The Weekly Stuff #398 – Revisiting THE MATRIX (1999)

With The Matrix Resurrections arriving in theaters this December, we are finally – almost 400 episodes into this damn podcast – taking our long-awaited look back at one of the single most seminal films of our lifetimes: The Wachowski Sisters’ The Matrix, a movie that is either at or very near the upper threshold of how good it is possible for big Hollywood studio filmmaking to be. This is such an impossibly rich movie to discuss, with its potent, multi-valent central metaphor opening up countless avenues of conversation, including reading the film through the lenses of Marxism or transgender experience, but it’s also just ridiculously entertaining and well-constructed, with terrific performances, beautiful writing, and thrilling action drawing from influences like Wuxia, martial arts, John Woo, anime, and so much more. It’s some of the most fun we’ve ever had talking about a movie on this podcast, but it’s only part of this week’s episode; in this first hour, you’ll also hear Jonathan’s thoughts on Daniel Craig’s final 007 film, No Time to Die, and the out-of-body greatness of Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch, and Sean’s final impressions of Lost Judgment after finishing the latest masterpiece from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios.Enjoy, and come back next week for episode 399 and our next Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza with Reconguista in G! Time Chart:Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:07:55No Time to Die: 0:07:55 – 0:22:56Lost Judgment: 0:22:56 – 0:42:30Metroid Dread: 0:42:30 – 1:01:30Revisiting The Matrix: 1:01:30 – 3:59:29 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast!Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts!Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.comSubscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vKSubscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcastSupport the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuffOriginal Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman