A futuristic kung-fu fantasy with terrific stunts and a stunted scripteanu Reeves plays Neo, a computer hacker who thinks he's living in the twentieth century but is really a pawn in a giant virtual-reality game controlled by twenty-second-century programmers. Dude! Damned if I can explain more about this muddled mind-bender, except to say that Neo is recruited by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) to join her leader, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), in a rebellion against those who would enslave them. If fashion dictates choosing sides, it's a lock for the kinky rebels who wear black leather and cool shades.

Mucho bucks have been spent on this silliness courtesy of Die Hard producer Joel Silver, who had the wit to hire Larry and Andy Wachowski — the prankster brothers behind the indie hit Bound — to write and direct. Silver also had the nerve to put his stars through four months of training under Hong Kong wire-stunt expert Yuen Wo Ping, the mentor of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, who turns Keanu and company into high-flying kung-fu krazies. The Matrix soars with its feet in the air — the rest crash-lands.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.