CINEMA VIEWS by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

You know the summer’s here when the car and beach movies start coming out. One with a built in audience is the sequel “2 Fast 2 Furious,” directed by John Singleton who has made an auspicious leap to the action genre.

Singleton is from California so he understands the state whose car culture is unsurpassed anywhere else on the planet. A close second would be southern Miami, to where the sequel to the Vin Diesel and Paul Walker hit has been relocated.

Returning is Paul Walker as Brian O’Connor, the undercover cop running down car-based crime operations. But this time out he’s not a cop since he was busted down from letting Vin get away in the previous film. Diesel decided not to do the sequel, as he’s concentrating on his “Scorpion King” and “XXXtreme” new age Bond 007 film franchises.His last film was “A Man Apart,” where he played a DEA agent out for revenge.

No matter, the producers went on and planned some sequels anyway without Dielsel, since the idea is very portable. They used the returning Walker as he joins with Tyrese Gibson’s Roman to infiltrate the operation of Carter Barone, a South American drug money launderer played chillingly by Cole Hauser.

The advantage of a movie like “2 Fast 2 Furious” is it’s pleasant to look at, taking place in sunny Miami; has attractive and/or interesting people in it; and doesn’t have a deep plot so you can neck with your date and go out for popcorn and such, and see it all over again with your crew to catch the parts you missed.

Eve Mendes as Monica Fuentes returns to the Miami area after “All About The Benjamins” with Michael Epps and Ice Cube, where she showed her considerable comic skills. She was also the common law wife of Denzel Washington in the brutal “Training Day” for which he won his Best Actor Oscar. Fuentes is an undercover customs officer who has been deep cover and aids O’Connor and Pierce to infiltrate Barone’s operation when he needs drivers with evasion skills to transport his cash.

“2 Fast 2 Furious” was, as Denise V my movie date for the preview screening said is “nerve wracking,” but in a good way, because of the tense moments also that go on even when they’re not racing up and down city streets. Cole Hauser’s Carter Barone is a cut above most film villains because he’s smooth suave and believable, with the swagger and arrogance of powerful men combined with a willingness to treat people as discardable items.

This is shown when Barone has his men torture a crooked detective with an acetylene torch, a metal can and a large rat. (Don’t ask!). Roman and Brian get to watch, as a lesson in loyalty to his operation. But the lesson has a different effect for them.

“I can think of two good reasons why he doesn’t need all that money” Roman says. “Me and you.”

Americans love their cars, and excel in films based on them. It’s getting so the cars are essentially co-stars, and motorcycles are getting into the act as seen in Laurence Fishburne’s “Biker Boyz.”

The recently released heist film “The Italian Job” featured a car chase with Mini Coopers, the same but updated car make as in the original film with Michael Caine, which also features a colossal traffic jam as the crooks – the good crooks – pull their scams on the other crooks.

The original “Fast and Furious” involved a car theft ring that used high performance vehicles to take down interstate trucking shipments on the open roads. Led by Vin Diesel, Walker’s undercover cop wormed his way into the gang by racing on their illegal street tournaments, elaborately staged with blocked off streets with official looking barrels, barricades, et cetera.

In “2 Fast 2 Furious” Singleton probably wrecked a few cameras by putting them inside that red car that was smooshed between two semis when the driver thought “I can make it! I can make it!” But after four of the sixteen wheels went over the hood of his car he was thinking “ I guess I couldn’t…”

I almost felt like throwing my arms up during the first freeway pursuit. The camera is like a bumblebee, first inside, then outside, up close showing the determination of the driver, then the hands as she shifts or the clutch as the shifting goes into high gear; the SWAT teams hanging out of the pursuing helicopters; or the BumperCams as a too-slow car is bumped from behind. Good editing can make a good film better, and is crucial, for an action film.

“I have to see this again,” said Denise, “this weekend when it comes out.” I hear you, girl. I wouldn’t mind seeing “2 Fast 2 furious” a second time, with some real gearhead car aficionados. Y’know, the type who actually knows what a Hemi engine is, and who would know of the film’s talk of compression ratios and such. But to enjoy the film it’s not necessary to understand the lingo anymore than knowing how a Hyperdrive or Warp Drive works on a starship when you’re watching a science fiction movie..

