Whoa...

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 1999)

Easily the best movie I've seen in the past 5 years. As I was going in, all the comments from the audience were along the line of "even Keanu can't screw up this movie too badly". I think even I was shocked to see him turn in a performance where his usual weaknesses turned into strengths. Wow. I can't say enough good things. The story and plotline are kind of similar to Dark City, but the execution and the little details are 100x better. Even John Woo would be impressed by the gunplay here and the martial arts sequences are wonderfully over the top. To top it all off you've got the best bad guy in recent memory: an indestructible government agent that holds all the cards. If this movie has a flaw it's that the beginning hour moves a little slowly. It never gets uninteresting, just a little slow and it makes up for that in the end. As well, some people may think that the ending is just tacked on as a Hollywood afterthought. Personally I thought it was consistent with the film's ideas on fate and prophecy. When it came time to leave the theater I felt like I'd been put through a 50 mile marathon. Now that's good film!