THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS
RATING: R
STARRING: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett-Smith
DIRECTOR: The Wachowski Brothers
PRODUCER: Joel Silver
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, Grant Hill, Andrew Mason, and Bruce Berman
WRITERS: The Wachowski Brothers
DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.
GENRE: Science Fiction
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older teenagers and adults
SUMMARY: The Matrix Revolutions concludes The Matrix trilogy with an action-packed, but excessively violent, story of the final battle between machines and humans, with some of the humans hoping for deliverance from a possible messianic figure in the form of Neo, played by Keanu Reeves. The movie’s Christian allegory and strong moral values ultimately overcome blatant false theology, humanism, lots of strong violence, and purposeless profanities.
The Matrix Revolutions concludes The Matrix trilogy with an action-packed, but violent, story of the final battle between machines and humans. It opens with Morpheus and Trinity rescuing Neo, the possible savior for the humans, who’s stuck between the Matrix and the real world in a kind of endless, non-material purgatory. After they rescue Neo, the three of them join a rescue mission in the physical world to locate and rescue the humans’ flying ship, Logos.
CONTENT: Ultimately redemptive, Messianic, Christian allegory, including some symbolic Christian imagery and references such as images of a Cross made up of light, a reference to sacrificial atonement combined with another use of crucifix imagery, an emphasis on the need for a savior to defeat evil and darkness, and light overcomes darkness (as in John 1:5); excessive foul language, contains about 22 obscenities and 15 strong profanities; excessive violence such as much indiscriminate gunfire; decapitations, impalings, and men spit blood; suggestive bi-sexual dancing in sadomasochistic bar where some men appear to be fondling other men.
THE SINGING DETECTIVE
RATING: R
STARRING: Robert Downey, Jr., Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson, Jeremy Northam, Katie Holmes, Carla Cugino, Adrien Brody, and Jon Polito
DIRECTOR: Keith Gordon
PRODUCERS: Mel Gibson, Steven Haft, and Bruce Davey
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Stan Wlodkowski
WRITER: Dennis Potter
BASED ON THE TELEVISION SERIES BY: Dennis Potter
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Classics
GENRE: Comedy/Film Noir/Musical
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Adults
SUMMARY: In The Singing Detective, Robert Downey, Jr., plays Dan Dark, a mystery novelist whose latest outbreak of a crippling skin disease has landed him in the hospital. Extremely bitter about his circumstances and his failed marriage, Dark begins hallucinating scenes from his novel, The Singing Detective, interspersed with scenes from his childhood, which suffered from a broken marriage and tragedy. Eventually, the hospital sends him to an eccentric psychiatrist named Dr. Gibbons, played by Mel Gibson, who dares to confront Dark’s tortured mind.
The Singing Detective contains bizarre paranoid visions of murder, sex, music, and a dysfunctional family life. Its slightly moral, redemptive ending cannot overcome the movie’s humanist outlook on personal trauma, or its strong foul language, explicit sex scenes, and very gross images of the hero’s skin disease. Although a biblical worldview tells us that psychological counseling and medical science can help cure what ails us, the ultimate answer to psychological troubles, physical traumas, and spiritual problems is depending on God through Jesus Christ and through God’s Holy Word, the Bible.
CONTENT: Humanist worldview validating psychological introspection with some vague Christian references and a redemptive outcome that re-unites an estranged married couple; at least 31 obscenities, five strong profanities, five light profanities.
