The Wachowskis "The Matrix", a science fiction action film, in 1999. The movie stars Keanu Reeves as Neo, a hacker recruited by a rebellion to aid them in the fight against machines who have taken over the world and placed humanity inside a simulated reality called "the Matrix". Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving and Joe Pantoliano also star. The movie was a critical and commercial hit for Warner Bros. It won four Academy Awards, including for "Best Visual Effects" for popularizing the bullet time visual effect. "The Matrix" came to be a major influence for action movies and has appeared in
Keanu Reeves 2010's "Henry's Crime" and John in 2012's "Generation Um...". During that time, Reeves also played Kai in the critically panned "47 Ronin". Critics widely attribute the film's poor performance to its direction, pacing, focus on special effects, and editing. In 2011, he returned to other artistic mediums of expression. Having played music earlier in his career, he forayed into literature by writing the text for a "grown-up picture book" entitled "Ode to Happiness". The text was complemented by Alexandra Grant's illustrations. In 2011, he produced the documentary "Side by Side" about the supplanting of photo-chemical film by digital camera technology;