ballas block getting in touch with his feminine side!". 

Then lastly is the cutscene from the mission "High Noon" where (SPOILER!!) Tenpenny is about to tie up all his loose ends by finally killing off CJ and his fellow cop, Hernandez, who betrayed him.  And in the scene, Tenpenny angrily hits Hernandez on the back of the head with a spade and yells at him "YOU SNITCH PIECE OF SHIT! YOU VATO ASSHOLE! YOU SOLD US OUT!".  And Tenpenny get's into his car and Pulaski asks where he is going and Tenpenny sharply replies "To get drunk and get laid - you got a problem with that?!!" and Pulaski says no and then Tenpenny says "Good. I'll see you back at the precinct" and he looks to CJ and says "And I'll see YOU in the next life, Carl!".  

Faizon Love as Sweet, CJ's brother, is also excellent, and he stands as just about one of the only old school gangsters around, as he is sickened by all the drugs that festers his neighbourhood.

Faizon has some good moments aswell although his performance is mostly quite serious and dramatic he does have some amusing scenes aswell.

And to save time and making this post much bigger than it needs to be (than it already is!) I will mention one scene from the mission "Riot" where Sweet having met the wank obssessed English musician, Maccer (voiced by Shaun Ryder of The Happy Mondays) asks who he is.

So CJ tells Sweet "What? Oh, Maccer! He got a little problem he can't control".  And Sweet asks "What kind of problem?" and CJ awkwardly says "He can't stop, you know, giving himself a little bit".  And Sweet says "What, you mean he likes to consult Professor Hans Jerkov?" and CJ says "Yeah regularly!" and Sweet says a few more crude phrases for masturbation such as "Spank the money" and "Take Palm-ela out??" and "Burp the worm??".   

Clifton Powell is also very good as Big Smoke, as his gruff voice adds well to the character, as Smoke gives off the idea that he is an old school gangster, who is not into pushing drugs, but instead he reveals himself to be just that, as he takes over the gangs in the middle of the game.

Powell also has some good moments in the script such as during the mission "Just Business" where CJ and Big Smoke flee from a group of Russian mobsters on a bike.  And during the chase a car chasing them hits a bus and Smoke laughs out loud saying "I'll never dis public transportation again!".  And then later on Big Smoke shouts to Carl re: his objections "Man, stop being so negative! Focus on the good news!" and Carl says "Such as?!" and Smoke shouts "We ain't dead, and your trigger finger still works, fool! I think the gearbox is screwed up on this thing! I can't get no speed!".  And Carl says to him "Yeah, who negative now bitch?!" and Smoke says to him "Point taken.  I'll keep my mouth shut from now on!".  

Clifton Collins Jr does well also in his role as Cesar Vialpando, although it has to be said that his semi raspy voice does get annoying after a while and when he says "Hey, Holmes!" he sounds like he is constipated!

Clifton also has some moments such as the scene where Cesar takes his girlfriend and Carl's sister, Kendall out to the country to keep her safe from the city.  And in the cutscene Cesar angrily says to CJ "This ain't over, man. I did this to take care of my woman. But now I'm gonna head straight back home, and I'm gonna cap me some fucking dope dealers!".  And CJ warns Cesar not to go back or he could get himself killed but Cesar impatiently says "We already know who the fucking bad guys are, man, your stinking Grove Street brother Smoke, and those chota pigs Tenpenny and Pulaski!".  

Lastly there is the cutscene in the mission "Los Desparados" where Cesar awkwardly asks CJ his permission to ask Kendall "the question" i.e. to propose to her.  And in the scene Cesar says to CJ "While we here, I, eerr, I have a question to ask you" and CJ says "Yeah what?" and Cesar says "Well its....its personal" and CJ reassures him he can ask him anything he wants.  So Cesar says to CJ "OK, here goes. I want to ask Kendl the question" but CJ doesn't follow his meaning, so Cesar says again "No, holmes.  The QUESTION!" and CJ get's what he means and says he's fine with it.   