Denise V also enjoyed the film greatly. I think she may have some Speed Demon in her though. She was really getting into the several car chases and street races shown in “2 Fast 2 Furious.” She had her eye on Tyrese, too. Denise hadn’t seen him in “Baby Boy” but that’s next on her film rental list. That film was also directed by Singleton, who also profiled the struggles of young Black men in “Boyz ‘N The Hood.” Singleton’s other films include “Higher Learning,” again with Ice Cube from “ Boyz ’N The’Hood,” Omar Epps and Tyra Banks; and the historical lynching drama of a Black Florida town “Rosewood.”

“Man, it’s a Hoe-asis up in here!” says Tyrese’s Roman eyeing the skimpily dressed women as he and O’Connor/Walker scope out the party at Barone’s beachfront hangout.

“I have that top” Denise whispered to me as Mendes sported a beige long sleeved casual number, with a cross-laced front that even showed off her only average bosom. “It’s from Victoria’s Secret” she added. Quite unnecessarily.

“I’d very much like to see you in that sometime this summer” I suggested, since Denise V has more for which a top like that was designed.

But oh, for what I wouldn’t give to have been at the casting call for the female eye candy that was used to drape the cars, the poolside, and switch around in their “Coochie Cutter” short-shorts during the street racing scenes! In fact one of the Hip Hop magazines had a pictorial of The Girls of “Biker Boyz,” and “2 Fast 2 Furious.”

The casting was done with an eye toward international cross cultural marketing. There are the actors such as Walker (“The Skulls”) and Hauser to reel in the white youth audience, people like rapper Chris Bridges “Ludicris,” and former Coca Cola commercial singer Tyrese to bring in the African Descended and females.

But what is increasingly the case the women are getting in the mix big time. They superpowered “X Men United” and made their presence felt in “The Matrix: Reloaded.” Here women like Eva Mendes and Devon Aoki do more than stand around and look pretty for normal men of any race. Although they do that pretty well.

Aoki is Suki, a street racer in her pretty in pink car, although she brings a male aggressiveness to her style. “Bend over, boy!!” she shouts to a Male Chauvinist Pig racer as she shifts into high, pulling up and then passing him. “Yeah! Smack that ass!” Suki is a crowd favourite for her spirited performance, simultaneously strong and feminine.

They even get some interracial action going between her Suki and Ludicris’ Teschmacher. “Why don’t you bring that body ‘round to the shop, so I can work on that front end?” ‘Cris says slyly to Suki.

In Asia they ain’t feeling that race mixing, especially with African Descended men. But they are crazy about American films Rap music and Rap stars, plus kids are naturally rebellious. When they have a chance to tweak their elders they do so, and having the cute little Suki busting slobs with Teschmacher onscreen is a good way to do it.

The cars, like the motorcycles in “Biker Boyz,” are very much the co-stars in “2 Fast 2 Furious” At the preview screening that Tuesday night there were seats left open in our preferred roped off Press Seating area for Mitsubishi dealership people, who were outside showing off some of their latest models in the Marcus Westowne theatre parking lot.

The street racing scenes were very well done, with camera work that puts you in the seats then snatches you up as the cars whiz by inches from your face. I glanced over and saw Denise flinching at times during the tight turns or the freeway chase scenes. ‘’Whew!’’ she exclaimed after remembering to breathe again. “This is intense!”

It’s hard to squeeze something new out of the car chase scene. But “The Matrix Reloaded” did it, but they kinda cheated by constructing their own 2 mile freeway in Australia so they could flip over and smash as many cars and trucks as they wanted. Which was a lot.

Some other car/race/heist kin flicks are Nicholas Cage’s “Gone in 60 Seconds” remake; “The Great Gumball Rally” with Michael Sarrazin; and the earlier and goofier “Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies.” A car chase scene with historical significance was the Parisian chase scene in “Ronin” with Robert DeNiro and Jean Reno, which replicated that involving media Paparazzi vs. Great Britain Princess Diana and her Arab lover that resulted in her death one night as their driver tried to elude the pursuing reporters.

But you don’t have to be a car nut to enjoy this movie. A well constructed film will keep your interest. I don’t know anything about golf, and ordinarily I find baseball games as exciting as watching paint dry, but Kevin Costner’s “Tin Cup” and “For Love Of The Game” got me into them – as films.

(By the way, a Hemi motor is so named because during the Test To Destruction performed by automotive engineers in the early 1960s, the engines made it to the equivalent of halfway around the Earth’s surface – a hemisphere’s worth, or 13,000 plus miles – before the engines would blow out. And Hyperspace and Warp drives would work, theoretically that is, by “bending space” itself as was explained in the Laurence Fishbourne movie “Event Horizon,: since the laws of Einsteinian physics prohibit objects travelling faster than the speed of light. But that’s for the upcoming Brotha Science series).

