movie reviews matrix

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

"The Matrix" is a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it's getting interesting. It's kind of a letdown when a movie begins by redefining the nature of reality, and ends with a shoot-out. We want a leap of the imagination, not one of those obligatory climaxes with automatic weapons fire.

I've seen dozens if not hundreds of these exercises in violence, which recycle the same tired ideas: Bad guys fire thousands of rounds, but are unable to hit the good guy. Then it's down to the final showdown between good and evil--a martial arts battle in which the good guy gets pounded until he's almost dead, before he finds the inner will to fight back. Been there, seen that (although rarely done this well).

Too bad, because the set-up is intriguing. "The Matrix" recycles the premises of " Dark City " and " Strange Days ," turns up the heat and the volume, and borrows the gravity-defying choreography of Hong Kong action movies. It's fun, but it could have been more. The directors are Larry and Andy Wachowski , who know how to make movies (their first film, " Bound ," made my 10 best list in 1996). Here, with a big budget and veteran action producer Joel Silver , they've played it safer; there's nothing wrong with going for the Friday night action market, but you can aim higher and still do business.

Warning; spoilers ahead. The plot involves Neo ( Keanu Reeves ), a mild-mannered software author by day, a feared hacker by night. He's recruited by a cell of cyber-rebels, led by the profound Morpheus ( Laurence Fishburne ) and the leather-clad warrior Trinity ( Carrie-Anne Moss ). They've made a fundamental discovery about the world: It doesn't exist. It's actually a form of Virtual Reality, designed to lull us into lives of blind obedience to the "system." We obediently go to our crummy jobs every day, little realizing, as Morpheus tells Neo, that "Matrix is the wool that has been pulled over your eyes--that you are a slave." The rebels want to crack the framework that holds the Matrix in place, and free mankind. Morpheus believes Neo is the Messianic "One" who can lead this rebellion, which requires mind power as much as physical strength. Arrayed against them are the Agents, who look like Blues Brothers. The movie's battles take place in Virtual Reality; the heroes' minds are plugged into the combat. (You can still get killed, though: "The body cannot live without the mind"). "Jacking in" like this was a concept in "Strange Days" and has also been suggested in novels by William Gibson ("Idoru") and others. The notion that the world is an artificial construction, designed by outsiders to deceive and use humans, is straight out of "Dark City." Both of those movies, however, explored their implications as the best science fiction often does. "Dark City" was fascinated by the Strangers who had a poignant dilemma: They were dying aliens who hoped to learn from human methods of adaptation and survival.

In "Matrix," on the other hand, there aren't flesh-and-blood creatures behind the illusion--only a computer program that can think, and learn. The Agents function primarily as opponents in a high-stakes computer game. The movie offers no clear explanation of why the Matrix-making program went to all that trouble. Of course, for a program, running is its own reward--but an intelligent program might bring terrifying logic to its decisions.

Both "Dark City" and "Strange Days" offered intriguing motivations for villainy. "Matrix" is more like a superhero comic book in which the fate of the world comes down to a titanic fist-fight between the designated representatives of good and evil. It's cruel, really, to put tantalizing ideas on the table and then ask the audience to be satisfied with a shoot-out and a martial arts duel. Let's assume Neo wins. What happens then to the billions who have just been "unplugged" from the Matrix? Do they still have jobs? Homes? Identities? All we get is an enigmatic voice-over exhortation at the movie's end. The paradox is that the Matrix world apparently resembles in every respect the pre-Matrix world. (I am reminded of the animated kid's film " Doug's 1st Movie ," which has a VR experience in which everything is exactly like in real life, except more expensive.) Still, I must not ignore the movie's virtues. It's great-looking, both in its design and in the kinetic energy that powers it. It uses flawlessly integrated special effects and animation to visualize regions of cyberspace. It creates fearsome creatures, including mechanical octopi. It morphs bodies with the abandon of "Terminator II." It uses f/x to allow Neo and Trinity to run horizontally on walls, and hang in the air long enough to deliver karate kicks. It has leaps through space, thrilling sequences involving fights on rooftops, helicopter rescues and battles over mind control.

And it has performances that find the right notes. Keanu Reeves goes for the impassive Harrison Ford approach, "acting" as little as possible. I suppose that's the right idea. Laurence Fishburne finds a balance between action hero and Zen master. Carrie-Anne Moss, as Trinity, has a sensational title sequence, before the movie recalls that she's a woman and shuttles her into support mode. Hugo Weaving , as the chief Agent, uses a flat, menacing tone that reminded me of Tommy Lee Jones in passive-aggressive overdrive. There's a well-acted scene involving Gloria Foster as the Oracle, who like all Oracles is maddeningly enigmatic.

"The Matrix" did not bore me. It interested me so much, indeed, that I wanted to be challenged even more. I wanted it to follow its material to audacious conclusions, to arrive not simply at victory, but at revelation. I wanted an ending that was transformational, like "Dark City's," and not one that simply throws us a sensational action sequence. I wanted, in short, a Third Act.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

The Truth vs. Alex Jones

Brian tallerico.

Christy Lemire

Simon Abrams

Stress Positions

Peter sobczynski.

On the Adamant

Film credits.

The Matrix (1999)

Rated R For Sci-Fi Violence

135 minutes

Joe Pantoliano as Cypher

Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus

Gloria Foster as Oracle

Keanu Reeves as Neo

Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity

Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith

Written and Directed by

Andy Wachowski

Latest blog posts

How The Phantom Menace Predicted Hollywood’s Prequel Future

No Easy Answers: On the Power of The Teachers' Lounge

No Therapy: The Primordial Commitment of The Northman

Home Entertainment Guide: April 2024

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Challengers Link to Challengers
I Saw the TV Glow Link to I Saw the TV Glow
Música Link to Música

New TV Tonight

Shardlake: Season 1
Hacks: Season 3
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: Season 1
The Veil: Season 1
A Man in Full: Season 1
Acapulco: Season 3
Welcome to Wrexham: Season 3
John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA: Season 1
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: Season 1
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Season 4.2

The Matrix Resurrections

Where to watch.

Watch The Matrix Resurrections with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

If it lacks the original's bracingly original craft, The Matrix Resurrections revisits the world of the franchise with wit, a timely perspective, and heart.

The Matrix Resurrections falls short compared to the original, but doesn't skimp on the action or cool visual effects.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Lana Wachowski

Keanu Reeves

Carrie-Anne Moss

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Jonathan Groff

Jessica Henwick

Movie Clips

More like this, movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

Neo and Trinity stand in front of burning wreckage in The Matrix Resurrections.

Filed under:

The astonishing, angry Matrix Resurrections deals with what’s real in a world where nothing is

A furious Lana Wachowski fights back with a love story

Share this story

Share this on Facebook
Share this on Reddit
Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: The astonishing, angry Matrix Resurrections deals with what’s real in a world where nothing is

[ Ed. note: Minor spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections follow.]

The story: A man named Thomas is told that the world is not what he thought it to be, and despite the passion of the messenger and the void in his own life, he refuses to believe. He wants to see for himself. He wants, as the Gospel of John recounts, to feel the wounded flesh of the resurrected Christ, to feel where the nails were hammered into his hands. In his doubt, he becomes a myth, the first man to doubt the gospel, only to believe there is truth there when he’s standing in front of the gospel’s corporeal form.

Another version of the story: A man named Thomas Anderson lives a respectable life at the end of the 20th century, a gifted programmer at a nondescript software company. Everything is as it should be, and yet there is a void in him. Messengers find him and tell him his suspicion is correct, that this world is an illusion, yet he refuses to believe. Not until he takes a pill and wakes up in a nightmare, where he, along with everyone else he thought he knew, is plugged into a machine from birth until death, living in a simulation he never doubted until he could feel the wounds in his own flesh, where the machines jacked him into a digital world called the Matrix. Over the next 22 years, Mr. Anderson’s story in The Matrix becomes a different, newer myth, disseminated through the burgeoning internet and refracted through various subcultures. Depending on which set of eyes it encountered, the story’s symbolism and themes took on new meanings, some thoughtful and enlightening, others strange and sinister.

The Matrix Resurrections ’ third version of this story: Once again, there is Keanu Reeves’ Thomas Anderson, a gifted programmer who suspects his world is wrong, somehow. Once again, he is contacted by people claiming to confirm his suspicions. Once again, he refuses to believe. For a little while, the story seems the same, to the point where it doesn’t seem worth telling. Yet the world it’s being told to — our world, the one where we’ve returned to see a new film called The Matrix for the first time since 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions — is very different. In the final days of 2021, Thomas, just like those watching him, has much more to doubt. And Resurrections finds its meaning.

Directed by Lana Wachowski from a script she co-wrote with David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon, The Matrix Resurrections is about doing the impossible. On a very basic level, it’s about the insurmountable and inherently cynical task of making a follow-up to the Matrix trilogy, one that breaks technical and narrative ground the way the first film did. On a thematic one, it’s an agitprop romance, one of the most effective mass media diagnoses of the current moment that finds countless things to be angry about, and proposes fighting them all with radical, reckless love. On top of all that, it is also a kick-ass work of sci-fi action — propulsive, gorgeous, and yet still intimate — that revisits the familiar to show audiences something very new.

Reloading, but not repeating

Thomas Anderson stands in front of a torn projection of Trinity from the Matrix in The Matrix Resurrections.

The Matrix Resurrections soars by echoing something old. A familiarity with The Matrix and its sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions , comes in handy when entering the new film, as the first task Wachowski, Mitchell, and Hemon go about resolving in Resurrections is extricating Thomas Anderson — better known as Neo — from his fate in Revolutions . Slowly, they reveal how Neo, seemingly deceased alongside his love and partner Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), may or may not have survived to once again become Thomas Anderson, a blank slate who has trouble telling what’s real and what is not.

