To the '90s and Beyond! Film Podcast

Vince takes a detour from the MATRIX films to go into a deep dive into JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (2025) — exploring the film’s core ideas, how it was made and released, and offering a frank review packed with trivia and production anecdotes. Plot synopsis: Set five years after Jurassic World: Dominion, Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025) follows a specialist team hired by a pharmaceutical company to travel to the remote, mutation-altered Île Saint-Hubert to harvest genetic samples from its most enormous dinosaurs for a promising heart-disease treatment; the expedition soon devolves into a desperate fight for survival when they must join forces with a shipwrecked civilian family and, together, uncover a sinister secret tied to the island and InGen’s past experiments that forces harrowing choices about truth, profit, and the fate of the revived creatures.

Tl;dr: Vince started a funk-based internet radio station called Funk the Planet. Check it out at https://funkthepla.net

Film writer Vince Leo explores the nine-episode animated short film anthology, *The Animatrix*, released in 2003. Each short expands the lore of *The Matrix* universe. Produced by the Wachowskis, the creators of *The Matrix* trilogy, the anthology features contributions from various anime directors. *The Animatrix* offers a unique perspective on the *Matrix* world, delving deeper into its themes and characters than the original films.

It's several months after the events of the first film, and the last remaining human city, the underground bunker called Zion, is building its forces to take back the planet from the artificial intelligence that now dominates it. This same artificial intelligence has begun to dig to destroy Zion, and the resistance seems overwhelmed by the potential onslaught. The plan is now hatched to send agents Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) back into the Matrix so that they may destroy the mainframe that controls it, but it's not going to be easy, with the usual agents, a couple of ghosts, and hundreds of Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving), who now seems to have the ability to replicate himself, on their tails.

Keanu Reeves stars as Thomas Anderson, aka Neo. Neo works for a large software company, but is a computer hacker on the side, and quite a good one at that, selling off information for a price to anyone who might want it. That is until one day his world is rocked when he is shown that the world of 1999 isn't reality, but actually a computer simulation designed to lull humans into a feeling of complacency while their actual bodies are being harvested and used as batteries for the artificial intelligence they helped create. A mysterious man named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) believes Neo is "The One" who will save all humanity, as foretold to him by The Oracle, so he shows Neo the truth about his surroundings and trains him in the ways of The Matrix in the hope that humanity can prevail against the machines.

Rufus Sewell stars as John Murdoch, who wakes up one day with amnesia in an non-descript hotel room with a butchered woman, immediately having to go on the run as the prime suspect in a series of murders of prostitutes around the city -- but he can't remember if he did it. In addition to the police force, Murdoch is also hotly pursued by a shifty psychologist named Dr. Shreber (Kiefer Sutherland), a tenacious detective, Frank Bumstead (WIlliam Hurt), a woman claiming to be his philandering wife, Emma (Jennifer Connelly), and a spate of pale and creepy-looking, trenchcoated Nosferatus (or so they appear), who are looking for Murdoch because he seems to possess abilities above and beyond what normal men have, which makes him a danger to them. As Murdoch seeks to get to the bottom of who he is and what's going on, he discovers that there's an even bigger mystery, which is who everyone else is, what kind of city they all reside in, why is it being controlled by these shady creatures who seem otherworldly, and just why does it always seem to be nighttime?

This Japanese remake of the 1997 Canadian thriller depicts several strangers awakening in a prison of cubic cells, some of them booby-trapped, not knowing how they got there or why. The prisoners must use their combined skills if they are to escape alive.

A group of strangers awakens with very little memory of who they are and finds that they have been involuntarily placed in a maze containing deadly traps. Meanwhile, a young technician watching over the Cube grows appalled at what he sees and endeavors to rescue a woman he finds a connection to who is trapped within.

In this follow-up to the 1997 futuristic cult thriller, Cube, another group of strangers find themselves transported into a maze of cube rooms for unknown reasons as they try to make their escape.

Set in the post-world financial demise of the year 2019, The Running Man stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as law enforcement officer and helicopter pilot Ben Richards, who ends up getting framed for instigating the murder of a crowd of innocent civilians engaging in a protest for food in Bakersfield. Richards and a couple of benevolent jail mates spring out of prison and go on the run, only to be captured later and used as scapegoats for the massacre by becoming involuntary contestants on the most popular television show in history, the government-supported 'The Running Man', whereby convicted murders are put into a glitzy game show where they must battle for their lives and the hope of a pardon while being hunted by a rogues gallery of skilled costumed assassins, all for the entertainment of a rabid public fan base. Richard Dawson has a major supporting role as the show's charismatic host, Damon Killian, who is as pleasant as can be when the camera is on, but is an unscrupulous, cutthroat businessman behind the scenes. Killian gets ever more averse to the depiction of the truth as Richards not only manages to stay alive far longer than any previous contestant, he is also in danger of becoming a national hero.

Without knowing how they got there or why they were there, several strangers awaken in a maze of cube-like rooms, some of them containing deadly booby traps. There's tough cop Quentin (Maurice Dean Wint), doctor Holloway (Nicky Guadagni), young math whiz Leaven (Nicole de Boer), escape artist Rennes (Wayne Robson), autistic savant Kazan (Andrew Miller) and architect Worth (David Hewlett). The cube inhabitants must rely on each other's strengths if they are to have any chance to escape.

The remains of a crashed spaceship, over three centuries old, is found on the ocean floor somewhere in the South Pacific, and a psychologist and his crew of scientists are selected to investigate. On board the ship, they encounter a strange spherical object, and after one of them enters the sphere, strange and not-too-pleasant things begin happening to them.

