Phew!!!

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2003)

A Northern Ireland city on a damp Sunday morning is always among my most dispiriting overseas experiences. Wander out into the streets and all you see are rows of shuttered and tightly bolted shops; no-one about apart from the solitary shuffling drunk. Even the church bells don't wake up until later. Nothing much to do except gaze expectantly at the multiplex billboard in the search for something to look forward to, come the afternoon. I've failed in this place before, reduced to such cretinous concoctions as "The Waterboy" and "Waking Ned". Today doesn't look too promising either. Something called "The Matrix Reloaded" heads the list. I'm always suspicious of sequels as everyone tells you they're never as good as the original, but never having seen "The Matrix" (Mark I) which is generally described as a great cult movie, I could be at an advantage of those ahead of me in the queue. After all, as a great "Psycho" fan, I have to admit that "Psycho 2" was a good bit of fun. I take the plunge and enter the noise cavern that is today's cinema. Just over two hours later I have to say that I have had something of an experience. I can't say exactly what except that is was a continuous onslaught on the senses that at times gave me something akin to pleasure. I couldn't begin to tell you what it was about except that there were goodies and baddies battling it out in a future world that occasionally disconcerted with almost surreal elements of today - downtown city skyscapes and a tenement courtyard. All I needed to do was to latch on to Keanu Reeves and girlfriend and hope they will make it through a labyrinth of dangers. What really turned me on was all that Kung-Fu stuff, particularly two sequences; firstly where Reeves fights it out against an army of identikit men that had the brilliance of ballet at its best and then a fabulous battle on a busy city freeway the like of which for sheer "perpetuum mobile" I have never seen before. The fact that nearly everyone wears dark glasses that always stay on whatever they get up to I suppose is all part of the cult thing. I have to confess to finding it all infinitely more enjoyable than the much hyped "Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger" which seemed tame if not lame by comparison. When I finally surfaced for air and reality Northern Ireland had come to life. The street was full of Sunday afternoon shoppers. It was all so normal and reassuring.