I tried to like "The Matrix", I really did. The commercials looked really cool with all the action shots and slow motion effects and I knew that I just had to see it. When did I give up on it? About halfway through the movie, (after the other 4 people I went to the theatre with had long since began laughing out loud at this silly, absurd, and massively boring film), Keanu goes to the apartment where the great oracle (or whatever) was baking cookies and retarded kids were bending spoons with their minds. That's when I stared laughing too. I'm sorry but my friends were right. This film sucked. Sure there were a couple of sorta cool action scenes but you had to sit through the insanely dull hour and a half of Lawrence Fishburn explaining EVERYTHING that happens in the film before these scenes even appeared. And the movie "Blade" had come out around the same time and was a MUCH better surreal action film. As for the silly karate scenes (or kung fu or Judo or whatever), they were no big deal. I mean, did you really think that Keanu was gonna be the next Bruce Lee? Do yourself a favor and rent (or better yet, Buy) the Jet Li "Fong Sai Yuk" movies. As for all the psychological babble about what world is real and what world isn't, it only added to the chaotic mess that was called a script for this waste of celluloid. Some say "Battlefield Earth" was a horrendous goofy mess. Well, it was, but no where near as bad as this. :)