Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1378 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-11-29
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Colour, Digital Sound, Dolby, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Romanian, Arabic, Bulgarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 131 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix took the well-worn science fiction idea of virtual reality, added supercharged Hollywood gloss and a striking visual style and stole The Phantom Menace's thunder as the must-see movie of the summer of 1999. Laced with Star Wars-like Eastern mysticism, and featuring thrilling martial arts action choreographed by Hong Kong action director Yuen Woo Ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), The Matrix restored Keanu Reeves to genre stardom following virtual reality dud Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and made a star of Carrie-Anne Moss, who followed this with the challenging perception twister Memento (2000). Helping the film stand out from rivals Dark City (1998) and The Thirteenth Floor (1999) was the introduction of the celebrated "bullet time" visual effects, though otherwise the war-against-the-machines story, hard-hitting style and kinetic set-pieces such as the corporate lobby shoot-out lean heavily on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Elsewhere the influence of John Woo, from the ultra-cool near real-world SF of Face/Off (1997) to the raincoats and sunglasses look of bullet-ballet A Better Tomorrow, is clearly in evidence. The set-up isn't without its absurdities, though--quite why super-intelligent machines bother to use humans as batteries instead of something more docile like cows, for example, is never explained, nor is how they expect these living batteries to produce more energy than it takes to maintain them. The Matrix is nevertheless exhilarating high-octane entertainment, although as the first part of a trilogy it perhaps inevitably doesn't have a proper ending.

On the DVD: the anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 image is virtually flawless, exhibiting only the grain present in the theatrical print, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is demonstration quality, showing off the high-impact sound effects and Don Davis' fine score to great effect. Special features are "data files" on the main stars, producer and director and "Follow the White Rabbit", which if selected while viewing the movie offers behind the scenes footage. This is interesting, but gimmicky, requires switching back from widescreen to 4:3 each time, and would be better if it could be accessed directly from one menu. There is also a standard 25-minute TV promo film which is as superficial as these things usually are. --Gary S Dalkin

Video Description
DVD Special Features

HBO First Look Special: Making The Matrix
Follow the White Rabbit and Take The Red Pills for more mysterious, mind bending extras
Filmographies
Scene Access
Details Inside
Language in Dolby Digital 5.1: English
Subtitles: English/Arabic/Romanian/Bulgarian/English for the Hearing impaired

Enhanced Features for your DVD-ROM PC

Are you The One Challenge
Screenplay, Storyboard, and Genre Essays
Do you know Kung Fu?
Original Theatrical Website
Details inside

Web Events and Chat Room Access

Exclusive chat room with celebrity guests and other special events

Synopsis
Neo seeks the truth about the Matrix. Only one man has the answer, an elusive dangerous man who is known as Morpheus. A stranger called Trinity invites Neo to follow a white rabbit which guides him into a parallel world. Reality is a world run by artificially intelligent machines who control the human slaves in a simulated 20th Century...

Customer Reviews

Open your mind to reality
Tom Anderson (Reeves) believes he lives a normal life until he is found by Morpheus (Fishburne) who shows him he has been living in a dream world and now they must join forces in a battle against the machine world.

The question of reality, the complexity of life and the dismal mechanical futuristic view is the Wachowski brothers The Matrix.

Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lucas' Star Wars take a look at outer space in a hard hitting entertaining manner and this 1999 depiction of reality is equally visually stunning with a wonderful puzzling narrative and high intellectual entertainment.

Opening with a rooftop chase and a strange life risking dash to a telephone box, The Matrix then unfolds into mystery after mystery as Neo, along with the viewers, tries to decode the strangeness of what is the Matrix.

This film is more than a 2 hour Sci-Fi masterpiece. It is a picturesque puzzle that leaves the viewer with many questions that are a joy to discuss.

The effects help cement the feel of the futuristic world and the differences between the Matrix and the machine world. Bright and smart, the directors have created a visionary film through the use of some of the finest effects you will see. The green letter encoding sequences are now legendary and the slowing down sequences is a target for spoofs despite the brilliance of them.

The performances are secondary next to the bizarrely beautiful narrative. Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith is a stand out, a fantastic villain that is the only thing that gets better as the trilogy progresses.