In the year 2047, a crew of American astronauts is sent to Neptune to try to save the crew and ship called the Event Horizon, which had mysteriously disappeared several years before. They find the Event Horizon but what they find inside is something more than they expected. Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill star in this Paul W.S. Anderson sci-fi/horror mesh.

Jodie Foster stars as scientist Ellie Arroway, who has dedicated her life to searching for possible intelligent lifeforms outside of Earth and our solar system. An orphan from an early age, her faith in God has wavered since the days of trying to futilely contact her mother in heaven through the radio, replaced by a firm belief in science and facts as the pinnacle of what's true and right. While her faith that we are not alone in the universe is unwavering, as a scientist, she won't rest until she has absolute proof. Scanning the skies for radio waves of intelligent extraterrestrial origin, she and her team at SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) wait diligently for a message. That day finally arrives when they pick up a repeating signal emanating from Vega, a star system 26 light-years away. As the scientists work diligently to try to decode the message, the Earth erupts in a series of science vs. religion debates on what this all means, and who should be the one who represents our interests should we come face to face with the originator of the message.

During a burial dig early in the 20th century, a stargate is found but the technology didn't exist to understand the complicated mechanism. Fast forward to the 1990s, and experiments have begun again, this time enlisting the services of Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader), a professor of Ancient Egypt who believes that man could not possibly have been responsible for the civilization which existed over 5000 years ago. The stargate is operated which is a gateway to another world on the other end of the galaxy. Jackson and a troop of soldiers are sent there to investigate and find a civilization similar to that found in Ancient Egypt. Kurt Russell, Jaye Davidson, and Mili Avital co-star in this Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin film.

A series of nuclear explosions in the South Pacific creates a titanic lizard monster that's born pregnant and destroys Manhattan. With over 200 eggs laid, the human race faces extinction if a biologist (Matthew Broderick), a couple of reporters, the French CIA, and the military can't kill them all before they all lay eggs of their own.

Activist Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard_ is still leading the Dinosaur Protection Group to break up illegal breeding operations. Claire's partner, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), captures and relocates stray dinos before they're slaughtered by poachers. They live in a cabin in the Sierra Nevadas with 14-year-old experimental human clone Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), raised as their surrogate daughter in secret to protect her from exploitation. The velociraptor raised by Owen, Blue, lives in the nearby woods with her asexually created younger hatchling, dubbed Beta by Maisie. Maisie is unhappy in isolation and occasionally strays beyond her parents' border, ultimately getting captured by mercenaries, who also kidnap Beta. Meanwhile, genetically modified locusts begin consuming and destroying farm crops in America's heartland and will soon be a global threat. Paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) discovers that crops from Biosyn seeds remain unaffected, suspecting foul play to monopolize the world's food market. She consults former paleontologist colleague and romantic partner Alan Grant (Sam Neill) for help. They discover that the locusts have been genetically modified using Cretaceous period DNA. Their detective work finds them joining forces with Claire and Owen to infiltrate Biosyn, where Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is currently employed, to expose the greedy corporation's plans to the world.

This 5th entry in the Jurassic franchise sets the story following the closure of Jurassic World, where its dormant volcano, Mt. Sibo, has become active, threatening all life on Isla Nublar. Humankind debates whether the clone dinosaurs should be saved or return to extinction. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) has become a conservationist advocate for the Dinosaur Protection Group, feeling an overwhelming responsibility to save the dinos she once considered merely a commodity. After John Hammond's billionaire associate Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) is on his deathbed, his assistant, Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), pitches a plan to Claire to fund the relocation of the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar to a sanctuary island. Claire gathers a team including velociraptor whisperer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), super-hacker Franklin Webb (Justice Smith), and paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez (Daniela Pineda). The team is stunned to discover find mercenaries on the island gathering dinosaurs to bring to the mainland for greedy, nefarious purposes.

Siblings Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson) are sent on vacation to visit their Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is the manager of operations at the Costa Rica island resort known as Jurassic World, a tourist attraction funded by mega-billionaire named Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) that takes its basic idea from the original Jurassic Park but seeks to do the formula right (i.e., more profitably). In addition to the assortment of dinosaurs, the corporation is looking into creating their own hybrid dinos through experiments in genetic engineering that are sure to draw in even more interested visitors year after year. Their biggest creation is the Indominus Rex, a creation that splices the T. Rex DNA with a hodge-podge of other predators of various strengths, that just might be the most deadly creature that has ever roamed the Earth. (I suppose it's not a good sign that 'indominus' is Latin for 'untamable'.) Navy vet Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is a behavioral research consultant and talent trainer at the facility, looking into the ability of these dinosaurs to learn from human instruction, and he's especially made progress at whispering to velociraptors, which may prove to be a much-needed thing now that Indominus Rex has gotten out of its cage and is prepared to hunt and kill whatever it can on the island, which ultimately could mean the slaughter of 20,000 visitors trapped in the theme park. Colin Trevorrow directs.

Jurassic Park III starts off with a man and a young boy that go paragliding only to have a forced crash landing on the island of Isla Sorna, the infamous second Jurassic Park island. The boy's parents, played by William H. Macy and Tea Leoni, travel to the island in hopes of rescuing their son, dragging along Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill, from the first film), who is none too happy about being thrown among the ruthless predators again. Golly gee, you don't think their plane might crash causing them to have to deal with dino-angst for 90 minutes, do you? Joe Johnston directs.