This Thomas Anderson is also a programmer, but now a rockstar of game development, responsible for the most popular video game trilogy ever made: The Matrix. These games are effectively the same as the Matrix film trilogy that exists in our world, a story about a man named Neo who discovers that he is living in a dream world controlled by machines, and that he is The One destined to help humanity defeat them.

Like Lana Wachowski, who co-created the Matrix films with her sibling Lilly decades ago, Thomas is asked to make a sequel to the Matrix trilogy, one that his parent company — also devilishly named Warner Bros. — will make with or without their input. So, as Thomas goes about his task, his reality takes on an M.C. Escher-esque level of circuitousness. Was the Matrix trilogy a series of games of his making? Or did they really happen, and he is once again a prisoner of the Matrix? Why is there a woman named Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss) in this world with him, one who strongly resembles the deceased Trinity of his fiction? Wachowski layers these questions in disorienting montage with voyeuristic angles, presenting Thomas’ presumed reality with just enough remove to make the viewer uncomfortable, and cause them to doubt, as Thomas does.

Casting the previous films as in-world video games allows The Matrix Resurrections to function as a refreshingly heavy-handed rebuke of the IP-driven reboot culture that produced the film, where the future is increasingly viewed through the franchise lenses of the past, trapping fans in corporate-controlled dream worlds where their fandom is constantly rewarded with new product. That video games are the chosen medium for The Matrix Resurrections ’ satire is icing on the cake: an entire medium defined by the illusion of choice, a culture built around the falsehood that megacorporations care about what their customers think when they have the data to show that every outrage du jour will still result in the same record-breaking profits.

As one of Thomas’s colleagues bluntly puts it: “I’m a geek. I was raised by machines.”

Bugs in the system

Jessica Henwick as Bugs in The Matrix Resurrections

The opening act of The Matrix Resurrections is wonderfully confounding, a delicious way to recreate the unmooring unreality of the original to an audience that has likely seen, or felt its influence, countless times. Yet as it replicates, it also diverges. This is not, as the hacker Bugs (Jessica Henwick) notes early on, the story we know.

Bugs is our window into what’s new in Resurrections , a young and headstrong woman dedicated to finding the Neo that her generation knows only as myth. Her zealotry puts her in hot water with her elders; outside of the Matrix, humanity has eked out a small but thriving post-apocalyptic life, resting on the uneasy treaty between man and machine that Neo brokered at the end of the original trilogy. By constantly hacking into the Matrix to find Neo, Bugs threatens that peace — yet it’s a risk that Bugs and her ragtag crew (which includes a phenomenal Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in a role that’s not quite who viewers think he is) feel is worth taking. Because despite the war fought to free humanity from machine enslavement, much of humanity is still choosing to remain in the Matrix. The real world being real is not reason enough for anyone to wake up from the dream world.

But the hope of rescuing Neo is only half of the story. Wachowski makes a dazzling pivot halfway through The Matrix Resurrections , one that underlines a focal shift from individual freedom to human connection: The Resistance learns that it may be possible to free Trinity again as well, although by means never tried before. It’s a mission that isn’t likely to succeed, but in this strange new future, it’s the only one worth living and dying for. In pivoting to a mission to save the theoretical Trinity, Resurrections takes the messaging of the original film a step further. It’s not enough to free your mind; in fact, it’s worthless if you don’t unplug in the interest of connecting and loving those around you.

Thomas Anderson walks through a city street as it devolves into code in The Matrix Resurrections.

This back half gear-shifts into something much more straightforward, and frankly, it whips. It’s The Matrix as a heist movie. Because of this genre pivot, Resurrections ’ action takes on a different flavor from that of its predecessors. While weighty, satisfying martial arts standoffs are still in play, they’re not the centerpiece, as “Thomas” and “Tiffany” are the heart of the film, played by actors 20 years older and a little more limited in their choreography. Instead, The Matrix Resurrections chooses to dazzle with gorgeous widescreen set-pieces, big brawls, and visual effects that once again astonish while looking spectacularly real. Wachowski and her co-writers split the action as Bugs and her crew — who don’t get enough screen time but all make a terrific impression — race to find where their heroes may be hidden in the real world, and “Thomas” tries to get “Tiffany” to remember the love they once shared. All of the heady philosophy that these movies are known for is put into direct action, as the machines show off the ways they’ve changed the Matrix in an effort to not just keep a Neo from rescuing a Trinity, but to imprison him again.

In this sequence and throughout, The Matrix Resurrections relishes in being a lighter, more self-aware film than its predecessors, a movie about big feelings rendered beautifully. Its score, by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, reprises iconic motifs from original Matrix composer Don Davis’ work while introducing shimmery, recursive sequencing, a sonic echo to go with the visual one. While legendary cinematographer Bill Pope is also among the talent that doesn’t return this time around, the team of Daniele Massaccesi and John Toll bring a more painterly approach to Resurrections . Warm colors invade scenes from both the Matrix and the real world; the latter looks more vibrant than ever without the blue hues that characterized it in the original trilogy, while its digital counterpart has now changed to the point where it’s painfully idyllic, a world of bright colors and sunlight that is difficult to leave.

Embodying those changes is Jonathan Groff as a reawakened Smith, Neo’s dark opposite within the Matrix. Groff, who steps in for a role indelibly portrayed by Hugo Weaving, is the audacity of The Matrix Resurrections personified: He nails a character so iconic that recasting it feels like hubris, yet also finds new shades to bring to an antagonistic role in a world where villains only appear human, when in fact they’re often ideas. And ideas are so hard to wage war against.

Systems of control

Jonathan Groff as Smith in The Matrix Resurrections

If the old Matrix films are about lies we are told, the new Matrix is about lies we choose. In spite of its questions, 1999’s The Matrix hinges on the notion that there is such a thing as objective truth, and that people would want to see it. On the cusp of 2022, objective truth is no longer agreed upon, as pundits, politicians, and tech magnates each present their vision of what’s real, and aggressively market it to the masses. Our current crisis, then, is whatever you choose it to be. You just have to choose a side in the war: one to be us, and another to be them.

“If we don’t know what’s real,” one character asks Neo, “how do we resist?”

In returning to the world she created with her sibling, Lana Wachowski makes a closing argument she may very well not get to have the last word on. The Matrix Resurrections is a bouquet of flowers thrown with the rage of a Molotov cocktail, the will to fight tempered by the choice to extend compassion. Because feelings, as the constructs that oppress humanity in the Matrix note, are much easier to control than facts, and feelings are what sway us. So what if Neo fights back with a better story? A new myth to rise above the culture war?

It doesn’t have to be a bold one. It can even be one you’ve heard before. About a man named Thomas who can’t shake the idea that there’s something wrong with the world around him, that he feels disconnected from others in a way that he was never meant to be. And when others finally tell him that he’s living in an illusion, he doesn’t quite believe them — not until he sees something, someone, for himself that reminds him of what, exactly, he is missing: that he used to be in love.

The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max on Dec. 22.

Supported by

‘The Matrix Resurrections’ Review: Slipping Through Dreamland (Again)

Keanu Reeves plunges down the rabbit hole once more in this familiar-seeming mind-game movie, the fourth in the series.

Share full article

By Manohla Dargis

After she chases the White Rabbit down a very long tunnel, Alice enters a low, dim hall. There are doors up and down the passageway, but they’re all locked. As she walks through the hall, Alice wonders how she’s ever going to get out. You may find yourself asking much the same question while watching the fourth movie in “The Matrix” series, as it alternately amuses and frustrates you with its fantastical world.

The series first invoked Lewis Carroll’s elusive bunny in the first movie, the 1999 genre game changer that was jointly directed by the Wachowski siblings and soon set audiences’ heads on fire. “ Follow the white rabbit ” Neo, a.k.a. the One (Keanu Reeves, cinema’s ideal savior), reads on his desktop monitor, shortly before doing just that. The chase continued and at times seemed never-ending as it endured through two sequels, comics and video games. It also provided grist for reams of articles, dissertations and scholarly books (“The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real”), taking its place as one of contemporary pop culture’s supreme interpretive chew toys.

The series resumes in “The Matrix Resurrections,” which nudges the cycle forward even while it circles back to swallow its own tail. Once again, Reeves plays both Thomas Anderson and Neo, who exist in separate yet conjoined realms. Anderson’s world resembles our own (though airlessly art directed) but is a software program called the Matrix that’s run by artificially intelligent machines. Here, human avatars go about their business believing themselves free. In the series’ wittily perverse take on the circle of life, these machines keep human bodies — Anderson’s included — imprisoned in goo-filled vats, using the energy from these meat puppets to power the Matrix.

Directed solely by Lana Wachowski, “Resurrections” announces its intentions after the opening credits, with their streams of cascading green code. Somewhere in the illusory world, a woman with short hair fights unsmiling men in suits and shades, a setup that mirrors the banging preliminaries in the original film and makes you ache for Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity, Neo’s comrade in arms. Don’t worry, she’s onboard, too, just wait. Now, though, two others are also watching the action along with us, including a guy wearing a headset (Toby Onwumere) who analyzes the action like a sports commentator just before Bugs (Jessica Henwick) jumps into a very familiar fray.

What follows plays like a loving, narratively clotted tribute video to the “Matrix” cycle itself complete with innumerable bullets and almost as many flashbacks to the younger Neo. (You don’t need to revisit what happened earlier in the cycle, the movie does it for you.) Once again, Anderson is in dreamland writing code, this time for his role as a video game designer working on a project called Binary. Speaking of which: As before, he also has an apparent choice to remain ignorant about his existential condition or embrace its painful truth. He also meets a mysterious figure called both Agent Smith and Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, whose velvety, sepulchral voice adds shivers of danger).

There have been some significant cast changes since the third movie. Alas, missing in action are both Hugo Weaving and Laurence Fishburne, who added gravitas and much-needed wit. Instead, a silky Jonathan Groff now prowls around menacingly, his boyishness having been nicely weaponized for his role as a sly trickster. A less happy addition is Neil Patrick Harris, who delivers an unhelpful, one-dimensional performance as the Analyst. Still, not much here is different other than some of Reeves’s facial creases and salt-and-pepper hair. Characters still wear fetish clothing or nubby threads, and still keep fighting the fight as they brawl and yammer through the labyrinth.