“2 Fast 2 Furious” is going to get some furious money this summer, and should get a few weeks worth of cash until it’s knocked out of the box by the flurry of films coming out such as “The Hulk,” which will be competing for the same young and male filmgoer dollar, the preview of which came on before this film.

Agree to disagree? Click on at the cinemaviews.tripod.com site, or email thewordnetpaper@excite.com ; write p.o. box , or call --kjw<

CAST OF “2 FAST 2 FURIOUS”

Tyrese Gibson – Roman Pierce

Eve Mendes – Monica Fuentes

Paul Walker – Brian O’Connor

Chris Bridges Ludicris – Teschmacher

Cole Hauser – Barone

Devon Aoki – Suki

James Remar – Lt.

Director: John Singleton

Studio: Universal

Rating: PG-13

--30--

Kevin J. Walker, Netitor,

THE WORD NetPaper Online News Service

Milwaukee, WI USA 53201

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MORGAN FREEMAN IN RARE FORM IN A COMEDY, REMAKES JIM CARREY INTO “BRUCE ALMIGHTY”

by Kevin J. Walker, Netitor

The Word NetPaper

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“I am The One, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. I am God.”

-- Morgan Freeman as the Supreme Being
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Morgan Freeman hasn’t done much comedy since his stint on the Electric Company as Easy Reader, the leather clad dark sunglass wearing biker dude who taught youngsters the joy of reading in the TV competitor to PBS’ Sesame Street.

Morgan Freeman is one of the few people who could pull off playing the role of God. Freeman, 63, has played a variety of roles in his long career that has seen him nominated for three Best Supporting Actor awards such as in competition with Denzel Washington for roles in the Civil War epic “Glory;” the prison based film of Stephen King’s “Shawshank Redemption” with Tim Robbins. He co-starred as a lawman in “Johnny Handsome” with Mickey Rourke and Forest Whitaker of “Ghost Dog,” but has played roles on both sides of the law.

As a US President, Freeman brought a dignity to the role of president in “Deep Impact” that could only help as the makers of this film were looking f or someone who could convincingly play God. Freeman had to lead a nation facing doom in “Deep Impact” with Elijah Wood, Tea Leoni and Robert Duvall.

One of my favourite lines from that most excellent film of how to face death with dignity is when the disheveled president, in shirtsleeves and unpretentious as his national address is being readied, has to tell the nation that there was no hope for them and most of humanity would die as a colossal comet was headed their way.

Facing the camera he intoned simply “I believe in God. And I believe that he hears all prayers. But sometimes the answer is ‘No.”

In “Bruce Almighty” Bruce isn’t for that Job business. He has had it up to here with God, and blasphemes almost as bad as Christopher Walken did in Stephen King’s “The Dead Zone,” or Mel Gibson as the anti-theist disgusted and the too-through with God Pennsylvania priest in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs” who also isn’t into the Job suffering bit after he loses his wife.

Of course in the play and the movie “A Raisin In The Sun,” former U of Wisconsin-Madison Theatre Arts student turned playwright Lorraine Hansberry has her semiautobiographical Beneatha Younger proclaim that all the slaps in the world “won’t put a God in the Heavens!” after her outraged grandmother makes her state “In my grandmother’s house there is still God.”

“God is like the bad little kid with a magnifying glass, and I’m the ant!” Bruce cries, facing skyward, cursing God and daring him to “smite” him if he didn’t like it! This leads to a meeting after the unemployed Bruce answers a persistent pager message, and meets an old Black man mopping a floor in a deserted building. This is about when people started remembering their Bible passages about being kind to strangers because many “have entertained Angels unawares.”

Many critics will likely savage this film as they have other family fare such as Eddie Murphy’s “Daddy Day Care.” “Bruce Almighty,” li ke tha t popular movie is also a light, sweet film and some critics hate that; curiously not really liking the people who attend films. Unless they’re foreign, being British, French or Italian, preferably with subtitles. Also, this film speaks of faith and God, and they really, really hate stuff like that!

Carrey gets lots of screen time, and some very funny slapstick moments, but Freeman gets to show that he has some comedy skills, too. He doesn’t do comedy often, but like screen tough guy Robert DeNiro he can be very funny, especially when given someone to work off, as Billy Crystal is to DeNiro in the “Analyze This” series.

Morgan gets some good lines, as when he tells a still combative Bruce “You haven‘t won a fight since grade school, and that was against a girl.”

“Well, it was a big girl... “Bruce mutters.

