I hated The Matrix. Saw it when it first came out, in a multiplex where I also saw The Corrupter with Chow Yun-fat, which I loved. Two different eras and styles of movie making. The new and the old. Special effects and thematic BS vs a real story with believable characters.

I know, I know, I'm old-fashioned. So be it. When Keanu Reeves is dodging bullets in hyper-space and goofy-time, I felt like dodging out the door. I always tell my friends that when people in the movie start flying through the air, I start flying out the door.

I have a friend I love dearly who started a discussion group about whether we all live in a matrix, whether the life we think we know is all fake. Oh, Lordy, what a colossal waste of time. To me. Not to her and not to modern audiences.

Oh, well, time marches on. Onward into the matrix, friends and neighbors. Think I'll stay right here, in good old-fashioned reality, whatever that is.