By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "The Matrix Reloaded," a highly anticipated sci-fi thriller starring Keanu Reeves (news) as a balletic freedom fighter, shot to No. 1 in its first weekend at the North American box office.

The sequel sold $93.3 million worth of tickets in its first weekend of release across North America -- the No. 2 bow of all time behind "Spider-Man," according to studio estimates issued on Sunday. "Spider-Man" opened with $115 million in 2002. The previous No. 2 slot was held by 2001's "Harry Potter (news - web sites) and the Sorcerer's Stone" with $90.3 million.

While most movies open on a Friday in North America, "The Matrix Reloaded" bowed on Thursday, preceded by late screenings on Wednesday. Its distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures., lumped in Wednesday receipts -- estimated by industry observers at about $5 million -- with the Thursday haul of $42.5 million.

The film has taken four days to earn what its 1999 predecessor, "The Matrix," grossed in five weeks, said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. The original film ended up earning $171 million.

The new film also ranks as the No. 1 bow for an R-rated film, crushing the three-day sum of $58 million for 2001's "Hannibal." Hollywood studios are increasingly shying away from R-rated films, which require viewers under 17 to be accompanied by an adult, in order to focus on more inclusive pictures.

Fellman said the audience was evenly split between viewers under and over 25 years of age, with an abundance of families in attendance. Males comprised about 60 percent of viewers.

"The Matrix Reloaded" stars Reeves as resistance fighter Neo who battles an army of machines that seek to take control of the last human city, Zion. It will be followed in November by a third movie, "The Matrix Revolutions." All three films were written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski.

Warner Bros., a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. produced the films with Village Roadshow Pictures, a unit of Australia's Village Roadshow Ltd . The second and third movies were reportedly budgeted at about $175 million each.

The Eddie Murphy (news) comedy "Daddy Day Care" held steady at No. 2 in its second weekend with $19.2 million, down only 30 percent. The film, released by Sony Corp (news - web sites)'s Columbia Pictures, has earned $51.4 million after 10 days.

The box office champ for the previous two weeks, "X2: X-Men United" slipped to No. 3 with $17.1 million and a 17-day haul of $174 million. The comic book adventure was released by News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group Inc.

Fox was also responsible for the one other new entry in the top 10, the romantic comedy "Down With Love," which opened nationally at No. 4 with a low-key $7.6 million. The film, starring Ewan McGregor (news) and Renee Zellweger (news), played exclusively in one New York theater last weekend.

The No. 5 slot went to the children's adventure "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," which fell two places in its third weekend after earning $4.5 million. Its total rose to $32.1 million. The film was released by Walt Disney Pictures, a unit of Walt Disney Co.

Even with the strong launch for "The Matrix Reloaded," overall receipts were down from the year-ago period. According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, the top 12 films grossed $156 million, down 4 percent from last year, when "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" opened at No. 1.

1. The Matrix: Reloaded .......... $91,774,413

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $134,282,716

2. Daddy Day Care .......... $18,880,185

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $51,057,257

3. X2: X-Men United .......... $17,301,287

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $174,172,025

4. Down with Love .......... $7,001,906

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $7,066,077

5. The Lizzie McGuire Movie .......... $4,755,225

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $32,314,438

6. Identity .......... $3,662,843

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $45,070,821

7. Anger Management .......... $3,554,771

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $128,278,321

8. Holes .......... $3,160,190

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $55,960,305

9. A Mighty Wind .......... $1,692,463

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $12,097,256

10. Bend It Like Beckham .......... $1,372,198

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $15,040,183

John L.: The anticipation for Matrix Reloaded is bigger than any movie in recent memory, even the higher grossing Spiderman. Even though the producers of Matrix Part 2 say that they don't want to overload the public with large television advertising campaigns, it seems that everyone and their half brothers knew about this sequel to the most influential movie since Terminator 2. The Matrix's 3D bullet time effects have been imitatedin every other movie released for the last 4 years like in Scary Movie, Kings of Comedy, and even Shrek. Larry and Andy Wachowski have created technically 2 worlds that have captured the imagination of the movie going public. Full reviews of Matrix and Matrix Reloaded are to follow.