“People always want me to do everything for them. They don’t realize that they have the power themselves. No it’s not easy, this God business.. .”

“Liar Liar” also had an element of mystical ness, as Carrey’s courthouse lawyer is smitten with the curse of not being able to lie after his disappointed young son’s wish is answered. “Bruce Almighty” has even more elements in common with Carrey’s “The Mask,” where he also was granted magical powers. This is especially when he starts dealing out some payback to those who have wronged him, such as ambitious co workers.

Milwaukee (by way of Detroit) Homegirl of sorts Shaun Robinson gets a few seconds of screen time as a TV reporterette / Infobabe. The hostess of Access Hollywood lived in Milwaukee while she worked for WISN Channel 12, and was friends of the late Sonya Massingale of PBS Channels 10/36 who also lived in her apartment building on Milwaukee Street by MSOE after she moved from Baton Rouge.

The film is suffused with lots of Black presence, even coming from Carrey. “C’mon Barry, you gotta help me out here” Bruce says, using his powers to cue a love song by Barry White.

His live in girlfriend Grace is a blood donor. “I have a rare blood type, I’m AB Positive. You should come donate with me.”

“I’m ‘B Positive” “ Bruce says. “I Be Positive they ain’t gonna be stickin” no needles in me!” he jokes to Grace, played by Jennifer Aniston of TVs “Friends” and the film “Office Space.”

Since the film has to play to a world audience there’s no talk of Jesus here, but there is a quickly muttered “Geez!” by Bruce. By the way, does anybody out there who know the significance of the numbers “776 2323” ?

[NEWS ITEM: It turns out that this is a real number of a woman in Florida who has been getting twenty calls and hour by wags asking for God, then hanging up. I wondered why they didn’t use the national 555 prefix the phone companies set up]. This pops up a few times very overtly, first as a pager message and then an address. Non churchgoers like me wouldn’t get it, unlike when the address turns out to be the Omni Present Co. building. Even I got that.

“The Matrix: Reloaded” does things like that too, way, way too many to count here: Having 314 seconds to make it past a secured gateway sent many to the Bible to look up Mark 314, where there’s an apropo passage. Go to the www.Blackwebportal.com/wire and click on their BWP “Forums” for lots of stuff most normal people would never have thought of.

Nothing in this film is that heavy, though. But there is a street person who has signs appropriate to the scene, ala “Shaft” composer Isaac Hayes in “It Could Happen To You” with Nicolas Cage and Briget Fonda, where he pops up in various roles as a narrator of the film. Then, during a party scene Bruce is shown reposing by a Golden Calf sculpture. You know, I think maybe I’d better see “Bruce Almighty” again, this time with a borrowed Bible in hand.

“Bruce Almighty” starts to get even better when it turns serious from super silly when there’s friction and drama with his sweet girlfriend Grace. Her lovely and thick sister tells Bruce the substitute God that “Grace prays every night. And the prayers are mostly about you.” Bruce was so busy with other people’s prayers that he hadn’t even checked on hers.

Using the search engine on his “YAWEH!” dotcom site he devised for sorting out the billions of prayers he’s been getting, he scrolls down page after page of her prayers. “Boy, this woman sure prays a lot!”

But he’s caught up short when he opens a few of them and reads “Please God, help Bruce find his way to you...”, “God, Bruce has lost his way, and is despondent about his job. Please help him...” and on and on. This is the point when there were some sniffles heard throughout the preview audience.

Carrey, a supremely talented actor, was ripped off for nominations for “The Truman Show” and “Man On The Moon,” the life of the late comedian Andy Kaufman. He early on became imprinted on the public mind, as Anthony Perkins did with the role of Norman Bates, after he did such an inspired job of silliness on the “Ace Ventura” films. A darker stab at more serious roles like “The Cable Guy” with Matthew Broderick didn’t fare well. The coming to terms of his nature and calling is hinted at in the film.

Maria, my movie pal passed on coming to see the “Bruce Almighty” preview with me, saying she didn’t like Jim Carrey’s “silly” movies. I think I know what she meant but she’s wrong. It’s like me not liking the late Chris Farley’s silly films. But that’s different.

Freeman first came to prominence on a larger stage than the one he was used to as a Shakespearean actor in New York, when he played a pimp in “Street Smart,” and stole the film from producer and co-star Christopher Reeve and Kathy Baker.

In echoes of shamed New York Times prevaricator Jayson Blair and earlier Washington Post writer Janet Cooke, Reeves in the film was a NYC city magazine writer who made up the story of a pim p to beat a deadline, and Freeman’s true pimp believes it was based on his bidness as their paths connect.