There are also several other noteworthy voice acting roles in the supporting cast, starting with James Woods, who is generally great in anything he does, and he certainly is here as the secret government agent Mike Toreno, who manipulates CJ into doing work for him.

Woods has plenty of good moments in the story although I will only mention a few to save some time such as the one where Toreno finally reveals who he really is after putting him through some racing exercises.  And Toreno warns CJ "Do not be a fucking smart-ass with me!  I work for a government agency. It is not important which one. I will try not to confuse you. Yes, when we last met, I was involved in battling threats in Latin America, by any means necessary! That does not make me a drug dealer. Now, the money that we raised, the friends that we won over, have helped us immeasurably in our overseas interests".  

Woods has one of my favourite exchanges of dialogue in the game with CJ, as Toreno grabs CJ from behind by the throat and tells him "Got you again, Carl!  You're half asleep!  I could have killed you in 9 different ways.  Wake up and smell the coffee!".  And he let's CJ go who angrily says to Toreno "You need to lay off the coffee!".

And later there is also the scene in the mission "Vertical Bird" where CJ steals a jet fighter at Toreno's behest and after CJ bombs some ships in the ocean Toreno communicates with him over a radio.  And Toreno says to CJ "You see!  Child's play!" which enrages CJ who shouts at him "FUCK YOU, TORENO!  I NEVER WANT TO GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN!  I THINK I'M GONNA HURL!".  And after this Toreno teases CJ saying "Ooh, what a big whiner, you want some cheese with that wine? Hey, you were spectacular. You know what, I'm beginning to think my little Carl is a double agent. Oooh!".  And CJ shouts at him "Shut up, Toreno!!  Where do you want this thing?!" and Toreno says to him "What thing? I don't know what you're talking about - you stole it. Got nothing to do with me, I don't know what you're talking about. See ya 'round!".  

Peter Fonda is also very good as the aged hippie, the Truth, who is pretty spaced throughout the whole game, and he also makes some weird prophecies too, and at one point gets CJ to steal an advanced jetpack from a military airbase, which is one of the game's most enjoyable missions "Black Project".

Fonda also has some good lines of dialogue such as in his first exchange with CJ over the phone as he says to him "Carl..." and CJ asks "Who's this?" and Truth says "Its me.  The Truth" and CJ asks "Who?" and Truth says "Perfection!  They said you were a moron!".

Another example later comes in the mission "Wear flowers in your hair" which is set in San Fierro, CJ and Truth drive around to recruit guys to help build-up CJ's garage business.  And during the mission, Truth spouts out some weird conspiracy theories to CJ " Now what if I told you, we never went to the moon, JFK lives in Scotland with Janis Joplin and the only reason we've been in a Cold war for the last 45 years was because snake-headed aliens run the oil business??".  And CJ sarcastically replies "I think you popped another microdot!" and Truth says "Good!  Keep it that way".  

James Yaegashi is also excellent as Wu Zi Mu or "Woozie" as he is known to everyone else who is a mild mannered guy who just so happens to be the leader of a group of Triads, the Mountain Cloud Boys.  Woozie is blind but he doesn't like it to be mentioned in his presence but despite this he has highly attuned senses and he can still do things such as beat CJ at playing video games but most of the time his men let him win at games.

And in one of the cutscenes this is noted when CJ and Woozie are playing blackjack and CJ checks Woozie's hand, which is a losing one and Woozie annoyed says " Damn. You're bad luck for me. You know, when I play the other guys, I always win!".  But in another cutscene as Woozie does some putting in his office, one of his associates moves a glass into its path so he can hole it but the associate moves the glass away when CJ tries to putt.  And CJ looks on incredulously and says "What the....?!" and Woozie sensing CJ missed says "Aww bad luck!".   

