May Tricks: Yer Loaded-works alright, nothing great.

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2003)

I am one who liked the first but didn't see it as being a Classic or anything. Tron meets Terminator, starrying the Bill and Ted guy. Okay. The computers have won and we're all converted into being Ray-o-Vacs. That much I understood.
Minor spoilers ahead??
In the second, well you have Too much wire-fu, which goes on forever-what was up w/ the 88 Elronds attacking at once? Okay it was a neat trick when George Burns played against himself 19 years ago in O God III, but enough already. We got the point.
The freeway chase was like the ones in 'Bad Boys II'-goes on Forever, the stunts and etc are great-but c'mon, less IS more guys. The two albino whackjobs kept reminding me of the white haired hit man in 'Bullitt'. The ninja bike stuff was right outta 'Tron'.
Sure it's hyper stylized ala Miami Vice or a Michael Bay flick-black leather this, black shades, wire-fu, etc-but some of it just...doesn't quite work. You can also get lost amongst all these weird character titles-the Merovingian, the Oracle, the Keymaker, the Source, etc. Persephone, etc. Okay guys whatever.
I liked it over-all though-they're trying hard, Keanu ain't THAT bad, and you have to applaud the advances in CGI and the like. Too bad there isn't much THERE, ya know? Zion is dull, the infamous Rave scene plays like a bad Lambada out-take, and we really know Anthony Zerbe can do better in his sleep than he did there. I still haven't figured out What the Source guy was talking about-You have been here 6 times before-say WHAT? and it's best that Larry Fishbourne doesn't have to play the Voice of God too much from here on out.
(Oh, as far's the Lord of the Rings flicks being held up as superior to these-well, the source material is that much better for one, and two, let's face it-Sir Petey Jax' stuff is filled w/ weird characters wandering around endlessly chased by badly done Orcs or animotronic rampaging Elms or breakdancing Wizards. You think that's somehow Lawrence of Arabia or whatever? Sure guys. Gimme a break. Yes it's been a fun couple of movies-but in a few years, no one will wanna wade thru 5 hours of Frodo and Sam walking...walking...walking...walking...)
May Tricks: Yer Loaded is good at what it is but one hopes #3 has some meat in it's bones.
*** outta **** for da moxie.