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.

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.