Yaegashi also has some good lines too in the story that include the scene where in the mission "Mountain cloud boys" CJ and Woozie are ambushed by a Vietnamese gang who kill one of Woozie's Triad clan.  And in the scene Woozie shows another side to his personality as he becomes furious at the deaths of his clan and yells at the gang "THE TRIADS MUST HAVE VENGEANCE!!  YOUR MOTHERS WERE SLUTS!!!".  And after they kill off the rival gang members, Woozie says to CJ "Thank you, Carl, you saved me from having to kill them all myself!".

MC Eiht is also pretty good as Ryder, one of the Grove street gang that (SPOILER!!) ends up betraying CJ and Sweet and is part of the Loco syndicate.  Eiht has some good moments too and Ryder's character always seems to enjoy putting CJ down about his driving and he also spends quite a bit of his time high on marijuana.

And Eiht's good scenes include the one where CJ pays Ryder visit when Ryder is high as a kite on marijuana.  And Ryder, stoned, says to CJ " Hey, CJ, tell me why I didn't finish high school" and CJ offers a few joky explanations and Ryder laughs and says "It's cause I'm too intelligent for this shit. I am the real deal fool, oh, yeah. A genius!".

And in another scene during a mission when Ryder slags off CJ for his driving as they get and drive off, Ryder says to CJ "You drive, CJ - seein as you "Mister Driver" an all and CJ says "Aw not your shit again, don't give me a hard time about my driving, I ain't got the energy fot it!".  And Ryder says to him "Well don't roll the damn car over and blow us all up in flames then!" and CJ says "Aw, I ain't risin to your shit, man!" and Ryder says "Good! Means you'll concentrate on the road then!".  So CJ says "You love givin a homie a hard time" and Ryder says "Just tryin to keep my soldiers alive, nigga!" and CJ says "By naggin them to death???" and Ryder shouts "Watch the road, motherfucker!  Watch the road!".

Other notable voice actors include Chris Penn, the late brother of Sean Penn, who gives a fine performance as the corrupt cop, Eddie Pulaski, who it reveals always had a thing for CJ's sister, and in his final mission, where CJ stands over Eddie who is dying, CJ asks him "Any last requests?" and Eddie says "Yeah, can I fuck your sister??".  And this prompts CJ to say, disgusted by Pulaski "You're an asshole to the end.  Punk motherfucker!" and he finishes him off.

Jas Anderson is also quite funny as the annoying, talentless rapper and wannabe gangster, OG Loc who at one get's Carl help to get his rap career on the go by discrediting a popular rapper named Mad Dogg (played by the rapper Ice-T).

Loc has some funny scenes that involve things such as getting revenge over a former hispanic cellmate, who is pretty camp and says that OG "dropped the soap" when he was in prison.  And later after they kill off the cellmate, CJ drops Loc off at his new job, which is working at a burger joint as a "hygiene technician" and how it is "just a stepping stone to greatness!" as Loc plans long term to become a famous rapper.  So when CJ drops Loc at the joint, CJ says to Loc "I'll see you around" and Loc says to him "Like a quarter pound!  Later!".

However Jas's funniest moment as Loc comes when Loc quits his job at the burger place and he turns back and shouts at them from the door "Man, fuck you! And I don't care what you heard, I ain't nobody's ass technician, BITCH!".

Next up we have Danny Dyer who makes another welcome appearance as Kent Paul, the British record producer who get's lost in the desert out in Las Venturas.

And Dyer has some funny bits of dialogue in the game such as when Kent and Maccer are both rescued by CJ in the desert as they are both feeling worse for wear after taking some peyote. So as CJ finds them out in the desert, Maccer complains "I can't feel me legs, our P! I've wanked the use out of em!" so Paul with disgust says "Just stand up, you soppy cunt! We go through this every weekend!". And as CJ picks them up and they are chased by rednecks in a truck from a snake farm, Maccer says to Paul "This is a very stressful situation!" and Paul shouts "You're fucking tell me it is??!!". 

