Word: neos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Like Reloaded, Revolutions begins with no flashbacks, no summary of the story thus far. For those who are hazy on the battle of the reborn computer whiz Neo (Keanu Reeves) and his band of rebel humans against Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and the nasties of the virtual-reality Matrix, a brief refresher course is in order...
...original was a genuine Neo classic. It trumped its nifty martial artistry and digital effects with a theme of self-discovery in the great heroic tradition. So, what did the brothers do for an encore? They spread the sequel over two feature-length films and, with all that time to fill, got a little gassy in their storytelling. The rebel fortress of Zion was a drab lair whose denizens engaged in way too much Jedi Council--style nattering. Then--as if producer Joel Silver had pleaded, "Could you please have somebody hit somebody?"--Reloaded 180'd into an action film...
...difference: you won't hear Crowe screaming "Stella!" He rarely raises his voice in films. As the neo-Nazi skinhead in his 1992 attention snagger Romper Stomper, he achieves his most menacing effects with a whisper and reads a passage from Mein Kampf as if it were a sacred bedtime story. The tough cop he played in the 1997 L.A. Confidential is another soft-spoken type: in lieu of shouting, he tattoos his fist on a suspect's face, grabs a man's genitals. Never does he strut or preen or pace nervously, Pacino-style. There's no spillage...
...dynamic of authoritarian autocracy vs. extremism and terror. Democracy, however, requires a leap of faith not only on the part of Arab autocrats, but also by the powers that be in Washington. Because as much as a wave of democracy would sweep away the mullahs in Tehran and the neo-Stalinists in Damascus and the deranged dictator in Tripoli who swears he holds no power and is simply a guy in a tent, it would also almost certainly sweep away America's allies in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh. And in both sets of cases, their replacements...
...Bush administration grapples its way to an exit strategy, the neo-conservative vision in which an invasion of Iraq would create a Middle East beachhead of liberal-democratic, secular, free-market, pro-Western and Israel-friendly sentiment is looking increasingly like the stuff of fantasy. The leading U.S. constitutional adviser to ambassador Bremer last week told the British Daily Telegraph that "The end constitutional product is very likely to make many people in the U.S. government unhappy." Dr. Noah Feldman added that "any democratically elected Iraqi government is unlikely to be secular and unlikely to be pro-Israel. And frankly...