The ending puts a damper on the narrative by being too over the top and diving into last gasp convention,

However overall this is a fine sophisticated Sci-Fi drama that questions reality in a deep and meaningful manner.

Sadly the originality and imagination of this film was ruined by two over the top gung ho action sequels.

For quality entertainment watch this film and stay clear of the sequels which will leave you with an open mind and plenty of questions to ponder and discuss.

8.5/10

Not That Original After All
I had always enjoyed watching this movie for all the reasons stated in other reviews, but last night I sat through an hour and fifty odd minutes of the director's cut of "Dark City" - released in 1998 and totally ignored by the majority of critics and film goers. In fact, The Director's Cut copy I had was given to me by a friend and, as far as I know, is not available in this country. The plot of this film is about a populace trapped in a perpetually dark city, which is closed down and re-tuned by the controllers. Memories are altered, people put into other slots in the society, and the entire landscape altered as part of the experiment. Essentially it's The Matrix, but without all the silly Kung Fu, shouting and shooting and the pseudo religious clap trap that proliferates in The Matrix. It is a dark and gripping movie that predates this hocum and will blow you away with its visually stunning photography and thought provoking plotline. So, do yourselves a favour. If you don't want all the guns and silliness, but want the alien controlled reality then watch Dark City instead...Anyone know the way to Shell Beach? Everyone thinks they do until they try to give you directions.....

The Matrix [1999]
Buy the "The Matrix/Matrix Revisited if you are an avid Matrix fan who did not like the sequels enough to buy the ten or three disc editions. Also if you just want Film one and any bonuses for The first Matrix film then the two disc version is probably the way to go. While the original realise is justifiably a very good DVD considering it came out in 1999 the re-release has what appears to be a comprehensive documentary which sounds like quite a coup for fans of the first Matrix. I actually steered clear of this film for a long time but having seen it a couple of days ago was not really that surprised. I expected a very good film and I certainly got it. Problem for me is nine years on everyone virtually has seen this, made their minds up or knows the jest of it. I could write about what an entertaining visually stunning, exciting, and surprisingly fresh feeling, re-watchable viewing this was but chances are you have heard that review a million times over. So I will restrict my comments to the DVD.

Given that it was released in 1999 I wouldn't have expected anything in the way of bonus features but there are two decent features available, one that has maybe 18 minutes of supplemented material along with a twenty five-minute look into the making of the film by HBO. The first feature is follow the white rabbit, chose this feature and a white rabbit icon will appear clicking on it will enable you to see a two to three minute look at the making of a big special effect sequence in the film. There are about five or six of these and to be honest the fact the way they go from the scene in the film to the clip behind the scenes isn't that good. No commentary just actual process of making the scene compressed into a two-minute segment, which would have been a bit better, had there been actual input from the filmmakers. No matter, for a very early DVD release this is better than most one- disc editions available today, the HBO first look is a moderately interesting advert for the film, which as you would expect doesn't go too deep into anything as it was made prior to the films release and therefore gives very little away. There is also a five-minute "take the red pill feature" that explains the bullet-time effect.

Like I said most one-disc editions nowadays might have a trailer but nothing more, but this copy for under Five pounds gives you one of the most celebrated movies of the last decade, this copy is still selling well enough on Amazon to be in the top two hundred(at the time I ordered it) which given its nine years old says something. I write this not as a die hard Matrix fan but someone who just recently bought an excellent DVD for pennies, so whether you like Science Fiction or not I strongly recommend picking this up as it is not only good value but a feature that when you strip away the pop culture mythology, is still a hugely entertaining film that works on whatever level you want it too, however serious or just plain entertaining you believe it too be, it works either way. Most already know this but I bought this without having seen this and enjoyed so much I initially regretted not getting the two-disc edition so its definitely worth looking into. I feel awfully tempted to actual discuss the movie, but lets face it two hundred and thirty-five people on this page alone have done that not to mention reviewer sites across the internet, but if for whatever reason you haven't seen this excellent Film, I highly recommend it, but do thing the two-disc edition is worth getting, though there isn't an official price on Amazon at the minute but settling for the original is certainly no problem for me.