Some of that yammering is amusing simply because “The Matrix” (and its successors) are exemplars of what’s been called mind-game movies, “a ‘certain tendency’ in contemporary cinema,” as the film theorist Thomas Elsaesser put it. Like others of this type, “The Matrix” plays with the perception of reality held by both the protagonist and the audience, poses questions about the limits of knowledge and addresses doubts about other minds and worlds. What makes mind-game movies especially fascinating — and helps explain their cultish appeal — is how they draw spectators into the game, partly by showing them worlds that they recognize. Or, as Morpheus put it once upon a time: “You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world.”

So, yes, “You have many questions,” as a character called the Architect tells Neo in “The Matrix Reloaded.” No kidding! That movie offered some persuasive, or at least tantalizing, answers: The world is an illusion, a simulation, an ideological prison, but it’s possible to escape with lots of guns and cool kids in black, that is until the sequel. The first movie offered viewers doors that they — unlike Alice — could open, allowing them to enter more rabbit holes. Once there, one of the more resonant readings, as the critic Andrea Long Chu has explained, is that “The Matrix” has been embraced by trans women as an allegory for gender transition. In this take, the world of illusions is the gender binary.

Whatever the limits of allegory, this interpretation is both intriguing and touching. (Lana’s sister Lilly Wachowski has said “that was the original intention.”) It adds emotional resonance to “Resurrection,” which gets a great deal of mileage from its — and our — nostalgic yearning, appreciatively stoked by Reeves and Moss’s reunion. The actors’ sincerity and effortlessly synced performances have always been this series’ greatest special effects, and watching them slip back into their old roles is a pleasure. The movie they’re in is still as beholden to the same old guns and poses as the earlier ones, the same dubious ideas about what constitutes coolness, the same box-office-friendly annihilating violence. But it’s still nice to dream of an escape with them.

The Matrix Resurrections Rated R for extreme gun and other violence. Running time: 2 hours 28 minutes. In theaters and on HBO Max .

An earlier version of this review misidentified the movie in which the Architect was a character. It was “The Matrix Reloaded,” not the first “Matrix.”

How we handle corrections

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell speak about how “Anyone but You” beat the rom-com odds. Here are their takeaways after the film , debuting on Netflix, went from box office miss to runaway hit.

The vampire ballerina in the new movie “Abigail” has a long pop culture lineage . She and her sisters are obsessed, tormented and likely to cause harm.

In a joint interview, the actors Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough discuss “Under the Bridge,” their new true-crime series based on a teenager’s brutal killing in British Columbia.

The movie “Civil War” has tapped into a dark set of national angst . In polls and in interviews, a segment of voters say they fear the country’s divides may lead to actual, not just rhetorical, battles.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

'The Matrix' Review: Neo's Saga Resonates Louder Than Ever Before

Over 20 years later, ‘The Matrix’ reminds you to unplug from the machine and free your mind.

The Big Picture

The Matrix revolutionized cinema in 1999 with innovative visual effects and themes of conformity.
The film's impressive visual effects, deep philosophical story, and kung fu action set it apart.
The Matrix 's lasting impact on pop culture and continued relevance in today's tech-dependent society is a testament to its brilliance.

When film historians and cinephiles look back on the most influential years in cinema, it’s hard to argue against the impact of 1999. The last year before the new millennium ushered audiences into the modern age of cinema with films such as The Sixth Sense , The Blair Witch Project , and Magnolia . While there were advances in visual effects, there was a groundswell of stories about dissatisfaction and restlessness born out of the mundanity of the corporate structure. Though films like Office Space and Fight Club explore these themes, there’s one film that stands above the rest when it comes to innovative visual effects and tackling themes of conformity all while transforming the sci-fi genre forever – The Matrix .

Neo (Keanu Reeves) believes that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), an elusive figure considered to be the most dangerous man alive, can answer his question -- What is the Matrix? Neo is contacted by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), a beautiful stranger who leads him into an underworld where he meets Morpheus. They fight a brutal battle for their lives against a cadre of viciously intelligent secret agents. It is a truth that could cost Neo something more precious than his life.

What Is 'The Matrix' About?

Written and directed by the sister duo of Lana and Lilly Wachowski , The Matrix is the story of a computer hacker in a dystopian future who, in his attempts to find an answer, becomes the savior he didn’t know he could be. The film brings together the talents of Keanu Reeves , Carrie-Anne Moss , Laurence Fishburne , and Hugo Weaving . The success of the first Matrix movie would spawn its own franchise , with two sequels being released in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions respectively, and The Matrix Resurrections released in 2021.

One of the more impressive features that makes The Matrix stand apart is its visual effects. Though we’ve had decades of action blockbusters known for their CGI, the effects in The Matrix hold up surprisingly well. The Sentinels are threatening and the agents’ morphing ability is fairly seamless given the time when it was made. However, the stand-out visual effect that put The Matrix in the history books is “bullet time,” an effect where a shot proceeds in slow motion while the camera appears to move at normal speed. With this effect, it highlights the power a person can wield over their oppressor within their false reality. It’s also the reason why Neo dodging bullets during the third act fight on the roof will be parodied until the end of time.

The action of The Matrix is a loving homage to kung fu. The Wachowskis’ love of kung fu cinema ran so deep they hired legendary martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping to coordinate the fight scenes and train the actors months before production. It’s evident in the final product the actors’ dedication to the martial arts, something Reeves would carry on with him in the future John Wick movies.

'The Matrix' Beautifully Mixes Special Effects With Philosophy

Apart from the technical achievements mentioned, the story itself is laced with philosophy. Works of Plato , Descartes , and Immanuel Kant are interwoven in a way that’s accessible to the audience. The Wachowskis pack their script with themes of fate versus free will, existentialism, the dangers of technology, and the power of choice; yet, these themes don’t weigh down the plot or narrative. It creates a richness that keeps the conversation going long after Neo ascends to the sounds of Rage Against the Machine . There’s a sense that with each watch of the film, an audience member will find another idea to pick apart and ponder.

As members of the transgender community, the Wachowskis’ film also acts as an allegory for trans identity and struggle. As Morpheus describes the splinter inside the mind, it’s clear to see the connection to gender dysphoria. Though there’s a heavy commentary on technology and artificial intelligence, there’s a clear undertone about the struggle for freedom to be your true self in the face of tyranny and oppression.

Keanu Reeves Wasn't the First Choice For Neo in 'The Matrix'

One of the weaker aspects of this titan of modern sci-fi is the subplot of Cypher ( Joe Pantoliano ) betraying Morpheus and the group. Cypher serves as the avatar for wanting to return to ignorance; his character serves as a reminder that once you learn something, you can never go back. Though he drives the plot forward for Agent Smith to capture Morpheus, there lacks a connection to his character to make his betrayal matter. Not to mention, Cypher admitting to Trinity that he had a crush on her feels very tacked on.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss' Love Is a Highlight

On the flip side, the chemistry between Reeves and Moss makes the romance between Neo and Trinity work. Where Cypher’s admission to Trinity is treated as an afterthought, the budding feelings between Neo and Trinity are well-paced and come together naturally. As Neo is coming into his own, so too does his bond with Trinity grow. It’s the love between them that unlocks his true power as “the One'' to defeat Agent Smith and begin his mission to free humanity from their enslavement.

The legacy of The Matrix goes beyond its film franchise. It’s rare for a movie to hit pop culture with lightning precision and alter it forever. Within two years of its release, the film was being referenced in the likes of Scary Movie and Shrek . The red pill vs. the blue pill, the action, the iconic lines, and even the costuming of the futuristic world have ingrained itself in pop culture to the point that most people today probably know about The Matrix without actually seeing the film.

The Matrix has more to say now about society than it even did back in 1999. As a society, we are more dependent on technology than ever before. With the rise of fake news, it’s normal to question our reality and what is happening around us. We are living in our type of matrix, where we have the power to select what enters our own bubbles and echo chambers; virtual reality can be accessed in seconds and offer an escape from reality. Documentaries like The Social Dilemma expose how social media has created a system by which its users are a product to advertisers, not a consumer. For a film from 1999 to speak directly to our current reality is a testament to how The Matrix was ahead of its time.

From its distinctive action and its timeless themes, The Matrix is a paragon of the sci-fi genre and its endless possibilities. The Wachowskis set out to make their live action version of Ghost in the Shell , directed by Mamoru Oshii , and what they created has sparked commentary and influence on pop culture for decades since its release. Just as Morpheus reveals to Neo, The Matrix is everywhere (and for good reason).

The Matrix is now available to stream on Max in the U.S.

Watch on Max

Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

The Matrix Resurrections Is a Messy, Imperfect Triumph

After all this time, what does the blockbuster have left to offer? At its platonic ideal, a big-budget, mass-marketed movie induces pleasure. With swift and bright characterization, it allows actors to operate in a grander register, aching to fill the space of dizzying visual landscapes around them. Bombast and awe on all fronts. Maybe it’s difficult to identify an ideal blockbuster in contemporary Hollywood, drawn as it is to weak craft, characters with little interior dimension, and an understanding of representation that reduces gender, race, and sexuality to items on a marketing checklist rather than world-building attributes of a story. This is the cinematic reality into which The Matrix Resurrections enters, over 20 years after its original incarnation debuted in 1999: A universe laden with sequels and reboots and constantly updated IP. A universe in which imagination has curdled into what can most easily be bought and sold. And yet here is Lana Wachowski, pushing back against the tired form and offering audiences something fresh, curious, and funny as hell.

