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REVIEW: The Matrix Reloaded [2003]

2021/12/182021/12/18 Jared Mobarak

We can never see past the choices we don’t understand. Hype and nostalgia are drugs. Not only was I super psyched for The Matrix Reloaded when it came out, I remember being equally psyched upon leaving the theater. I was twenty-one, had just seen The Matrix a year or two previously (was late on that bandwagon), and had watched The Animatrix a couple times to prepare. A bunch of us got together to hit opening weekend (two of whom spoke French and confirmed that the cursing done by Lambert Wilson‘s…

REVIEW: Dune [1984]

2021/12/172021/12/18 Jared Mobarak

What can be done has been done. It’s impossible to watch David Lynch‘s adaptation of Frank Herbert‘s Dune without wondering where the rest of it is. You can’t necessarily blame the director, though. He was a hired hand in many respects who hadn’t even heard of the novel when approached after many other versions (one famously spearheaded by Alejandro Jodorowsky) had failed. Lynch read the classic, loved it, and initially fleshed out a way to tell it in two films (much like what’s currently happening with Denis Villeneuve at the…

REVIEW: 竜とそばかすの姫 [Ryû to sobakasu no hime] [Belle] [2021]

2021/12/142022/01/10 Jared Mobarak

Come now, change the world. If Suzu (Kaho Nakamura) had her way, she’d melt into the floor never to be seen or heard from again. It’s been like this for the decade since her mother put on a lifejacket to wade through the choppy river and save another girl her age stranded and crying in the middle of the water. The girl came ashore in that jacket. Her mother didn’t. Suzu has often wondered why she wasn’t more important than that stranger. Why staying with her and her father (Kôji…

REVIEW: The Animatrix [2003]

2021/12/102021/12/10 Jared Mobarak

And for a time, it was good. One of the best traits about The Matrix was that it provided only what was necessary to understand its specific narrative. Exposition was often truncated or spoken matter-of-factly without detail or explanation to move us from point A to point B without much excess. This was crucial considering the film was already over two hours and none of those minutes could be wasted. Subsequently creating a two-film continuation of Neo’s (Keanu Reeves) rise as a Christ-like figure to save humanity from the machines…

REVIEW: The Matrix [1999]

2021/12/052021/12/06 Jared Mobarak

There is no spoon. Who better to realize humanity is living inside a simulation than hackers? They’re the ones with knowledge of computer systems and the glitches and backdoors within. And when one gets too close to the truth, who better than government agents to be the hunters trying to eradicate them? It isn’t national security that they’re worried about, though. It’s the viability of a world that has been constructed to keep them alive. That’s the secret being threatened. Not bank accounts or confidential files. Reality itself. So, when…

REVIEW: The Mitchells vs the Machines [2021]

2021/12/022021/12/02 Jared Mobarak

Be bold and never play it safe. So many familial conflicts can be solved by a simple conversation laying out wants and desires since passive aggressive ultimatums will always prove insufficient as a means for compromise. Should Rick Mitchell (Danny McBride) need Katie (Abbi Jacobson) to overtly tell him she’s desperate for his support? No. It’s what every child wants from his/her parents. Should Katie need Rick to explain the reasons he lets his own insecurities and failures dictate his attitude towards the light years’ worth of cultural distance separating…

REVIEW: Encanto [2021]

2021/12/012021/12/02 Jared Mobarak

Make your family proud. Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero) was alone with her triplet babies when a miracle occurred. Her husband had just been lost trying to protect them from the rampant violence that has displaced thousands of Colombians. They would have been killed too if not for the magic that manifested a stone barrier protecting the four remaining Madrigal family members from the conflict. With it came a living house powered by the everlasting candle that ignited this impossible moment. Alma would return the favor by becoming its protector…

REVIEW: Eternals [2021]

2021/11/242021/11/24 Jared Mobarak

It’s almost time. With twenty-five films and a fully realized serial arc already released, I wonder how many viewers checked out of Chloé Zhao‘s singular Eternals before the preamble was even complete. Despite all that context and investment, we’re made to read about all-powerful beings called Celestials, God-like immortals who inspired the cultural epics and heroes we still teach our children today, and other-worldly malicious creatures known as Deviants who’ve threatened humanity’s salvation for millennia. It’s obviously a big ask. One that Kevin Feige and company couldn’t have even suggested…

REVIEW: New York Ninja [2021]

2021/11/212021/11/21 Jared Mobarak

This city owes me … justice. Taiwanese actor John Liu never made it to the big time in Hong Kong. Despite being known in the industry as having one of its “best kicks,” he would eventually create his own production company to write/direct/star in three actioners set in Paris and Mexico. While a fourth production entitled New York Ninja did finish principal photography, however, it was never completed before Liu retired from the business to begin teaching his own martial arts form known as Zen Kwan Do (which kept a…

REVIEW: 借りぐらしのアリエッティ[Kari-gurashi no Arietti] [The Secret World of Arrietty] [2010]

2021/11/142021/11/14 Jared Mobarak

Sometimes it’s best not to go looking for danger. The day has finally arrived for Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) to become a “borrower.” Just being a four-inch-tall humanoid living in secret under the floorboards and inside the walls of an unsuspecting “human bean’s” house isn’t enough to earn the title. One must embrace bravery and ingenuity to venture out and take that which the family needs to survive without also earning any unwanted attention for what went missing. Would Arrietty love to take a “real’ dresser from the dollhouse upstairs to…

REVIEW: Ron’s Gone Wrong [2021]

2021/11/022021/11/03 Jared Mobarak

Let’s make friends. The CEO of tech giant Bubble (Justice Smith‘s Marc) had good intentions when creating the Bubble-bot. His goal was to eradicate childhood loneliness by supplying boys and girls the world over a personal SEO-equipped “Smart” device that doubles as a best friend and geo-locator of other like-minded real friends. The toy’s launch proves a huge success as Marc randomly selects an audience member to electronically imprint on the first unboxed Bubble-bot before then having it wirelessly connect to the app-aggregated meta data cataloged on every child’s phone…