Since he was first nominated for that 1987 role, Freeman has gone on to win in his Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Hoke in “Driving Miss Daisy” and has played heroes and even hit men, such as in with Chris Rock in “Nurse Betty.” In a measure of Six Degrees of Hollywood separation, his co-star Rene Zelwegger also played in “Me, Myself and Irene” with Morgan’s co-star in “Bruce Almighty.”

The use of African Descended as symbols of the Divine is an interesting development in American culture. Stephen King used a Kansas Black woman as the new Moses after a germ warfare destroyed America was reunited by her in his towering apocalyptic work “The Stand” which was made into a miniseries with Gary Sinise and Rob Lowe, as agents of God in the final Throwdown with Evil.

In “Oh God” with George Burns as God appearing to grocery worker John Denver, Burns quickly manifested himself as a Black woman when Denver tries to get someone to see him. It was meant to be funny, but some saw justice in this as African Descended females are the Original Woman as science has proven with DNA research, and the primal ancestor of everyone on planet Earth.

In “The Matrix” and sequel “The Matrix: Reloaded” the part of the wise and earthly Oracle was played by the late Gloria Foster who died last year of complications of diabetes. The Oracle is a machine program who may be on the side of Humanity versus the Matrix cyberworld that enslaves them.

Getting into the serpentine philosophical meanderings of the Matrix world of the Chicago brothers Wachowski would be a major digression, [ again, go see the review at my national web column at http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire at “MovieReviews.”

But suffice it to say that for a couple of Midwestern Polish White boys they sure uplift people of colour a lot. Then again, polish churches had one’a those 60-plus Black Madonnas that can be found from Spain to Russia, and they don’t fall for the later made up story that “a church fire turned the face and hands dark” of her, as well as the little baby Jesus sitting in her lap. (?!?)

The view of African Descended people thus has swung all the way back from being portrayed as hookers, pimps and pushers; then to ubiquitous judges, police captains, mayors; and now to virtuous Saviours, and divine Supreme Beings. But pendulums have a way of swinging back, too.

Other religiously oriented films would be the similarly comedic ”Almost An Angel” with Paul Hogan of “Crocodile Dundee” fame; Whoopi Goldberg’s Sister Acts”; the dark “Fallen” with Denzel Washington; “The Apostle” directed and starring Robert Duvall; and the also dark “The Prophecy” series with Christopher Walken. Even Tom Cruise and Jon Voight’s “Mission: Impossible” has a religious undertone, with the Mole in the IM Force using the code name Job, and Biblical passages being used in the film.

“BRUCE ALMIGHTY” directed by Tom Shadyac and from Universal Pictures is rated PG-13 for some light sexuality, cussing, and “crude humour.” There is mostly slapstick and comical violence, like Bruce being Nunn-Bushed in an alley by some gangbanging Hispanics Causing Panic, and an empowered Bruce later making a Capuchin monkey come out of one of the fellows’ rear end. You’d have to see it, but it’s like “The Mask” scene with the rip-off auto body shoppe payback.

The sexuality is to show the depths Bruce descended to, before being elevated into godhood, as well as being tempted by his sexy but snooty co-anchor Susan Ortega, played by Catherine Bell. She’d sure make me lose my religion! And she almost makes me forget muy bonita Puerta Riquena Roslyn Sanchez of “Boat Trip”, “Rush Hour 2” and the forthcoming romantic comedy “Chasing Papi.”

Been to church or the movies lately? After you see the film drop a line to Cinema Views at walkernet@excite.com , or visit the website at http://cinemaviews.tripod.com ; write p.o. box , or call . --kjw<

-- 30 --

Kevin J. Walker, Netitor,

THE WORD NetPaper, Web-based News Service

Milwaukee, WI USA 53201

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"In this society you must have either Money or Power. If you have either you are respected, if you have both you are feared, but if you have neither then you are oppressed."
--Wm. Gray Dir. UNCF, while former <US Congressman, Phila.

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The Matrix: Reloaded

Cinema Views With Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

http://www.thebwp.com/wire/DA.cfm?ArticleID=1290

BRUCE ALMIGHTY

http://www.thebwp.com/wire/DA.cfm?ArticleID=1302

by Kevin J. Walker, Netitor

The Word NetPaper

walkernet@gmail dot com

http://cinemaviews.tripod.com

http://geocities.datacellar.net/cinemaviews

Milwaukee Wisconsin USA

Laurence Fishbourne as Morpheus and the late Gloria Foster as The Oracle, with help from Jada Pinkett, Harold Perrineau and Nona Gaye lead Keanu Reeve's Neo to his destiny and perhaps humanity's salvation in the latest installment of The Matrix Trilogy. But Agent Smith, freed from the cyberworld and even more powerful still pursues them and the destruction of Zion...

