Sunday, October 26, 2008

Nerd.

To anyone who ever doubted that their friend Mo Shafeek was a nerd...



and to anyone who is worried they have to deal with me talking about it all the time from now on, rest easy: I have accepted my fate as the only person on earth who loves these films.

We can finally move on now.

and for a real life update... I'm writing a novel. Fun huh? I'm two chapters in. Wish me luck.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

My sincerest apologies.

Not to any of you. Or even to myself. I want to make a formal apology to the Wachowski Brothers.

Yes. Those Wachowski Brothers. I think one of them is a woman now, so, maybe I should refer to them as the Wachowski Siblings.

I once did this thing where I bashed your films. Specifically the two sequels to your wonderfully accessible film Sci-Fi blockbuster: 'The Matrix'

Up until two weeks ago I had all but forgotten what that movie series represented to myself, and most of the movie going public. It was one of the more perfect examples of how to drive your franchise into the ground. I thought the second one was okay in all, in concept alone, but that third one? Man, what the hell were you thinking?

That subway scene?
That weird dialogue at the end.
Seriously?

So, I stumbled upon this box set at my favorite used record store, and there it was in all of it's glory. For twenty bucks, a ten disc special edition, advanced treatment for this trilogy, it's mythology, and it's animated short films.

Who the hell would ever buy this?

Much like the philosophy that now haunts me, I could not let it rest idly by. I had to know why there was ever a market for such a tragic trilogy. I opened the pages of the 40 page booklet inside of this set and read the special features and the foreword by the creators.

To summarize they apologize not for the films, but for the lack of commentary on this box set, saying that they would prefer their insight not to become the true dogma of the films, so instead they invited philosophers who dug the films, and critics who hated the films to have their own commentary each on each of the films, to allow for people to decide for themselves.

Huh?

Yeah, that's what i'm thinking.

Okay, so you make this movie series that everyone universally thinks stuttered to completion by it's third and final act and you invite philosophers who thought it was rad to match wits with the general public. That's pretty ballsy.

I had to know why.

So, a week later after a awful mistake on my end with the second address field on the Netflix sign up screen (who would think that working for an online web-store would allow for people to make such careless a mistake as not including their apartment number... 2B by the way) The Matrix Reloaded arrived in my mail box.

I brewed some tea, ate some dinner and turned off all the lights and said "Okay, let's see what you got"

Ahem...

So, needless to say from the tone of this, I went back the next day to buy that box set, but it was gone. And now I am ordering it from Amazon for far more than I could've paid.

I wish I could have experienced this with someone else, but I know I could not. It was a journey I had to go on alone.

But I apologize, Andy and Larry.

I will try to right my wrongs. I will tell anyone who asks my opinions, how I really feel now:

That you made one of the most philosophically entertaining movie I never gave the chance to inspire me.

I hope this finds you well.

Your biggest fan (again)

Mo Shafeek

P.S. I'm so so so so so so sorry I ever doubted you.