And Shaun Ryder also makes a brief cameo as the perverted musician, Maccer, who can't resist whacking off infront of other people!

And Shaun does have some good if crude lines of dialogue that include the one where he mistakenly asks if Rosie (Rosenberg the lawyer that appeared in Vice City) has great tits. So, Maccer asks Paul "What kind of tits did this Rosie have? Small tits? Big tits? Or tits like a beanie or a saddlebag?!" and Paul exasperated shouts "Rosie's a man!!".

Later on of course during a recording session with Madd Dogg, Maccer is at it again as he wanks off in the booth much to the disgust of the others. So, Paul tries to dissuade Maccer from wanking again by saying to him think of Maggie Thatcher, which doesn't even work! So, in the scene as Maccer is doing it he shouts "I'M CUMIN, MAGGIE!! I'M CUMIN!". Oh God! (sick bags at the ready!). 

Cynthia Farrell also makes a great return as the psychotic Catalina (who was one of the main baddies from GTA III) and she get's some of the funniest lines of dialogue and delivers them with in style.

As for a few examples there is a line when they rob a bank and Catalina shouts at the staff "Hand over the cash or I'll blow your fucking face off!! Leave the panic button, or I'll kill your children too!".  And as the clerk sets off the alarm, Catalina shoots the clerk and yells "I warned you, you stupid bitch!  Stupid fucking bitch!  EAT MY SHIT!!!".

In one of the other missions "Gone Courting" Carl arrives at Catalina's hideout and calls on her and we hear her say "In here, mi amor" and he says "Ai'ght come on, let's go!" and she says angrily "You get your sorry ass in here, Carl Jonhson, or I will shove a fucking hand grenade up it!!".

Another example is when they drive to commit another robbery, Carl asks Catalina "What's wrong?" and Catalina says "Nothing.  I just hate men!" and Carl says to her "Well give me a break!" and Catalina says to him "Here's your break, you being at my barbacue and not being eaten!" and CJ says "Well that's one way of looking at shit I suppose!".

Cataline also taunts CJ about his manhood and his ability (or lack of it) to sexually please her throughout their missions, which prompts more putdowns such as "Tiny balled idiota!" and my favourite "You are a waste of good balls!".  And after they split up she seems to have a hard time dealing with it and she keeps calling him over and over!

Charlie Murphy (the older brother of Eddie Murphy) is also pretty good as the pimp, Jizzy, who CJ briefly works for but is really spying on him to find out about the Loco syndicate.  Murphy also get's some good lines as Jizzy such as in the mission "Mike Toreno" where Jizzy tries to calm down a hotheaded T-Bone Mendez by saying "T-Bone! Pump your brakes, baby. Take a chill pill, and just lay back and let the red mist fall, brother!".

And lastly there is the mission "Outrider" where Jizzy calls CJ to meet up with T-Bone and says to him "Well, my business associates, they need a little assistance. And I thought of you, friend. Meet T-Bone at the gas station next to the docks at Easter Basin. He's waiting for you in a 4-door sedan. Excuse me, partner, I got a call coming in. Arrivederci!".

Kid Frost is also good in his role as the hotheaded drug dealing associate with the Loco syndicate, T-Bone Mendez.

Frost's best moment comes in the mission "Outrider" when CJ is set to meet with T-Bone in a Sedan car but CJ can't see him anywhere so he get's into the car only to find T-Bone spring up behind in the backseat and he holds CJ at gunpoint.  So at gunpoint T-Bone threatens Carl saying " Hey, you a pinche jura or what?! You think you can mess with me?!! I will blow your head off, and rape and kill your family, you snake!! You think you can fucking bullshit me, and fuck me over?! I know your fucking game, ese!".  T-Bone then grills CJ further and yells "Who you working for?!" and CJ struggles and says "NOBODY!" and T-Bone let's him go and says "I almost had you, man. I almost fucking had you. Guacha! You gotta be careful in this business, man, you know that".   