CINEMA VIEWS with Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic "THE MATRIX: RELOADED"

If Trinity And Elektra Had A Fight, Who Do You Think Would Win?

By Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic “The Matrix: Reloaded” is like a movie length comic book, which is understandable since the Chicago-bred brothers that made it were raised on them, even creating their own. In this latest middle film Thomas Anderson, hacker name of Neo, is coming into greater possession of his powers while in the Matrix, the cyber world created by the artificial intelligence that has enslaved humanity for hundreds of years.

They’ve upped the ante and added more characters into the mix, especially women, who as in “X Men United” are increasingly running things, not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact it makes for better movies. More on that in a bit.

The next installment of three – so far— of the Matrix cyber-series may be a little tough to take for some people, since in addition to battling the heightened expectations raised by its sleeper original, it has to take on the dreaded Sequelitis. That’s something like SARS for Hollywood filmmakers.

This is when a follow-up to a popular film falls flat on its face by trying to distinguish itself from the original, or by trying to too closely ape the parent film. Think “Look Who’s Talking 2,” Exorcist 2: The Heretic” – it starred Richard Burton and a returning Linda Blair. But then there are those films that transcended its parent film: “Aliens”, “The Godfather Part II.”

“Matrix: Reloaded” extends the story line of the Chicago-bred Andrew and Larry Wachowski brothers, who like the Hughes twins of “Menace 2 Society” direct interchangeably in their films. The Matrix enterprise puts the F in Film Franchise, with the attached game “Enter The Matrix” being released the same day. It “stars” Niobe versus a matrix warrior as they do battle.

Later this summer “The ANIMATRIX” saga will be debuted, with nine different directors having their chance at taking off from the story idea. Some moviegoers saw excerpts from one of them earlier this spring at the beginning of “Dreamcatcher,” by the same team that did the full length, video game descended “Final Fantasy.”

“Matrix: Reloaded” does well as a series component, but those who like their stories neatly packaged will be among those howling at the credits when they think they’ve been cheated by the cliffhanger, which will be picked up in November when “The Matrix Revolutions” comes out and completes the series. If you go deeper into the philosophy of The Matrix it is quite subversive, almost seditious, with musings on the nature of power and how a people can free themselves from oppression.

Remember in the last “Matrix” installment when Neo played by Keanu Reeves requests “guns – lots of guns” before he and Trinity launch an assault on what must be a federal building to free Morpheus, and set of a bomb inside of it?

And Morpheus who has been a denounced as a terrorist” in the media who is in fact to us a freedom fighter, basically offers the rationalization of all combatants and strugglers when he says there are people who believe in and will fight to defend the system, and there will be casualties. I imagine that Timothy McVeigh, George Washington, George Bush the Younger, Osama Bin Laden, and Pol Pot would all agree.

The Oracle played by the late Gloria Foster is given a new direction, although the questions raised by her very existence change the way she’s seen by Neo and us the audience. Since she’s part of the Matrix, can she be trusted? Is she like the newly freed and powerful Agent Smith also a rogue code, but unlike him on the side of the Good Guys and Gals?

The movie toys with us, but some who aren’t used to having thoughts in their films may not like the untidy-ness of “Matrix: Reloaded.” There were howls of protest the night of the advance screening, with people lying through their teeth that the film was awful, don’t waste your money, and worse. Get real!

Myself, I liked it a lot, and am glad that the next installment is only delayed until November. They made both sequels already, and after seeing it at the preview they have a winner on their hands, although it’s no “X Men United.” My movie date, Marie the Intellectual, is different from many women in that she’s a science fiction fan. She liked the film but was more into the men, especially the dark skinned and dredlocked Harold Perrineau who played the henpecked boyfriend from “The Best Man.

“I just think dredlocks on a man are so sexy!” Marie whispered to me as we watched the movie with other late-night film devotees at the Northtown cinemas. “Especially when they tie them in back, in a pony tail.”

Oh really, I said. I then attempted to instigate an argument with her. Does that include the dredlocked Ghost Twins, albino bodyguards of the Merovingian, who can dematerialize within the Matrix, and cause all sorts of havoc? Marie still hasn’t answered me on that. She didn’t like the “dumb woman” roles of Nona Gaye, who was just window dressing here but maybe she gets a better role in “Revolutions.”

