The Matrix - 1999

The Matrix Art Print
40 in. x 30 in.

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The Wachowski Brothers' popular, imaginative, visually-stunning science-fiction action film - the first in a trilogy with inferior sequels: the somewhat successful but critically derided The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and the artificially-expanded The Matrix Revolutions (2003). A computer software company techie programmer and illegal hacker named Thomas Anderson (Reeves) (with screen name alias Neo) is contacted by the mysterious, vinyl-clad heroine Trinity (Moss) and the super-cool, messianic space-ship captain Morpheus (Fishburne) who is the leader of the rebel forces. He is told (with an Alice in Wonderland reference) via his computer: "The Matrix has you. Follow the white rabbit." Neo is informed that he is the champion or chosen one to save Mankind from a malevolent, sentient machine race, that has entrapped all of humanity, in the year 2199!, inside a computer simulation (The Matrix) dreamworld, and tricked them into believing that the simulation is reality.

The Artificial Intelligence system also uses the brains and bodies of the trapped human beings as expendable "living batteries." Freed by this knowledge, Neo soon learns to take advantage of the Matrix, bending the malleable laws of physics to his will, such as impossible feats of physicality (such as running up walls or leaping impossibly high) and altering his perception so dramatically that he sees bullets in flight in order to dodge them. The true standout of the film is the menacing Machine Army agent "Agent Smith," played with a tongue-in-cheek, edgy pseudo-serious flair by Hugo Weaving, whose mannerisms recall 1950's Cold War governmental "Men In Black" agents. The Matrix became best known for its revolutionary visual effects - airborne kung fu, 3-D freeze frame effects with a rotating or pivoting camera, and bullet-dodging. The film became a smash hit, featuring elaborate fighting and stunt sequences, as well as a convoluted screenplay that blurred the edge between reality and fantasy without losing the audience's grasp of the story.

Death Race 2000 - 1975 - Turkish Movie Poster

Death Race 2000, Turkish Movie Poster, 1975 Giclee Print
9 in. x 12 in.

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The Switchblade Sisters - 1975

The Switchblade Sisters Masterprint
12 in. x 16 in.

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Mounted


Jack Hill's 1975 drive-in opus, Switchblade Sisters, has all the requisite cheese and then some: girl fights, gun duels, sex-starved reform school guards, flashes of nudity, and even African-American-Maoist-revolutionary-butt-kicking chicks who don't take nonsense from anyone.

The story is a prime example of how the influence of great filmmakers can be reprocessed into pure exploitation: Maggie (Joanne Nail), a smart, new member of a distaff gang, presents a threat to the group's established leader (Robbie Lee). The intricacies of their subsequent relationship--love, betrayal, and a battle for control--has numerous echoes of the films of Nicholas Ray and Howard Hawks, and Hill plays it all with a seriousness that underscores the heart within this trash classic.

No wonder Quentin Tarantino became this film's latter-day benefactor, promoting its 1998 theatrical re-release under the auspices of his revival imprint, Rolling Thunder Pictures.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman - 1958

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman Art Print
23.625 in. x 31.5 in.

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"Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," the 1958 cult classic, is everything that the 1957 science fiction film "The Incredible Shrinking Man" is not. It is about a woman instead of a man, growing bigger instead of shrinking, vengeance instead of philosophy, and bad instead of good. However, I come down on the side of those that think this film is gloriously bad and therefore an enjoyable camp romp.

Heiress Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) is driving around in the California desert on Route 66 when a satellite crashes to earth and she has an encounter with a giant. Nancy heads back to town and tells everyone what happened, but the police just think she has been off on one of her drinking binges again (Nancy has been institutionalized in the past, you see). As for her husband, Harry (William Hudson), he is too busy paying attention to that cheap tramp Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers). Only now Harry sees his big chance to have Nancy declared mentally incompetent so he can get her $50 million inheritance and that big diamond she wears on the cheap chain around her neck. Fortunately, Nancy is again abducted by the giant alien and when she comes back to town she is 50-feet tall and ready to go on the attack with Harry her prime target.

The sequence as Nancy slowly but surely trashes the town as she tracks down Harry redeems the rest of the film, even if the same shot shows up repeatedly (albeit sometimes backwards). The sight of Allison Hayes in her cloth bikini is as memorable an image as you will find in science fiction films from the Fifties, right up there with Gort's appearance in "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Up to that point the film belongs to Yvette Vickers, who attains a level of performance as a bad girl usually reserved for your more traditional exploitation films from this period.

"Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" can be read as a proto-feminist film, with Nancy's crashing through the roof of her house being viewed as a metaphor for breaking the boundaries of repression which limited the growth of women in the real world. But where is the fun in that? Harry done Nancy wrong and fate has given Nancy the opportunity to engage in payback. This movie was made in 1993 with Darryl Hannah and while the special effects were vastly improved, the net gain was just not as enjoyable as the original romp in the desert, which remains a touchstone for fans of bad science fiction films.

The Terminator - 1984

The Terminator Stand Up
36 in. x 74 in.

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A stylish, action-packed, low budget, beautifully-paced science-fiction film. Kyle Reece (Biehn), a hunted, fugitive, freedom-fighting soldier-hero from the post-apocalyptic, wasteland future of 2029 Los Angeles, where a race of machine-like cyborgs rule the Earth and exterminate human beings, volunteers to return to present-day 1984 Los Angeles. In pursuit through time travel is an invulnerable, ruthless, assassin-terminator cyborg (Schwarzenegger), sent to kill the innocent young woman Sarah Connor (Hamilton) destined to bear a son - John Connor - who will eventually become a liberator and lead the revolt against the evil machines to prevent the world from being annihilated. Rebel soldier Kyle's mission is to protect her, explain her destiny and the reason for the Terminator's stalking - as he falls in love with her.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark - 1981

Indiana Jones Poster Set
27 in. x 40 in.

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Spielberg's thrilling, entertaining homage to 1930's cliff-hanging adventure serials/films at Saturday matinees. One of the greatest action films ever made - led to a trilogy. Mid-1930s, pre-WWII comic-bookish, globe-trotting, bull-whip toting adventurer/archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones (Ford) searches for rare antiquities. The film's opening sequence is a white-knuckled experience in a South American rainforest and cave with poisonous darts and a threatening boulder. In a race with the Nazis, dashing Dr. Jones is enlisted to locate the Biblical Ark of the Covenant before the evil agents of Hitler use its powers to win the war. From Nepal to Cairo, the self-effacing hero is aided by tough, hard-drinking, spunky and feisty ex-girlfriend Marion Ravenwood (Allen), as he escapes one life-threatening situation, fight, scrape, and chase after another - especially venomous snakes and the mysterious wrath of God in its finale.