Teetering between a meta-reckoning with the legacy of the first trilogy and a sincere blooming of a whole new story that feels boldly romantic, Lana Wachowski’s first solo feature is a thrilling triumph. It is impossible to overstate the influence of the previous three movies — particularly 1999’s The Matrix — on American culture, launching “red pill” into dark internet circles, prompting the kids I grew up with to nonchalantly wear latex and leather in the Miami heat, forcing action films of its time to claw upward in the direction of the Wachowski sisters’ cyberpunk-inflected aesthetic, which itself pulled from a wild array of influences. The world has changed dramatically since Neo first bent out of the way of incoming bullets, and yet The Matrix Resurrections easily makes a case for its own existence. After decades of audiences attempting to slot the franchise into one category of interpretation or another, the film argues against any imagined binary to show that beauty is found between such extremes. Wachowski builds on what of the greatest and most singular aspects of the original trilogy: its queerness.

Playing with ideas of memory and nostalgia could have led Resurrections to have a self-satisfied, airless quality. Instead, it feels emotionally expansive and intellectually sly. Much of the first act works to actively critique nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, and how it is exploited by those in control, whether machine overlords or Hollywood studios. (“Nothing comforts anxiety like a little nostalgia,” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Morpheus says.) Resurrections is messy and imperfect, too, often eschewing easily digestible plotting in favor of an ambitious eccentricity, a reminder that bombastic storytelling is best translated by artists who are willing to fail. From the revelatory production and set design to the warmth of the cinematography by John Toll and Daniele Massaccesi to the updated action scenes, Lana Wachowski proves how powerful a blockbuster can be in the hands of those with vision and ambition. But it’s the kind of film whose very foundation makes it tricky to discuss in depth without tracing the narrative and emotional shape of it. I recommend going into the film with an open heart, an open mind, and little knowledge of the nitty gritty turns in the story, some of which I’m about to examine. You’ve been warned.

Early in the film, inside a slick high-rise office overlooking the nearly too-perfect San Francisco skyline, a gaggle of video game developers argue about what the Matrix is an allegory for. Is it trans rights and politics? Is it capitalist exploitation? The scene has a rhythmic dexterity, as the developers volley forth opinion after opinion. It’s poised to be hilarious, and it is. Among the developers is Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who in this new world is a famous video-game designer who created a game called The Matrix to much acclaim. He’s a suicide survivor, having once lept from a building on a clear sunny day believing he could fly. When his business partner (Jonathan Groff) says he must design a new Matrix game despite his vowing not to, his reality starts to slip. Is he losing his mind or is the Matrix he supposedly created something more than a game?

Wachowski and co-writers David Mitchell and Aleksander Hemon play out this anxiety with a consistent intrusion of clips from the previous films, a strategy that doesn’t always work. But when it does, it’s sublime. Like in the scene where Thomas Anderson slips from this therapist’s (Neil Patrick Harris) grasp and realizes he is indeed the Neo of his video game. His memory of meeting Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne then, Abdul-Mateen II now) is projected onto a ripped projector screen that acts as a doorway, figuratively and literally. Freed from a prison once again, Neo learns it has been 60 years since he and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) traveled to the machine city, sacrificing their lives for their revolutionary cause. He must determine: Can he free Trinity, too, or is she happy in this false new world where she is a married mother of two with a penchant for motorcycles? Neo never truly believed in himself as the One, but Trinity did. How can he be what everyone believes him to be without her?

The Matrix Resurrections might lack the ground-shaking originality of its 1999 predecessor, but it manages to chart a stunning, divergent path, philosophically and cinematically. Whereas the previous Matrix films were committed to a green-dominated, cool-toned color palette, Resurrections simmers with far greater warmth — amber-hued sunlight streaming through the real world. The fight choreography, from John Wick ’s Chad Stahelski (Reeves’s Matrix stunt double, who plays Trinity’s husband in the new film), is more chaotic and rough-hewn; bodies crash into one another haphazardly, lacking the grace and fluidity Yuen Woo-ping brought to the original movies. The costume design led by Lindsay Pugh brings back gothic sensibilities with restraint, forgoing fetish wear but remaining committed to the epic-ness of flowing silhouettes. The sets are littered once again with mirrors that glisten with thematic resonance. The film commits to granting audiences joy in ways that feel primal (exceedingly hot, well-dressed people are kicking unholy amounts of ass) and earnest (Wachowski does not abandon the previous films’ core belief in hope and community building).

That joy emanates through the cast. Harris’s naturally haughty, self-satisfied miasma works perfectly. Groff is cheeky and charismatic as a rebooted version of Agent Smith, his fight scene with Neo in an abandoned building being one of the highlights of the film. Decked in finely tailored suits the color of marigolds and deep ocean waters, Abdul-Mateen II slinks and struts with the grace of a true movie star, winking at Morpheus’s love of theatrics. (The fact that Fishburne wasn’t asked to be a part of the franchise rebirth hangs over the performance, though.) Jessica Henwick exudes hope, grounding the unexpected coalition that pins the movie together. The new actors, even when they’re playing old characters, are so much more than energetic doppelgängers of the Matrix heroes and villains who came before them, absorbing well the aesthetic differences between this reboot and the trilogy.

But for all its strengths — retreading and remixing the franchise while charting a bold new course for the canon — The Matrix Resurrections would fail if it wasn’t for the chemistry of Reeves and Moss. The former has by now solidified his place as a major movie and action star several times over, seamlessly moving from tickled bewilderment to sincere fear to absolute control on screen. Watching Moss, with her cutting gaze and sharp physicality, I can’t help but mourn for the career she deserved. Together, there is an inherent optimism — about the human spirit, about the will to overcome a narrowing force — that flits open when they share a scene. It’s along the arc of Neo and Trinity’s romance that Resurrections separates itself from its recent blockbuster brethren. Behind a meta-narrative storytelling approach and all that stylistic gleam, The Matrix Resurrections is ultimately a love story — romantic, yes, and a paean to the community necessary for that romance to blossom into resistance. Wachowski is bold enough to argue that in a strategically queer-fashioned world, where boundaries break and the limits of the human body are rejected, choosing love is still a radical decision.

vulture homepage lede
the matrix resurrections
movie review
keanu reeves
carrie-anne moss
lana wachowski

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

Lower case letters (a-z)
Upper case letters (A-Z)
Numbers (0-9)
Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

The Matrix Review

11 Jun 1999

139 minutes

Matrix, The

Get this: what if all we know as reality was, in fact, virtual reality? Reality itself is a ravaged dystopia run by technocrat Artificial Intelligence where humankind vegetates in billions of gloop-filled tanks - mere battery packs for the machineworld - being fed this late '90s VR (known as The Matrix - you with us here?) through an ugly great cable stuck in the back of our heads. And what if there was a group of quasi-spiritual rebels infiltrating The Matrix with the sole purpose of crashing the ruddy great mainframe and rescuing humans from their unknown purgatory? And, hey, what if Keanu Reeves was their Messiah?

What sounds like some web freak's wet dream is, in fact, a dazzlingly nifty slice of sci-fi cool. The Wachowskis (Lana and Lilly - last seen dabbling in kinky lesbian noir with the excellent Bound ) pulling off something like a million masterstrokes all at once. Taking the imprimatur of the video game, they meld the grungy noir of Blade Runner , the hyperkinetic energies of chopsocky, John Woo hardware and grandiose spiritual overtones into William Gibson's cyberpunk ethos to produce a new aesthetic for the millennium powered to the thudding beat of techno. And it is just incredible fun. The key is the technique of "flo-mo", a process born from Japanese animation, whereby an object in motion is seemingly frozen while the camera miraculously spins around it as if time and gravity are on hold. It grants the action (including some killer kung fu which Reeves and crew spent months perfecting) liberty to take on surreal visual highs. Superhuman feats permissible, of course, in the context of VR as the rebels download Herculean "talents" to fuel their subterfuge. Meanwhile, the audience can only gawp longingly, with its jaws thunking to the cinema floor in unison, as the heroes wrapped in skintight leather, sleek shades and designer cheekbones, spin up walls, leap from high rises and slip through streams of bullets in silken slo-mo. Tron this ain't.

Immediately reigniting the moribund cyberpunk genre (the kids can't get enough Stateside), this has thrust Reeves from his imploding career back to Speed highs (and laying to rest the hideous ghost of Johnny Mnemonic) and stolen much more of Star Wars ' thunder than was thought humanly possible. For all its loony plot, The Matrix is fabulous.

Sure, the expert Laurence Fishburne is depended upon to expound the lion's share of the script as seer-like rebel leader Morpheus. Reeves, stunning in his newcast slenderness, as Thomas "Neo" Anderson, the hacker turned hope for all mankind (care of some ill-defined mystical calling) is asked little more than perpetual befuddlement. Like Speed , though, this movie plays on his iconic looks rather than his oak-like emoting. There's a major find, too, in the irresistible Carrie-Anne Moss, a majestically wrought combination of steely no-shit intelligence and rock-chick vivaciousness as fellow tripper Trinity. And Hugo Weaving, cast against type, neutralises his Aussie tones to a freaky deadpan, the head of the MiB-styled defence system set against the Goth invaders.

And sure, three minutes of post-movie deliberation and all this state-of-the-art cyberdevilry is reduced to the purest gobbledygook. That, though, is not the point. The Matrix is about pure experience; it's been many a moon since the Empire crew have spilled out of a cinema literally buzzing with the sensation of a movie, babbling frenetically with the sheer excitement of discovery.

From head to tail, the deliciously inventive Wachowskis (watch them skyrocket) have delivered the syntax for a new kind of movie: technically mind-blowing, style merged perfectly with content and just so damn cool, the usher will have to drag you kicking and screaming back into reality. You can bet your bottom dollar George never saw this phantom menace coming.

Buy now on Amazon.

Movies | 25 04 2024

TV Series | 05 04 2024

Movies | 10 02 2021

Movies | 23 01 2022

Movies | 01 10 2016

Movies | 24 03 2023

Movies | 25 06 2020

Movies | 26 01 2022

Tickets & Showtimes
Trending on RT

TAGGED AS: Action , Film , films , movies , Sci-Fi , science fiction

(Photo by ©Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection)

The Matrix Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer

The Matrix Reloaded celebrates its 20th anniversary!