To finally round off the cast list there is William Fichtner who reprises his role as the neurotic drug addled lawyer, Ken Rosenberg, who was Tommy Vercetti's business partner in GTA: Vice City and he does a fine job here again.

And to quote one of Fichtner's good scenes, there is one in the mission, "The Meat Business" where Paul gives Rosenberg a few lines of cocaine to get him fired up again. So, after Rosenberg snorts a line, he shouts excitedly "Oh, ha ha ha ha! Baby, I'm back, I AM BACK! Let's get this show on the road!". So, Carl asks Rosenberg "So everything is ok now?" but Rosenberg says "No! Absolutely not! I'm still screwed! Absolutely screwed, but at least now I'm in the right frame of mind. What the fuck are we going to do? Any minute now, some Mafia bullet is going to splatter my brains all over the wall! My wall, my beautiful wall...".

So as CJ and Rosenberg drive to a meeting with the Mafia at the meat factory, Rosenberg expresses his desire to lead an ordinary life. So, Rosenberg tells CJ "I want to do something safe and legal and boring, with people that like me. And have a wife and some kids and get divorced and fight for weekend access, like everybody else!". So, CJ tells Rosenberg "OK, I'll see what I can do" and Rosenberg says while snorting coke "Thanks, I'm just so tired of all this life or death bullshit. (sniff) Oh, shit, shit's all down my (sniff) damned shirt, and everything. Oh, that's my best shirt too, doesn't this shirt look good on me?!". 

And last but far from least is Frank Vincent (who sadly passed away last year) who is great as the mob boss, Salvatore Leone and he is very much at home playing mob guys so he does a fine job here again in that role.

And Frank has some good lines of dialogue but his most notable ones come not long after CJ has robbed Leone's casino and a furious Leone calls up CJ and threatens to kill him. So, Leone yells at CJ "You're dead! I'm gonna fuck you, your brother and sister! You're whole family!!! You're ALL dead!!". CJ however is not worried and casually says to Leone "I'm sorry, Mr Leone but I've got some money to spend!".    

SOUNDTRACK AND RADIO STATIONS 

As for the game's soundtrack, well while it isn't as strong as Vice City's diverse soundtrack there are still plenty of great tracks to chose from here, and there is a big variety to chose from, and different genres such as rock, funk, rap, pop, metal, raggae and country.

And some of my favourite tracks appear from the radio stations Radio X, in which they play alternative rock from the early 90s, including tracks from bands such as Helmet (again GTA introduce me to them, still one of my favourite bands!) "Unsung", Jane's addiction "Been caughting stealing" , Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus", Faith no more "Midlife crisis", Rage against the machine "Killing in the name of", Ozzy Osbourne "Hellraiser" and Soundgarden "Rusty cage".

Some of the rap tracks, which are naturally befitting of the period setting, are pretty good such as on Playback FM, which is hosted by none other than Chuck D of Public Enemy, who even plays a PE track "Rebel without a pause", as well as other tracks such as Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's "Road to the Riches" and Ultramagnetic MCs "Critical beatdown".

K-DST, which plays some classic rock is also a really good channel as you get a choice of songs from bands such as Creedence "Green River", Heart "Baracuda", Kiss "Strutter", Foghat "Slow ride", The Who "Eminence front", Boston "Smokin" and even David Bowie "Somebody up there likes me".  And another pleasant surprise on the radio channels was the K-Rose channel, which has probably one of the catchiest songs of all time on it, which is Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses".  Just class.

On the downside the there is only one radio station for chat radio but there are several radio programs that feature on the station.  It also has to be said that the radio shows themselves are a bit hit and miss but some of them are still funny and they also feature the recurring DJ, Laszlow, who has a funny interview with OG Loc, who get's very angry with Laszlow as they talk at cross purposes.

