Keanu Reeves is Neo, expert computer-hacker, who suddenly finds himself drawn into a conflict that threatens to destroy his reality, or at least what he thinks is reality. Recruited by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), leader of a rebellion against the mechanical creators of the "Matrix", Neo discovers that the world as he knows it doesn't exist, and pursued by "Agent" Smith (Hugo Weaving) and his cohorts, he has to go underground and join the battle as Morpheus' "Chosen One".

An extraordinarily far-fetched premise, yes, but a well-executed one for the most part. It took me sometime to get round to watching this, as I had a preconceived notion about it, but I was pleasantly surprised. With some stunning special effects, and solid, if unspectacular, acting from those involved, The Matrix is actually a lot of fun. It doesn't seem to take itself highly seriously, which helps, and all the flying bullets and kung-fu moves add up to some good hokum. Entertaining hokum, too. If it was trying to be a seminal sci-fi flick, it didn't quite get there, but one can hope that that wasn't the intention, for as a slice of flashy entertainment, it does quite well. Good fun. DJY