The defining sci-fi event of 1999 was supposed to be Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , the long-awaited and super-hyped kick-off to the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Yet, while that film did rake in plenty of cash – and generate plenty of discussion – it was the kick-off of a different trilogy that year that would ultimately become the sci-fi moment of the year… if not the decade… and the next couple of decades to come.

Lana and Lily Wachowski’s The Matrix was a phenomenon. The story of Neo’s (Keanu Reeves) awakening to the truth of his existence – that he and the rest of humanity had been interned by sentient machines in a virtual reality system known as the Matrix – was a box office success, a critical smash, and just really, really f–king cool. The movie had style to burn (those muted green colors, those leather trenches) and introduced western audience to cutting-edge Eastern action choreography thanks to the efforts of fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping. Action cinema hasn’t looked the same ever since.

Sequels were, of course, inevitable, and in 2003 Matrix fans got two of them, both shot concurrently in Sydney, Australia: First came Reloaded , which expanded the lore of the franchise and delivered one of the most epic highway chase scenes ever recorded; then came Revolutions … and that rave party. That same year, fans were able to dig even deeper with the excellent animated anthology film, The Animatrix , in which seven top filmmakers told stories in the Matrix universe using the latest in CG animation and Japanese anime techniques.

Now, with Certified Fresh films first, we’re ranking the Matrix movies by Tomatometer!

The Matrix (1999) 83%

The Matrix Reloaded (2003) 74%

The Animatrix (2003) 89%

The Matrix Resurrections (2021) 63%

The Matrix Revolutions (2003) 34%

More Countdown

25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming

All Zendaya Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Movie & TV News

Featured on rt.

April 30, 2024

April 29, 2024

Rotten Tomatoes’ 300 Best Movies of All Time

Top Headlines

25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming –
Rotten Tomatoes’ 300 Best Movies of All Time –
Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch –
30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming –
All Zendaya Movies Ranked by Tomatometer –
Video Game TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer –

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

Keanu Reeves as Neo; Laurence Fishburne as the freedom fighter leader Morpheus; Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity; Hugo Weaving as the Machines' Agent Smith

Home Release Date

Andy Wachowski|Larry Wachowski

Distributor

Warner Bros.

Movie Review

“How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world if you didn’t wake from the dream?”

So goes the question posed in The Matrix . Is life real or illusion? Twentieth century life flows on as normal. Or does it? This is revisionist history—in the future. Late in the 21st century, man develops artificial intelligence (referred to simply as the Machines). The Machines take control of Earth. Man fights back. In the resulting power struggle, the world is decimated. And the Machines win.

After discovering they can subsist using electricity generated by the human body, the Machines create a grand illusion to fool humans into serving them. The world “seems” to still be normal, but in fact the bodies of humans are contained in chambers on large “farms” and their minds are linked into a worldwide virtual reality computer program called the Matrix. Nothing is real.

It’s at this point that the film opens with a select group of men and women who have hacked their way out of the Matrix, discovering their true identity. They form a colony called Zion in the real world (which is otherwise lifeless). A few of them re-enter the Matrix to battle the Machines which present themselves in the form of humans. Since nothing is real inside, laws of physics need not apply. Everything centers on how much your mind can disbelieve. If you think you are falling from the top of a skyscraper, you are. If your mind can transcend the illusion, you can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Enter Neo, the One whose appearance has been prophesized by the Oracle (an old woman with psychic powers). Plucked out of the Matrix by the freedom fighters, he is trained to fight. Then reintroduced into the Matrix, Neo must defeat the Machines.

Positive Elements: Truth is worth more than life itself for the freedom fighters. Reality, regardless of how dreary, is better for man than the mindless exercise of comfort and luxury easily provided by the Matrix.

Sexual Content: Virtually none. (Pun intended.) A short conversation occurs in which one computer programmer offers Neo an interlude with a digital woman. Neo does not accept.

Violent Content: Excruciatingly drawn-out sequences feature slow-motion gun battles and hand-to-hand combat including kung-fu fighting. Bodies are repeatedly bludgeoned, ripped apart by machine-gun bullets, slammed through concrete walls, burned with electrical blasts, exploded and hit by a train. One man is stabbed in the head.

Blood drips from mouths as internal organs are pummeled in one scene, but the remainder of the fighting is highly choreographed and largely gore-free. That doesn’t mean gore isn’t a problem though. Especially when a bug-like creature penetrates Neo’s belly and is later forcibly extracted.

Action is often shown with slow-motion dream-like clarity, firmly planting the images in moviegoers minds. After over two hours of almost non-stop fighting, viewers are left with the feeling that the characters of the film have played a distant second to the special effects-filled action scenes.

Spiritual Content: Mysticism and prophesies play a large role in the freedom fighters’ worldview. Almost everything they believe is based on what the Oracle says. Her psychic powers are trusted without hesitation.

A loose comparison to Christ is presented inasmuch as Neo is the “chosen one” destined to save mankind. One character even addresses him as his “own personal Jesus Christ.” Universal ponderings abound, some of which parallel the Christian worldview. A defiled Eden. Intertwined realities. Messianic prophesies. A Judas figure. There’s even a girl named Trinity whose kiss “raises Neo from the dead,” a ship dubbed Nebuchadnessar and a city of destiny called Zion.

But for every part Christian allegory, there are equal parts Buddhism, Greek mythology, Alice in Wonderland and The Terminator —a contemplative stew lacking any purity of focus. As savior, Neo uses Jesus’ name as profanity, hoists a middle finger at police and strafes buildings with gunfire, leaving countless corpses in his wake.

Crude or Profane Language: Amazingly, no f-words mar the dialogue of this R-rated film. But multiple uses of that particular vocal abrasion occur in soundtrack music by Marilyn Manson and Rage Against the Machine. A significant number of s-words (about 20) pepper the script, however. And there are more than a dozen inappropriate uses of the Lord’s name.

Drug and Alcohol Content: Neo and a compatriot drink homemade liquor. Neo chokes and spits most of his swig out, not realizing how strong the concoction is. The hallucinatory drug mescaline is mentioned once as an escape from the drudgery of life.

Other Negative Elements: Portrayals of human infants attached to the Machines with tubes comes across as intentionally disturbing. A scene in which Neo’s body is rescued from the human “farm” is a cross between a Marilyn Manson video and what it would be like if a full-grown man were to be born. Mucus, blood, suction tubes, violence, etc.

Summary: Despite all the hype, I still have to chalk up this chaotically violent head trip as just another post-apocalyptic war thriller. It’s a cyber-reality update of Bladerunner . It’s an attempt to win the hearts of moviegoers who wish somebody would make another Clockwork Orange . Its visuals are unique and possibly trendsetting. But its flimsy allusions to theological truth are far from inspiring.

Steven Isaac

Latest reviews.

We Grown Now

The Long Game

Love Lies Bleeding

Unsung Hero

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Resurrections.

The Matrix Resurrections review – drained of life by the Hollywood machine

Keanu Reeves is back as cyberpunk icon Neo but fans of the original will find this cynical reboot a bitter pill to swallow

E ighteen years after what we thought was the third and final Matrix film, The Matrix Revolutions , Lana Wachowski has directed a fourth: The Matrix Resurrections. But despite some ingenious touches (a very funny name, for example, for a VR coffee shop) the boulder has been rolled back from the tomb to reveal that the franchise’s corpse is sadly still in there. This is a heavy-footed reboot which doesn’t offer a compelling reason for its existence other than to gouge a fourth income stream from Matrix fans, submissively hooked up for new content, and it doesn’t have anything approaching the breathtaking “bullet time” action sequences that made the original film famous.

The first Matrix was a brilliant, prescient sci-fi action thriller that in 1999 presented us with Keanu Reeves as a computer hacker codenamed “Neo”, stumbling across the apparent activity of a police state whose workings he scarcely suspected. Charismatic rebel Trinity ( Carrie-Anne Moss ) brings Neo to the mysterious figure of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who offers our reluctant hero one of the most famous choices in modern cinema: the blue pill or the red pill. The first will allow Neo back into his torpid quasi-contentment, the second will irreversibly reveal to him the truth about all existence. He swallows the red and discovers all our lives exist in a digitally fabricated, illusory world, while our comatose bodies are milked for their energies in giant farms by our machine overlords.

A vivacious and underrated sequel, The Matrix Reloaded , appeared in 2003 and later in the same year The Matrix Revolutions, in which the idea ran definitively out of steam: the awful truth was that the drab “reality” in which the rebels were fighting their tedious intergalactic war against these machines looked like Battlefield Earth , the dire sci-fi movie starring John Travolta.

But the red pill and the blue pill was an irresistible meme gifted to political discourse at the dawn of the online age. Christopher Nolan’s Inception was surely influenced by The Matrix and when Succession ’s digital media baron Lukas Matsson, played by Alexander Skarsgård, contemptuously compares social media users to Roman slaves, he is echoing ideas touted by the original film. Jeff Orlowski’s documentary The Social Dilemma , about social media serfdom, comes with Matrix-esque imagery – and Mark Zuckerberg is attempting to craft a new digital world called Meta. Moreover Lilly Wachowski, the original’s co-director, has intriguingly discussed the world of Matrix and its relevance to the dissenting politics of gender.

The fourth movie wittily begins by showing us Neo in haggard and depressed middle age, operating under his normal name Thomas Anderson: he is an award-winning but burnt-out game programmer. But there are weird eruptions from within his alt.reality: an activist called Bugs (Jessica Henwick) tries to make contact with him, along with a renegade government agent (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who has assumed the persona of Morpheus. Meanwhile, Thomas’s obnoxious billionaire employer Smith (Jonathan Groff) seems a parallel version of the sinister Agent Smith played by Hugo Weaving in the original films. But Thomas’s analyst ( Neil Patrick Harris ) is on hand to assure him that this is all just his imagination. But is it? And is Thomas still deeply in love with Trinity, whom he sees every day in his local coffee shop?