GRAPHICS 

Moving onto the game's graphics well they are for the most part pretty good but the game does however suffer from having subpar looking character models as the characters look a bit blocky and under-developed in their appearance yet in GTA Vice City the characters models looked alot better.  However I think this might come down to the fact that the game itself is so big and has such expansive environments that they the quality of the character modelling took a backseat.

However despite this, San Andreas's graphics are still quite impressive when it comes to its environments, which look good and are pretty varied given the game is set in three cities, it covers alot of ground indeed.  The game also makes good graphical use of its HUD (heads up display) for CJ's health bar as well as the stats for his stamina, muscle, sex appeal, bodyfat etc which in itself is a unique feature in the game.  Its also worth noting the game's environmental effects are also pretty good as it makes good use of its colours for sunsets in the evening or even the rain and storm effects are well done. 

So all in all despite those problems with the character models, San Andreas is still a pretty decent looking game for its time.   

FLAWS 

As for GTA: San Andreas's flaws....well yeah despite it being a great game there are still a fair few to be found.

So for starters, I felt that the countryside missions can take an inordinate amount of time for CJ to get to his eventual destination especially when he travels to meet with Catalina, he has alot of ground to cover from his original save point.  One of the ways around this is of course to buy one of the properties as a halfway house between missions, but that depends on how much money you have.

Another slight issue with the gameplay is to do with the game's targeting system for weapons and you can find at times that CJ occassionally get's stuck or faces the wrong way when he auto-aims his gun at a target, which means you need to target them again.  This to be fair however isn't a big deal but it is still slight a slight annoyance that is worth mentioning. 

Another frustrating aspect early on in the game is the lack of money, especially in Los Santos where CJ has to make his way up again in the hood, and for all the missions he does with his homies, they don't even give him much if any money, especially Ryder, who is a real tight-ass!  Its not until the turf wars start to rear their ugly heads, that is when the drug dealers pop up on a every street corner, then you can make money by shooting them as they leave behind $2000 each time.  And its only really when CJ leaves Los Santos, when he meets up with his new associates that he finally starts to make money.

Another annoyance in the game is as I mentioned earlier on, the mission where CJ has to learn to fly, on the orders of Mike Toreno, and you have to undergo some training missions on how to take off and lane a plane, fly it through the sky, parachute from it successfully and most frustrating of all, do a bloody barrell roll, which NEVER comes in handy during the actual gameplay!

So this brings up one of the game's most infuriating missions, "Vertical Bird" where Mike Toreno puts CJ on a mission which involves flying a harrier jet, and it is a nightmare to control the jet, and more often that it is far too easy to crash the jet into the water!  This level itself is often cited by gamers as one of the most difficult in the series.

And for me one of the most frustrating and annoying missions in the whole game deserves its place here, which is "Interdiction" where CJ has to do some dirty work for Toreno as he is to protect a chopper carrying cargo from enemy choppers that circle it.  And in the mission CJ needs to shoot them down with a rocket launcher but the cargo chopper can too often get caught in the crossfire which makes this goddamn mission a massive pain in the ass and I've lost count the amount of times I've had to redo over the years!!  And by the time I'm done with it I'm ready to punch Toreno myself never mind how CJ must have felt!

Ahhh but wait for it (and I apologise for this next bit).......there is another mission, which makes "Interdiction" and "Vertical Bird" appear like a picnic and THAT mission is "Cop Wheels".  Now to say I hate this mission would be a total understatement but that simply does not do justice as to just how infuriating it is.  THIS mission is one of the most pissingly, shittingly, maddeningly INFURITATING PIECES OF SHIT I HAVE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO PLAY!!!!

Words fail me on how annoying this one is and the premise is fairly simple enough, CJ has to steal four cop motorbikes in prep for their robbery on the mafia casino and get them transported onto a car packer on the very busy freeways of Las Venturas.  Now this might sound relatively straight forward but believe me it isn't and you only have 12 minutes to get all four bikes onto the packer or you fail the mission.  Why ONLY 12 MINUTES???!!  I mean why don't they allow for a full 15???!!  I mean that would help to give you a bit more time to get things done!