The films were said to be split versions of a giant part two that were split in half, and it sometimes feels like it. I hope many who attended replayed “The Matrix” as a refresher, because they’ll get no help from “Reloaded” which assumes that you know these things

Continuing the trend of having strong women in central roles, “Reloaded” has some pivotal roles. Persephone and Niobe join Trinity and The Oracle in “Reloaded.” Niobe is played by Jada Pinkett Smith, who has come far from “Demon Knight,” her first action film after “Low Down Dirty Shame.” Her Logos ship captain is a former lover of Morpheus and she still has a thing for him. The feeling is mutual. Unfortunately, there’s some David and Bathsheba action conflict brewing because Morpheus’ commander Lock is her current paramour.

Neo, an anagram for The One, or the Deliverer in the ancient fables of Zion, the last human outpost on a blasted planet long since laid waste, can manipulate the Matrix, the dream world that billions of humans are plugged into while their lifeforce is used to support the machine overlords.

But Thomas Anderson, the former corporate drone who stumbles onto the secret that his tidy world was an illusion and got unplugged by Morpheus and Trinity, potentially has the power to destroy the machine Matrix and free not only the 250,000 inhabitants of Zion clustered near the earth’s core, but the billions of unconscious humans still trapped.

The heaviness of the film may weigh on some, but it’s all good. Morpheus, played by a returning Laurence Fishbourne is also revealed to be a controversial figure in Zion.

“Not everybody here believes in The Prophecy, as you do,” he’s told by “Meteor Man” co-star Harry Lennix as his commander Lock.

“My beliefs do not require them to,” Morpheus calmly replies.

Morpheus is somewhat of a religious warrior, addressing the people on the eve of war as thousands of diggers are headed toward Zion. We see the city, which has been referred to in the first film but never saw. We learned that, as in “The Ringworld” saga Sci Fi writer Larry Nivens’ “A Gift From Earth,” there are two classes of people there: Native Born humans who have never been in the Matrix cyber dreamworld, and those who have been freed from it.

Those include Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo, who still have their life juice supply nozzles and electrode plugs still in them, including a big rear neck junction where they jack into the system. And they wear them like badges of honour, although the sight of them is almost stomach churning. Like Jews from WWII keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive with their concentration camp tattoos, so they know what they’re fighting for.

Anderson is growing into his powers, and is able to manipulate the Matrix. He’s a random mutation really, which is interesting since the other top film out is “X Men United.” The very name Anderson translates into “Son Of Man,” by the way, Andros is an old Greek term for Humanity – there are lots of cultural, religious and philosophical thingees are sprinkled throughout the film. Buddhism, Hinduism, Greek and Roman mythology, some African stuff and lore is given exposure in “Matrix: Reloaded.”

The appearance of social sciences writer Cornel West has been remarked upon as a member of the Zion high council. The author of the book “Race Matters” is in the film for a reason, as is the composition of the city of Zion which isn’t your standard Hollywood representation.

Neo is a revered figure to some in Zion as knowledge of his powers within the Matrix starts to spread, and as he and Trinity disembark from the Nebuchadnezzar hovership he is greeted by supplicants bearing gifts. “My son is a crewmember of the Knossos. Will you watch over him?” beseeches a woman about a crewman on another patrol ship. Dozens of others have baskets of food and precious stones that they pile up beside Neo and Trinity’s quarters.

Trinity excuses herself, she knows this will take awhile. But not everybody is pleased at the upset caused by this unlikely Deliverer. Remember that even Jesus had his Judas, and Christ had his Pontius Pilate and Pharisees. And the last film had its betrayer. That’s all I can say.

Monica Bellucci from Bruce Willis’ “Tears of The Sun” is Persephone the temptress; something like a emotional vampire being kept by the Merovingian, who also feeds off pleasure as much as a piece of malignant computer code can. “If you never take the time, you can never have time,” he says as he sips wine in a French restaurant. The lovely Bellucci may be familiar to some from her European films such as “Malene.”

But it is the Merovingian (the name is taken from a French dynasty and members of the scheming Illuminati, in keeping with the Matrix series sweeping collection of cultural and historical allusions) who sets the tone for the film when he, as a former member of the Matrix elite, explains how power is maintained over We the Sheeple:

“Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.” Now are you beginning to understand why there are millions who like this series? You won’t get concepts like that from “Spider Man!”