In some ways, The Matrix Resurrections has a degree of charm as a love story of middle age, and usually returning action franchises give their ageing male lead a younger female co-star. Not here: it’s a pleasure to see Moss return, but a shame to see her given so little interesting to do. The Matrix is an idea that is most exciting when it is starting to come apart: when there is a glitch. But the franchise is now a glitch-less narrative: we basically know all about the illusion and the “Battlefield Earth” reality out there in space which is where we are largely marooned: a huge, dispiriting crepuscular ruined cityscape glowing at its rocky edges, like the Verneian interior of a volcano. And the nature of the machines’ thinking and their motivations is not really solved by this fourth film, despite some playful new ideas about whether some of them are disloyal to their side. Lambert Wilson’s character The Merovingian, a veteran of the Machine War, returns, ranting enjoyably about the superiority of art, music and pre-digital conversation.

Really, Resurrections doesn’t do much to remove the anticlimax that hung like a cloud over the cinema auditorium at the end of the third film in 2003. This movie is set up to initiate a possible new series, but there is no real creative life in it. Where the original film was explosively innovatory, this is just another piece of IP, an algorithm of unoriginality.

Science fiction and fantasy films
Keanu Reeves
Lana Wachowski
Neil Patrick Harris

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

The matrix resurrections, common sense media reviewers.

Promising sequel devolves into mindless action movie.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The Matrix movies offer plenty to think about, eve

Neo and Trinity are a little like superheroes, ris

While Neo's ethnicity isn't specificed, star Keanu

Guns and shooting. Falls from high places. Fightin

People are shown partly naked when waking up in go

Two uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "ass," "bitch," "

Batman toy figure visible. Lego mentioned. Referen

Main character drinks clear liquor from a bottle a

Positive Messages

The Matrix movies offer plenty to think about, even if no conclusions are really drawn. The idea of some people being asleep inside an artificial reality while others are "awake" speaks to our turbulent times and can be interpreted many ways. The idea of choice is also important; each person must make their own choices. On the other hand, the characters choose to risk the lives of a civilization to save one person.

Positive Role Models

Neo and Trinity are a little like superheroes, risking their lives and facing tough enemies to try to make the world a better place. They do cause quite a bit of chaos, but a lot of it is in the "fake" world, so it doesn't really matter much.

Diverse Representations

While Neo's ethnicity isn't specificed, star Keanu Reeves is of English, Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Portugese, and Irish descent. He's surrounded by a diverse group of actors, including Morpheus, who's Black; Sati, who's Indian; and Bugs, who's of mixed Chinese and Zambian descent. Women are equally as tough and capable as men and are shown in leadership positions. Two of the main villains are White men. Director Lana Wachowski is a trans woman.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Guns and shooting. Falls from high places. Fighting, punching, kicking, etc. Bloody wounds, spitting blood. Throat-slicing. Characters jump from high buildings, becoming "human bombs" and smashing into things below. Vehicle chases. Explosions. Spooky "dream" effects: A character's mouth disappears, etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

People are shown partly naked when waking up in goop-filled chambers in the "real" world; nothing explicit shown (everything carefully covered up). Revealing outfits.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Two uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "ass," "bitch," "d--k," "goddamn," "hell," "MILF," "G-damn," "oh my God." Suggestions of the f-word: "effin'," "effed," "WTF." Middle-finger gesture.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Batman toy figure visible. Lego mentioned. References to Bugs Bunny. (All are properties of Warner Bros., the film's distributor.)

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Main character drinks clear liquor from a bottle as a form of self-medication; the suggestion is that he's had too much. Secondary character sips a martini. Cigarette smoking. Characters take red and blue pills.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Matrix Resurrections is the long-awaited (but underwhelming) fourth Matrix movie, the first since 2003's The Matrix Revolutions . Expect effects-heavy action violence, including lots of guns and shooting; fighting, kicking, and punching; bloody wounds (a throat is sliced, and a character spits blood); and explosions, chases, and unsettling "dreamy" visual effects (a man's mouth vanishes, etc.). Characters jump from high buildings, becoming "human bombs" and smashing into things below. People wake up partly naked in goop-filled chambers, but nothing explicit is shown. Language includes two uses of "f--k," plus several uses of "s--t" and sporadic uses of other words. Main character Neo/Thomas Anderson ( Keanu Reeves ) drinks clear liquor from a bottle, and other characters sip a martini or smoke cigarettes. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (14)
Kids say (29)

Based on 14 parent reviews

White men as villains equals diverse representation?

Not enough sex, drugs or swearing. just enough violence., what's the story.

In THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS, Thomas Anderson ( Keanu Reeves ), now famous for having developed a successful trilogy of games called The Matrix , is working as a video game designer in San Francisco. He sees a therapist ( Neil Patrick Harris ) and takes medication to control his strange "visions" and keep himself grounded in reality. In a cafe, he spots Tiffany ( Carrie-Anne Moss ), who somehow looks familiar. Meawhile, a scrappy young freedom fighter named Bugs ( Jessica Henwick ) infiltrates an experimental computer simulation designed by Anderson and discovers an alternate version of Morpheus ( Yahya Abdul-Mateen II ). Together they find the clues they need to track Neo down and set things right. But once he's awakened and in the "real" world again, Neo longs to find Trinity. So the heroes launch an impossible rescue mission that could doom all humans.

Is It Any Good?

The fourth Matrix movie kicks off with a great idea (and a reason to continue with the story 18 years later), but unfortunately that idea peters out, and the movie gets stuck in a very old rut. Directed and co-written by Lana Wachowski (working, for the first time, without her sister Lilly ), The Matrix Resurrections begins with a savage satire on corporate greed and conniving marketers as Anderson's video game company revs up for a new sequel that he doesn't want to make. ( Christina Ricci appears in a hilarious small role as a particularly tacky marketer.) Wachowski keeps up a certain queasy tension during this first part, including a brilliant montage sequence -- set to the tune of, of course, "White Rabbit" -- that demonstrates how mundane and meaningless this existence is.

As with the original The Matrix (1999), there's a great mystery afoot, with odd little clues everywhere. (Whats up with Reeves' reflection in the computer monitor?) And, ironically, a video game focus group asks all of the questions that viewers are likely asking: What's real, and what's not? What matters, and what doesn't? But at some point near the halfway mark, The Matrix Resurrections reveals everything. The deliciousness is gone, and everything is about planning for the big rescue, fights, chases, and explosions. And without the masterful fight choreography of Yuen Woo-ping , who worked on the first three films, even these look painfully ordinary. The movie seems to have forgotten its original satirical intentions and just swallowed its own blue pill.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Matrix Resurrections ' violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How does the movie fit in with the other movies in the Matrix series? How does it compare? Is there a good reason to revisit the world of the Matrix after 18 years? Why, or why not?

How can the idea of the Matrix -- some people are asleep inside an artificial reality, while others are "awake" -- apply to real life? Which option would you choose?

What does the movie have to say about the idea of franchises, sequels, and marketing? Does the movie itself rise above all that?

Did you notice positive representations in the movie? Why is diversity in the media important?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 22, 2021
On DVD or streaming : December 22, 2021
Cast : Keanu Reeves , Carrie-Anne Moss , Jessica Henwick , Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Director : Lana Wachowski
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Transgender directors, Asian actors, Polynesian/Pacific Islander actors, Female actors, Black actors
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Science Fiction
Topics : Adventures
Run time : 148 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violence and some language
Last updated : September 19, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Revolutions

Blade Runner 2049

Reminiscence

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Sci-fi movies, best action movies for kids, related topics.

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Screen Rant

Matrix resurrections' total failure is the best thing for the matrix 5.

The Matrix Resurrections flopped commercially, critically, and with fans, which could actually work to the benefit of the newly announced Matrix 5.

The Matrix 5 will have a fresh start without the original creators, offering a new perspective for the franchise to explore.
The disappointing reception of The Matrix Resurrections allows the upcoming sequel to ignore major lore changes.
While a risky move, The Matrix 5 has the potential to bring something fresh and spectacular to the beloved franchise.

2021's The Matrix Resurrections was a long-awaited sequel that sadly failed to appeal to fans or critics, which could actually benefit The Matrix 5 . In April 2024, Warner Bros. surprisingly announced the early development of The Matrix 5 , with some surprising news about the franchise. The series will be stepping away from its creators for the first time, with filmmaker Drew Goddard set to direct instead of the Wachowski sisters. While this may be worrisome to those who believed in the franchise's prior singular vision, there are undoubtedly aspects to be hopeful about.

Stream The Matrix Resurrections on Max.

The best Matrix movie is still the first, which was released in 1999 to enormous box office success and critical acclaim and immediately transformed the action genre for the 21st century. It's one of the most influential movies ever made, though the sequels failed to repeat that success. The subsequent movies were released in 2003, completing the original trilogy to less than stellar response. In 2021, The Matrix Resurrections continued the franchise's downward trend , deviating even more from what made the first film so iconic. With that in mind, a fresh perspective going forward might not be so bad.

The Matrix Resurrections Proves A Hard Reset Is The Matrix's Best Future

Since character returns didn't work in matrix 4, matrix 5 can easily start with a clean slate.

The Matrix Resurrections wasn't a complete disaster, but it certainly was below the standard set by the original. The film received a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an equally mediocre 63% Audience Score, signifying that viewers weren't keen on it either. The film was made on an enormous $190 million budget, yet only grossed $157.3 million at the box office . While this can be attributed to the slow return to theaters after the COVID-19 Pandemic and a simultaneous HBO Max release, it's still a terribly disappointing turnout.

However, the disappointment over T he Matrix Resurrections actually opens up some doors for the franchise. While it will be strange to have a Matrix film without Keanu Reeves or Carrie-Anne Moss, it's better to move on to something fresh and new if the previous formula isn't working . The failed sequel means The Matrix franchise can transition more quickly to a clean slate, diving into new characters and aspects of the sci-fi universe. Having a fresh slate and offering something brand new is part of what made 1999's The Matrix such a phenomenon , after all.

