steven-3

How can you sit in a theatre and watch the most astonishing action sequences you've ever seen, then surf to the imdb to tell everyone about your major disappointment? You'd have to be blind to the beauty and the style with which the action scenes and the fights are done. They are way too damn good to feel disappointed.In my opinion also the storyline should not be as easily dismissed as some critics do. The original movie introduced the concept of the Matrix, it was a great strength of that movie since it is such a good concept and we had never seen it before quite like that. It is obviously impossible to introduce it again in the sequel. In fact that is why I initially feared that Reloaded would be a disappointment: how can a movie be interesting if no new concepts have to be developed and the main character is all but omnipotent? But in Reloaded, rather than doing the original movie all over again in a different guise, the story progresses and gives you a larger view of the world of the Matrix.It does not really matter whether or not you buy into the metaphysical dialogue: as long as the world picture presented by the movie is more or less coherent, which it is, it should be interesting for an open-minded viewer to suspend his disbelief and see where the ideas in the movie lead him. This is not to say that the movie should not be criticized; obviously Reloaded is far from perfect: sometimes the dialogue is a bit too pompous; the sex scene might have been a bit shorter, some jokes where a bit childish, Zion is slightly too reminiscent of Star Wars, the image is sometimes too visibly computer-manipulated: all true, but nevertheless such objections are certainly not sufficient to dismiss the Matrix Reloaded, it just has too many qualities.Just keep an open mind, and you'll enjoy what you see!

Alex van Warmerdam is one of the very few Dutch directors whose films I can bear to watch. He has created a number of very good absurdistic movies (Abel, de Noorderlingen, de Jurk, kleine Teun), of which I liked de Noorderlingen best; its weird scenes are evidence of a wonderfully imaginative and free mind. Van Warmerdam has something of a voyeur, a trait which influences all his movies; what better setting could he choose than a hideously Dutch, `modern' village where all the people are continually spying on each other through their large front windows. Yet if you expect that all magic would have disappeared from such surroundings, think again.... there are fairies in the woods nearby and one inhabitant turns out to be holy.

I can tell you from personal experience that there exist Dutch people with a sense of humour, but if you don't believe me be sure to go and watch this movie.

This film has no sex or violence, no fast action, hardly a storyline to speak of, yet it has everything a good movie needs. You might say this is an overly sentimental movie, but somehow I just loved the sentiment which was well carried by the actors. It is visually stunning and clearly shows how great a director Lynch is. The music score is very good (although I would have left out just a few of the repeats). It is occasionally very funny.

In short, this movie is good for your soul. Go see it.