Women are a force not just in this film but in more this season. If Trinity and Elektra had a fight, who do you think would win? Throw in another bout with Jean Grey/The Phoenix against Mystique, with wild card Queen Amidala/Padme versus Lara Croft from this summer's "The Cradle of Life" and I might give you some odds. The battle of the Superheroes is increasingly one that features Superheroines in enhanced roles, as was seen in “X-Men United.”

“Matrix: Reloaded” starts off with a blast, and the action doesn’t let up for long. There is lots of fighting, with all manner of martial arts action: fighting with sais, swords, poles, double sticks, spears, battle axes and what have you are all employed; along with the requisite guns, bombs, and hacking ploys. Action adventure devotees will be well-pleased by what they have here, and there is some Lite thoughtfulness that you don’t often get in other films for a mass market, which is why “The Matrix” saga is so appealing.

Its themes of alienation, becoming, enslavement to destiny and empowerment are making it this generation’s Star Wars. The battle with Agent Smith (who utters his annoying trademark line “Hello, Mr. Anderson” like a high school principal) is quite well done and indeed looks like it took a month to film. Then again there are a hundred of him. So far. Hugo Weaving as Smith also gets some of the best lines. As he absorbs a crewman, turning him into another Smith he taunts “if you can’t beat us, joins us.”

Still “The Matrix: Reloaded” isn’t as good as the well-paced action, character expansion, and overall basic “you care about them-ility” of “X Men United.” I mean come on, that confusing but thrilling start with Nightcrawler’s assault on the White House is hard to beat.

These won’t sway those itching to see the new film, and it shouldn’t, I’m just doing my duty as a critic, which is something like consumer protection. Both movies are good, but one film is better, and it ain’t this one. But I’m still going to see this one a half dozen times. At least.

Then there are all the other hopeful blockbuster films coming out in the Summer Cinema Season between Memorial Day and Labour Day that are yet to be seen: “Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines” with a deadly female Terminator sent to slay a 20 year old John Connor and which trailer starts before the film; "Lara Croft and The Cradle of Life;" and another comic book creation “The Hulk.” Nobody predicted the amounts that “Spider Man” would generate, with a stunning $115 million the first weekend to make it into the top ten all time moneymakers. Something could break out of the pack, both in terms of money and quality.

Rated R for violence and some sensuality, including a Restaurant Orgasm scene that I call “Better Than Sex,” or “Death By Chocolate.” Although discreet, it goes a bit beyond what Meg Ryan did in that scene with Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally.” Remember this film is rated R for a reason.

But my favourite sensual part was seeing the marvelously thickish Nona Gaye from “Ali” as Zee, the wife of Harold Perrineau’s crewman Link. Nona is shown getting out of bed to speak with a departing Link, called back to duty by Morpheus. She has a genuine shape, and actual hips like a real woman should, not these overrated stick figures that are more like boys with breasts. Gaye was the replacement for the late Aaliyah after she only completed a few scenes before she died in the plane crash after the Caribbean video shoot.

“THE MATRIX: RELOADED” has digital sound that made some people flinch at the realism of the explosions and fights. They are late showings that start at 10 pm in many locations since it was being shown on over 8,000 screens.

The film is from 20th Century Fox is rated “R” for martial arts type violence, lots and lots of gunplay and explosions, and some sensuality that will fly over most kids’ heads, though. The film by the Wachowski brothers is about 2 and a half hours running time.

Agree to disagree? Click on at the cinemaviews.tripod.com site, or email thewordnetpaper@excite.com ; write p.o. box , or call --kjw<

CAST OF "THE MATRIX: RELOADED"

Laurence Fishbourne -- Captain Morpheus

Jada Pinkett Smith -- Captain Niobe

Harold Perrineau – Link

Gloria Foster -- The Oracle

Harry Lennix -- Commander Lock

Nona Gaye -- Zee

Carrie Ann Moss – Trinity

Keanu Reeves – Neo/ Thomas Anderson

Hugo Weaving -- Agent Smith

Anthony Zerbe -- Councilman Hamann

The Seraph -- Collin Chou

Persephone -- Monica Bellucci

Merovingian -- Lambert Wilson

The Ghost Twins -- Adrian and Neil Rayment

DIRECTED BY -- The Wachowskis brothers, Andy and Larry

STUDIO -- 20th Century Fox

Rating: R, violence, martial arts action, sensuality, brief nude scenes, gunplay, explosions

--30—

Kevin J. Walker, Netitor,

THE WORD NetPaper Online News Service

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Milwaukee, WI USA 53201

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