And not only this your problems in the mission are compounded by the large distance between each of the bikes and also the big distance between you and the packer on the freeway, which is miles away.  Combine this with the police always on your ass for stealing the bikes and also carelessly but unavoidably crashing into cars or lamp posts or walls, it eats into your time too much and before you know it you are out of time, well either that or got arrested!

I'm sure there are other missions beyond this one that will also cause some major frustration (Vertical Bird for sure) but none as worse as this.  Cop Wheels is one of the worst missions in the game for sure and if you have any sanity left and enough patience you might just get through it!  

As for some plot niggles I felt that some of the Truth's missions were a bit pointless and left things unexplained such as the missions "Black Project" and "Green Goo" where in the first one, Truth has CJ steal a jetpack to later use it to capture some green goo from an US army train.  Now, OK I get the jetpack part at least but its not explained at all why Truth wanted CJ to steal the green goo or what he intended to do with it for that matter either!  So for me this mission is pretty pointless and its basically an excuse for CJ to get his hands on the jetpack later (but don't get me wrong it is one of the cooler gadgets in the game!).

I also felt the same thing about the mission in San Fierro where CJ recruits a couple of mechanics for his garage and during the mission, Truth makes CJ stop and wait for fed cars to go by or wait outside a hospital for some unknown reason. Its the vagueness of the Truth's mission is what makes them a bit annoying at times.  Also what is the Truth's problem with driving a car, yet he has his own psychidelic van which he says in the mission "Are you going to San Fierro?" he had the fear when he started to drive so he asked CJ to take over. If that's the case why keep your 60's hippy van in the first place?! 

Last of all, on a personal note, I have to say I really didn't like the racing missions in the game either as they are a real pain in the ass.  I say this because during the racing, its all too easy to crash your car into say a lamp post, which would delay your progress and you will lose your place in the race, either that or spin the car out of control and derail it off a cliff and into the water!   

And for me I think the worst racing mission of the lot is "Farewell my lovely" which is where CJ has to race against Catalina's new lover, Claude (the silent main character from GTA III) and it is far too easy to derail your car off the road in this race, which makes it a major pain in the ass to finish!  So I think its safe to say whenever I play this mission I can't wait to skip it and not only that if you do fail the mission you usually find you have one hell of a long trek back to the starting point again!

In fact further to this its worth mentioning in the mission "Photo opportunity" where CJ and Cesar drive out into the country to spy on the members of the drug syndicate named "Loco" after the mission is over, Cesar suggests they split up and he leaves CJ to make his own way back to San Fierro, which is a LONG way off!!  So that means that CJ has to jack another car simply because Cesar can't be arsed to give his buddy a lift! Ces, you are an ass!    

And last of all is an issue with the whole idea of CJ and Woozie robbing a Mafia casino and thinking they would get away with it! I mean its the Mafia after all! And later CJ even get's an angry call from Salvatore Leone, who is furious with CJ and spouts a bunch of death threats at him and how he will kill him and his family and CJ smugly tells Leone that he has alot of money to spend and has to go. Now, does CJ really believe he will be able to get away with robbing a Mafia owned casino??? I don't think realistically he would have a chance against them and after the end of the game he is bound to end getting whacked! 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, in replaying the game, GTA: San Andreas is still a terrific one overall, as its gameplay is varied and tremendous fun, it also features a superb cast, who all give great performances and again it features a very solid soundtrack with plenty of radio channels and tracks to listen to.

It may have some minor flaws and some deeply infuriating missions however for the most part, the bad points are outweighed by its good points and even after all this time it still remains my favourite of the GTA series, so much so I'm still playing it to this day (on the PS4 that is!).

OK, so that's it for now and I shall return hopefully with yet another post just before Christmas. Yep its going to be a busy month for posts for a change!

Till the next one, its bye for now! :-)