Reviews

Like a perfectly composed piece of music, the action swells with each following scene until Neo is literally dodging bullets from the Matrix's guard dog Agent Smith and punching out walls like they were Styrofoam (technically they probably were. It's still damn cool). The helicopter crashing into the skyscraper would have been a satisfying climax in any other film, but the Wachowskis are far from finished with our hero, even going so far as to kill him and then bring him back to turn the tables on Smith.

Keanu has never been the best actor, but he does look at home in shades and a trench-coat. Point Break and Speed had already earned him some action hero credentials but The Matrix (and its sequels) put him firmly at the top of the I Can Kick Your Arse list. It's also no surprise his best work post-Matrix has not been in bland chick flicks (The Lake House), but in films where he says little and sports a permanent frown (Constantine).

Carrie-Anne Moss came out of nowhere to make Trinity the sex symbol of Generation X, but in the years since has managed to slowly build her career by playing against type. She took Mumsie supporting roles in Disturbia and The Chumscrubber, while Laurence Fishburne was relegated to a tiny part in M.I:3 and a season of CSI (who hasn't?). Yet whatever they each do next, they'll always be remembered as Neo, Trinity and Morpheus, because The Matrix is part of cinema history.

Its influence is still felt today in the editing, wire work, slo-mo gunfights and stunt-man-free kung-fu found in movies like Wanted, Swordfish, Twilight, Spider-Man, The Island...Pretty much every film under the sun has taken iconic moments from The Matrix and tried to incorporate them. The Wachowskis changed everything in 1999 and now the rules are set to change again with The Matrix released on Blu-ray and the explosion of 3D cinema.

DVD/Blu-ray Special Features:

(Trilogy Boxset)

2 Commentaries by philosophers & critics

The Matrix Revisited documentary

The Music Revisited

Behind The Matrix

Take the Red Pill

Follow the White Rabbit: 17 featurettes