Resurrections Failure Means 5 Can Ignore Major Lore Changes

Matrix 5 can ignore the new rules set in resurrections.

Ignoring changes to the lore established in The Matrix Resurrections may peeve some viewers, but there are many who didn't like the differences. The fact that far fewer audiences saw the fourth movie means they may be able to get away with going back on changes. There isn't as much pressure to stick to the new rules if no one was into them in the first place. The Matrix 5 is a considerable risk for Warner Bros. but could ultimately pay off with something fresh and spectacular.

The Matrix 5

The Best TV Shows And Movies Coming To Netflix In May 2024

With things being so slow at the box office in the early going of 2024, you would half expect to hear people reporting sightings of tumbleweeds rolling across the floors of their local movie theaters. Praise to the cinema gods, May is finally arriving with a promising crop of tentpoles to help rejuvenate the marketplace, starting with director David Leitch's much-buzzed-about '80s series turned contemporary action-comedy "The Fall Guy" ( you can read our own Jacob Hall's glowing review of the picture here ). But never fear! If you're searching for something to watch at home, too, Netflix will provide in bountiful amounts.

Well, sort of.

Truth be told, next month is looking kind of sparse when it comes to Netflix exclusives outside the purview of shows with firmly established fandoms ( see: the latest season of "Bridgerton" ) or the service's usual smattering of specialty offerings, including live comedy events and ongoing anime series (which, if that's your thing, more power to you). Thankfully, if you're not really feeling the new Jennifer Lopez sci-fi action flick "Atlas" -- a film where, no joke, J. Lo has to overcome her "deep distrust of AI" to save the day -- and find yourself wondering if perhaps Jerry Seinfeld should've heeded Ian Malcolm's advice from "Jurassic Park" before making his Pop Tarts origin story movie "Unfrosted," then don't worry, there are other options.

Read more: The 18 Best Action Movie Actors Ranked

The Equalizer

Find you a vigilante who can weaponize a Home Depot knockoff into an absurdly deadly version of the "Home Alone" house and also quietly enjoy a cup of tea while reading a book during his sleepless nights. 10 years ago, 2014's "The Equalizer" introduced Denzel Washington as Robert McCall, a retired Marine and Defense Intelligence Agency officer who's spurred back into action after befriending a sex worker (Chloë Grace Moretz) who is brutalized as part of a trafficking ring run by Russian mobsters. What ensues is a satisfyingly grisly beat-em-up that's loosely inspired by the '80s TV show of the same name yet plays like a modern "Death Wish" movie without all the racism, misogyny, and transphobia.

/Film's Chris Evangelista listed this entry the lowest in his "Equalizer" film ranking and fairly so, noting that director Antoine Fuqua only got better at delivering the ultra-violent goods in the sequels. Be that as it may, Washington is his usual magnetic self here and it's good to familiarize yourself with Robert in his "How It Started" phase before jumping ahead to him stabbing people in the head with their own gun .

As much as some people are (understandably) ready to let the genre die out now that the superhero movie bubble has seemingly burst, might I suggest that we instead allow storytellers to take bigger swings with these films? I'm talking Ang Lee "Hulk" levels of weirdness, like shooting and editing your movie to look like a literal series of moving comic book panels while homaging Universal monster movies and "Citizen Kane." Mind you, all of this is in service of a story that explores toxic masculinity and constantly jumps back and forth between someone's repressed, painful memories of their past and scenes where a giant green man in remarkably stretchable purple pants fights mutated dogs and tosses tanks around in the desert.

Does everything in "Hulk" work? No, but even when it fails, it does so in unpredictable and idiosyncratic ways that are much more interesting than Marvel movies that play things strictly by the book. After years of increasingly generic superhero blockbusters, it's time to start innovating again, and revisiting Lee's underrated, misunderstood comic book movie is a fine place to start.

Family-friendly action-adventure movies benefit from having real stakes, which director Joe Johnston has understood throughout his career. The "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Rocketeer" filmmaker also gifted us with one of Robin Williams' better '90s kids movies in the shape of "Jumanji," an adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's picture book about an enchanted board game that unleashes jungle-based dangers into the real world as you play it. For as purely fun and heartfelt as the Dwayne Johnson-led entries in this franchise are, it's Johnston's 1995 original that dares to put its young protagonists in actual danger while also forcing them to deal with everyday heartbreak and problems that are far removed from the world of the supernatural.

On the spectacle side, "Jumanji" remains a blast thanks to some first-class practical creature effects and enthralling sequences that continue to stand tall almost 30 years later. (The CGI is bad, but, frankly, it was bad even back in '95, so nothing has changed on that front.) If you're itching for some good old-school blockbuster thrills, this one might just do the trick.

The Matrix Resurrections

After delivering one of the most influential sci-fi action movies ever and a pair of sequels that expand upon their predecessor's mythology while also subverting it, "The Matrix" co-creator Lana Wachowski returned to put a decidedly metamodern spin on the franchise with "The Matrix Resurrections." Taking its cues from Wes Craven's "New Nightmare," the film picks up in a version of the Matrix where Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a middle-aged sadsack, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is a married stay-at-home mom, and the original "Matrix" trilogy exists as nothing more than a video game series created by Neo. Once again laced with queer subtext, "Resurrections" not only takes shots at our current capitalist hellscape like the entries before it, but it also goes straight for Hollywood's throat and its fixation on IP and mining nostalgia for every cent it's worth.

The fourth "Matrix" film is, admittedly, a bit at odds with itself, but in an era of cookie-cutter reboots, revivals, and legacy sequels, it's refreshing to watch an artist truly wrestle with the complicated legacy of their creation the way Lana Wachowski does here. It also leaves the property in an interesting place for Drew Goddard to pick up from with his upcoming "Matrix 5" (which will hopefully be just as bold and daring as the installments that came before it).

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Wisely, this year's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" TV reboot goes in a different direction than the original 2005 movie, preferring to dive deeper into the mundane realities of what it takes to make an adult relationship work instead of trying to match the film's unabated sexiness. To be sure, what director Doug Liman's movie lacks in substance, it more than makes up for with stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's electrifying screen chemistry. That and cleanly shot, exhilarating action; a simple story that's actually about something; and a proper ending that puts a bow on the whole thing rather than paving the way for a franchise. Y'know, all those things we used to take for granted when it came to our blockbusters.

With its 20th anniversary just around the bend (time does, in fact, keep on slippin' into the future ), there's no better time to get a head-start on the inevitable retrospective articles that'll flood the internet in 2025 and indulge in the basic joys of watching two extremely hot people play spies unwittingly married to one another. Just don't ask how the real-world sequel is going.

Movies And TV Shows Coming To Netflix In May 2024

Coming Soon

Buying London (GB) -- NETFLIX SERIES

Follow luxury estate agent Daniel Daggers and team as they navigate London's super prime market, where the drama is as jaw-dropping as the price tags.

The Life You Wanted (IT) -- NETFLIX SERIES

Gloria is finally happy after transitioning and settling down — until a longtime friend reappears with disrupting news and throws her world into chaos.

Monster (ID) -- NETFLIX FILM

After being abducted and taken to a desolate house, a girl sets out to rescue her friend and escape from their malicious kidnapper.

Avail. 5/1/24

Deaw Special: Super Soft Power (TH) -- NETFLIX COMEDY

From an all-star soccer game to awkward dating problems, Thai comic Udom Taephanich shares candid stories from his chaotic life.

Down The Rabbit Hole (MX) -- NETFLIX FILM

Raised in opulence and culture, 10-year-old Tochtli's lavish life contrasts with the darkness that seeps in from his father's criminal activities.

Frankly Speaking (KR) -- NETFLIX SERIES

A well-respected announcer suddenly loses his ability to self-censor on air, catching the attention of a TV writer who invites him on her variety show.

Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar (IN) -- NETFLIX SERIES

The scheming Mallikajaan rules over an elite house of courtesans — but a new rival threatens her reign as rebellion brews in British-ruled India.

Airport '77
Airport 1975
The Best Man Holiday
Blue Mountain State: Season 1
Blue Mountain State: Season 2
Blue Mountain State: Season 3
Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland
Eat Pray Love
The Edge of Seventeen
The Gentlemen
Hellboy (2019)
Jumanji (1995)
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Mortal Kombat (2021)
The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
Outlander: Season 6
Patriots Day
Public Enemies
Shrek Forever After
Starship Troopers
The Wedding Planner
White House Down
Woody Woodpecker
The Young Victoria

Avail. 5/2/24

A Man in Full -- NETFLIX SERIES

Facing relentless foes and sudden bankruptcy, an Atlanta real estate tycoon must claw his way back to the top when his empire begins to crumble.

Beautiful Rebel (IT) -- NETFLIX FILM

The origin story of one of Italy's greatest rock stars, Gianna Nannini, who chased her dream despite obstacles from her family and the music industry.

Secrets of the Neanderthals (GB) -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

SECRETS OF THE NEANDERTHALS take viewers on a journey from their preconceptions of Neanderthals as a dim-witted creature to a complex and creative people, through the lens of a unique, ongoing excavation and a landmark new discovery - the best preserved Neanderthal skeleton found in over a quarter century.

T・P BON (JP) -- NETFLIX ANIME

After Bon accidentally intervenes in a Time Patrol case, he must join Agent Ream in saving innocent lives from the past — while watching history unfold.

Avail. 5/3/24

John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's In L.A -- NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL (LIVE EVENT)

In six live installments, John Mulaney explores Los Angeles during a week when pretty much every single funny person is in town.

Postcards (NG) -- NETFLIX SERIES

When a Nigerian single mother travels to India for a medical checkup, her journey will end up touching the lives of everyone she meets.

Selling the OC: Season 3 -- NETFLIX SERIES

The ambitious agents at The Oppenheim Group attempt to up their real estate game as more personal drama interferes with major professional endeavors.

