First off, let me apologize for lying. There are obviously a few more than only 10 of my favorites movies listed. But how can you leave them out? After all, they become a part of you, don’t they? Enough blah-blah-blah, on with the show…

Ooh yeah – almost forgot – “Spoiler Alerts” – I’m sure I will include some, so read at your own risk.

The Matrix (1999) – Wow! I think I could write a book on this one. By far my favorite movie ever. Yeah, I even bought it on DVD before I had a DVD player.

Okay – to show you just how much I loved it – the scene where Neo and Trinity enter the building with guns blazing, running on walls, defying gravity – I was so caught up in the moment, I stood up in the theater to cheer Neo on. Let’s just say my wife was a little less than thrilled with my embarrassing behavior. I’m such a dork.

It is my favorite movie for many reasons. Probably the strongest of which is its parallel with faith and the poetic imagery it uses. The audience is swept away in a journey of self-discovery alongside Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) who can only be described as mind-blowing! We discover that the monotony of the day-to-day, the discouragements in life, the hardships we face, the constant frustrations, setbacks and limitations, are all lies masterfully woven together to form a veil used by the enemy to hide the truth. The truth is we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are capable of great and marvelous feats. We are more powerful than we can imagine.

Share with Neo as we realize “there is no spoon.” Anything is possible. You just have to believe.

Wow, I feel like a kid again just talking about it.

I won’t bore you with all my geekiness, but I would like to share with you one symbolic theme I found running throughout the movie (this is usually the point where my wife’s eyes gloss over). The symbolism behind his name – Neo:

• Neo is the root for the Greek word “new”. (for example, new life)
• Neo is also an anagram for “one”. Just change the letters around. Neo is referred to as “The One” throughout the movie.
• Neo’s apartment number was 101 - representative of binary code.
• Binary code is built on a series of 1’s and 0’s. As “The One”, Neo is the essence of the code the Matrix was built on.
• …so who better to exploit the “limits” of the Matrix than the one on whom it’s built?

How deep does the rabbit hole go?

Sorry folks, it looks like I’ve run out of time for today. But, please stay tuned for upcoming episodes. Some of the flicks we’ll be bl(hog)ging about are:

The Incredibles Dark City The Patriot The Rookie Horton Hears a Who Close Encounters of the Third Kind Rocky III Batman & Batman Begins Spiderman I Blade Runner It’s a Wonderful Life Meet the Robinsons Twelve Monkeys Back to the Future The Game The Princess Bride Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Groundhog Day Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail Billy Madison Hook Prince of Egypt

Feedback is appreciated; I’d love to hear what you think.

Happy movie-going – Eric