The Unbroken Voice: Season 2 (CO) -- NETFLIX SERIES

As her career takes off, Arelys struggles to balance her music and her family life as dangerous new foes threaten to destroy everything.

Unfrosted -- NETFLIX FILM

In a time when milk and cereal ruled breakfast, a fierce corporate battle begins over a revolutionary new pastry. A Pop-Tart comedy from Jerry Seinfeld.

Avail. 5/4/24

The Atypical Family (KR) -- NETFLIX SERIES

Blessed with superpowers, a man and his family begin to lose their abilities under the weight of the world — until a mysterious woman changes everything.

Katt Williams: Woke Foke -- NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL (LIVE EVENT)

Comedian Katt Williams lets loose in real time as he hits the stage on May 4 for Netflix's second livestreamed stand-up event.

Avail. 5/5/24

The Peanut Butter Falcon

Roast of Tom Brady -- NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL (LIVE EVENT)

Tom Brady will take the hits when sports and comedy stars team up to roast the greatest NFL quarterback of all time.

Avail. 5/6/24

30 for 30: Broke

30 for 30: Deion's Double Play

30 for 30: The Two Escobars

John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's In L.A -- NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL (LIVE EVENT) (new episodes)

Reba: Seasons 1-6

Avail. 5/7/24

Super Rich in Korea (KR) -- NETFLIX SERIES

Singaporean tycoons, Italian luxury brand heirs, and Pakistani nobles. Explore the lavish lives of multibillionaires living in Korea, and why they came.

Avail. 5/8/24

The Final: Attack on Wembley (GB) -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

With England finally in contention for a major championship, 6,000 ticketless football fans storm Wembley Stadium, leaving destruction in their wake.

Avail. 5/9/24

Bodkin -- NETFLIX SERIES

In this darkly comedic thriller, a crew of podcasters sets out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three strangers in an idyllic Irish town.

The Guardian of the Monarchs (MX) -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

The forests of Michoacán are home to millions of monarch butterflies. Activist Homero Gómez was highly vocal about its preservation – and then he vanished.

Mother of The Bride -- NETFLIX FILM

In this breezy rom-com, a tropical island wedding teeters on the brink of disaster after the mother of the bride discovers the groom's father is her ex.

Sing Street

Thank You, Next (TR) -- NETFLIX SERIES

After a painful breakup, a young lawyer sets out to find true love in the confusing world of modern dating with the support of her best friends.

Avail. 5/10/24

Blood of Zeus: Season 2 -- NETFLIX ANIME

To escape the Underworld forever, Hades crafts a plan to claim Zeus's crown for himself and reunite with his beloved Persephone as ruler of Olympus.

Cooking Up Murder: Uncovering the Story of César Román (ES) -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

This docuseries analyzes a murder case implicating a Spanish chef, who built a career in the spotlight through a web of secrets and false identities.

Living with Leopards (GB) -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

A film crew follows two leopard cubs as they make the fascinating journey from infancy into adulthood in this up-close-and-personal nature documentary.

Pokémon Horizons: The Series Part 2 (JP) -- NETFLIX FAMILY

The Rising Volt Tacklers continue their daring quest to find the black Rayquaza, with Liko and Roy upping their skills at every twist and turn!

The Ultimatum: South Africa (ZA) -- NETFLIX SERIES

A six-way partner-swap sparks wild attractions and tearful betrayals. Participants choose whom to love and leave in this heart-pounding experiment.

Avail. 5/11/24

Mark Twain Prize Award: Kevin Hart -- NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIA

Comedy's biggest stars gather to honor — and roast — Kevin Hart as he accepts the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in a heartfelt, hilarious ceremony.

Avail. 5/13/24

Archer: Seasons 1-13

Princess Power: Season 3 -- NETFLIX FAMILY

After their coronation, the princesses have a new challenge: getting accepted to the Princess Adventure Academy! But first they must complete six quests.

Avail. 5/14/24

Married at First Sight: Season 15

Avail. 5/15/24

Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal (GB) -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

When a dating site for people seeking adulterous affairs is hacked, millions of users' intimate data is exposed, wrecking marriages and destroying lives.

The Clovehitch Killer

Avail. 5/16/24

Bridgerton: Season 3 Part 1 -- NETFLIX SERIES

As a new crop of debutantes yearns to become the brightest of the ball, a wallflower with a double life finds her light amid secrets and surprises.

Dumb and Dumber To

Maestro in Blue: Season 2 (GR) -- NETFLIX SERIES

The consequences of a murder soon spread from the island of Paxos to Athens, forcing everyone to face their secrets and seek the truth — or hide it.

Avail. 5/17/24

The 8 Show (KR) -- NETFLIX SERIES

Eight individuals trapped in a mysterious 8-story building participate in an irresistible but brutal show where they earn money as time passes.

Power -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

Driven to contain threats to social order, American policing has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now, it can be described by one word: power.

Thelma the Unicorn -- NETFLIX FAMILY

A singing pony who dreams of stardom finds instant fame when she transforms into a sparkly unicorn — but becoming a celebrity is one wild ride.

Avail. 5/19/24

A Simple Favor

Golden Kamuy (JP) -- NETFLIX FILM

On the Hokkaido frontier, a war veteran and Ainu girl race against misfits and military renegades to find treasure mapped out on tattooed outlaws.

Avail. 5/20/24

The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties: Season 4 (FR) -- NETFLIX SERIES

In a globe-trotting season spanning four continents, the international success of the family business gives the Kretzes a taste for travel and adventure.

Avail. 5/21/24

Rachel Feinstein: Big Guy -- NETFLIX COMEDY

From her firefighter husband's unflattering pet name to her mom's aggressive accessorizing, Rachel Feinstein lets loose in this stand-up comedy special.

Wildfire: Seasons 1-4

Avail. 5/22/24

Act Your Age: Season 1

Toughest Forces on Earth (GB) -- NETFLIX SERIES

This docu-series surveys military combat forces across the world to see how they train for dangerous missions using specialized equipment.

Avail. 5/23/24

El vendedor de ilusiones: El caso Generación Zoe (AR) -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

This documentary follows the rise and fall of Generation Zoe, a spiritual coaching network hiding the most unusual scam in Argentina's history.

Franco Escamilla: Ladies' Man (MX) -- NETFLIX COMEDY

Franco Escamilla takes the stage with tales of teenage romance gone wrong, featuring painfully long kisses and rockstar cameos with surprising outcomes.

Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf (JP) -- NETFLIX ANIME

On the run from a past crime, Juzo Fujimaki is blackmailed into joining an illicit tournament and has to face top martial artists in deadly match-ups.

In Good Hands 2 (TR) -- NETFLIX FILM

A newly reunited father and son grapple with new beginnings after tragedy, but can they manage to fill the void left by a beloved mother and wife?

Tires -- NETFLIX SERIES

At his father's auto shop, a hapless manager strives to improve customer service and drive profits while keeping his troublemaking cousin in line.

Avail. 5/24/24

Atlas -- NETFLIX FILM

A brilliant but misanthropic data analyst (Jennifer Lopez) with a deep distrust of AI finds it may be her only hope when a mission to capture a renegade robot goes awry.

Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory -- NETFLIX FAMILY

A group of prominent TikTok dancers are trapped in a cult masquerading as a management company called 7M. Among them is Miranda Wilking, whose family is desperately trying to get their daughter out. As other dancers and former members escape and work to rebuild their lives, it isn't until they come together to try and put a stop to the cycle of their abuser that the real healing begins. This three part documentary series from director Derek Doneen, Dirty Robber and WV Alternative exposes the diabolical tactics used by cult-like organizations to exert control over people as well as the lengths families will go to keep their loved ones safe.

Mulligan: Part 2 -- NETFLIX SERIES

Mulligan and his cabinet work together to keep what's left of America afloat while battling cruise ships, power outages and their own incompetence.

My Oni Girl (JP) -- NETFLIX FILM

A shy teenage boy's inability to say no is tested when a headstrong girl drags him on a mystical journey amid summer snow to find her missing mom.

Avail. 5/28/24

Avail. 5/29/24

Bionic (BR) -- NETFLIX FILM

In a dystopian future where robotic prosthetics redefine sports, two sisters compete in long jump — but their rivalry leads them down a sinister path.

Colors of Evil: Red (PL) -- NETFLIX FILM

A chilling murder at a Tri-City beach exposes a criminal underworld, testing the courage of a prosecutor and a grieving mother seeking answers.

Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

Patrick Melrose

Avail. 5/30/24

Eric (GB) -- NETFLIX SERIES

A desperate father, alongside a tenacious cop, battles his own demons on the streets of 1980s New York as he searches for his missing nine-year-old son.

Geek Girl (GB) -- NETFLIX SERIES

Awkward teen Harriet has always wanted to fit in. Until she gets scouted by a top London model agent and learns that some people are meant to stand out.

Avail. 5/31/24

A Part of You (SE) -- NETFLIX FILM

A teenager struggles to pick up the pieces of her shattered world in this emotional and bittersweet coming-of-age drama about those who are left behind.

Chola Chabuca

How to Ruin Love: The Proposal (ZA) -- NETFLIX SERIES

Suspecting infidelity, love-cynic Zoleka follows her boyfriend to Cape Town, only to ruin her own surprise proposal. Now, she must win him back.

Raising Voices (ES) -- NETFLIX SERIES

When a 17-year-old reports a sexual assault at her high school, an investigation upends her life and tests her relationships.

Tòkunbọ̀ (NG) -- NETFLIX FILM

Tokunbo, an ex-car smuggler, is on a dangerous mission to save his family by delivering a government official's daughter to her captors.

Read the original article on SlashFilm

Detransitioning, Sub-personalities and Spirit Attachments w/ Layton | TCM #129 (Part 1)

Podcast Episode

Add a plot in your language

User reviews

April 23, 2024 (United Kingdom)
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 59 minutes