You ever have one of those dreams where you are sure you are experiencing reality and then you wake up and go, "damnit, it wasn't real?" I have those dreams all of the time. A 300 foot tall fire breathing dragon could be chasing me and I would still think that it was real. Have you ever thought the real world that you know is actually the dream world and that what you perceive as dreams is the true reality? Well, these types of questions are expanded and flipped on its side with 1999's The Matrix, the movie that made George Lucas look like an idiot. Matrix's story is one of those that rely's on its main secret of what exactly is this Matrix thing and why should I care. It appears that in the late 20th century, coicidentally, 1999, the machines had developed artificial intelligence and realized that they are superior to the humans that "infect" the Earth. So, after great effort the machines pretty much took over the world and used the humans as living batteries to power their circuits. To keep the humans from actually realizing that they are being used as slaves, an articical reality was created better known as the Matrix. While the humans are soaking in a bacta tank, they believe they are living the everday lives of you and me. They go to work, school, rave parties, use computers, eat gourmet meals and make love. Somehow, a human escaped enslavement and freed other humans and they all created the last human city Zion where they would live and try to free the others to one day take back the planet. It is not an easy task since the humans outside of the matrix have to go into the matrix to cause havoc against the machines, but the guardians of the Matrix, the Agents are there to prevent any such thing. The Agents have superpowers and can dodge bullets. Earthlings of average strength have more acrobatic powers when they enter the Matrix, but they are still not up to the skills of the average Man in Black type Agent. According to the prophecy, there is the One who will one day free all the humans from their prisons and defeat the evil machines. Sort of a Messiah figure. And this is where our story begins. It seems that The One may be this computer hacker known as Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Keanu Reeves). The rest of the movie is Neo coming to grips with what his true destiny is and will be. This movie is promoted as being an action movie, but it is more philosophical than that. There are some decent action sequences, but it is the story of what is real and what is not that has kept people fascinated for so long. Laurence Fishburne plays Morpheus the one who is most obsessed with finding The One and defeating the machines. His whole life is dedicated to this and his obsession may eventually lead to his downfall. Carrie-Anne Moss is Trinity, Neo and Morpheus' hot leatherclad sidekick (literally). The writers of this movie don't try to hide the obvious religious under and overtones of the main group. Besides the machines themselves, the main villain of the movie is Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). He is in charge of stopping the humans from taking over the Matrix and returning Earth to its former glory. Weaving is the best thing in the movie and his delivery of the line "Mr. Anderson" when taunting Neo is fun to imitate. Overall, the entire cast does an excellent job of trying to make this movie understandable to people watching it. They probably had no idea what they were talking about, but they conveyed the thoughts well enough. The Wachowski Brothers have obviously read too much Homer, Chaucer, and Lewis Carrroll along with the Bible and Greek mythology, but the mix is done well to make you think you are watching an original story. Machines taking over the world is not a new story. You can go back to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and see how technology can be corrupted. For a science fiction plot like this to work and be different, it needed a hook and that hook is bullet time in which a character moves so fast that he or she can dodge speeding bullets. Since that is too fast for the human eye to really see, the film has to be slowed down so you can see the air streams the bullets make as they miss their targets. I am still confused about whether time is slowing down or the characters are moving super fast. It is not always that consistent. There are a few wildly choreographed kung-fu sequences that brought the long practiced Asian Cinema technique of "wire-fu" to Hollywood. This is where it is obvious that when the actors filmed their stunts they were hanging from wires. This helps get the real actors to do their own stunts since the wires help them pull off moves that no one can actually do. This looks fine in a movie like this, but then every movie with a fight sequence decided to use wire-fu (cough... Charlie's Angels... cough) and it became silly since in those movies they are taking place in the real world and not an artificially created computer construct. The casting for this movie was questionable when you had to believe that Keanu Reeves, the goofy dude actor could be taken seriously on this level. Reeves is an odd actor who has to tilt his head after every sentence to show that he is acting. His "whoa" catchphrase is quite amusing and has become his "I'll be back." His gee whiz attitude helps since the audience is gee whizzing along with him. Fishburne was great casting as his overly serious Morpheus matches the very serious actor. I had never heard of Carrie-Anne Moss when she did this movie, but it made her into a star. She does not look like most actresses and looks great in the black leather leotards. Her float kick is the most imitated move since Karate Kid. The Matrix is a good sci-fi movie with sporadic scenes of unique action. The first half is not boring, but there is a lot of talk to explain things. The second half of the movie has more action and is very entertaining. Matrix could have gone either way in terms of its success. It was released in late March and was thought to be a movie that would earn more than $50 million or $60 million at the box office. It went on to make over $170 million and became a phenomenon that outclassed the overwrought Star Wars saga. What is the Matrix? It's a cash cow. It can be anything you want it to be. Final Review: 4 stars out of 5; 8 out of 10; A-; thumbs up.

Oh boy, where to begin. There seems to be a big debate on the quality of Matrix 2. There are those that say that this movie was great. More action, more plot twists, more Trinity, more Agent Smith, and a big car chase. Then there are those that say that TMR has pointless action. lame plot twists, not enough Trinity, horribly CGIed Agent Smiths, and a cliched car chase. Well they are all right. All those things apply to this movie which suffers from middle movie syndrome similar to films like The Empire Strikes Back and Back to the Future II. Matrix Reloaded and its sequel Matrix Revolutions were filmed concurrently so that Revolutions can come out in November. This means that much of what happens in Reloaded seems unfinished or confusing since the final act ends in a cliffhanger ("to be concluded"). The other thing that makes this movie confusing is that it is part 12 of a 13 part storyline. The Matrix 1 was part 7 or 8 while nine Animatrix movie shorts and the video game "Enter the Matrix" make up the rest. The Wachowski Brothers had so much story to tell they had to put it in 3 different types of entertainment mediums. Only Matrix Reloaded is needed to be seen to understand the gist of the story but to understand why Jada Pinkett Smith, Roy Jones Jr., and the Sentinels are doing what they are doing, then it might behoove you to check those non movies out. Matrix Reloaded takes up soon after The Matrix with the war for the survival of humanity still raging on and on and on. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) believes that the end of the war is coming and that Neo's (Keanu Reeves) time for full The One ascension is near. So, the whole movie is just Morpheus and his crew of the Nebuchadnezzar to enter the Matrix again and again to find the key to humanities salvation. This leads to several great fight sequences that are fun to watch, but feel a bit empty and blatantly tacked on. The awe and wonder of the first movie is gone as it is all just there to marvel at but not to get emotionally involved. Hugo Weaving is back as Agent Smith because he was so much fun in the first film. This time he can duplicate himself a hundred times so he has a better chance at beating Neo in a fight. Unfortunately for him, Neo is the most powerful thing going in the Matrix and it appears there is nothing that can really stop him. This much ballyhooed battle between Neo and Smith100 is cool to look at and goes on for at least 10 minutes, it becomes more pointless with each punch and kick when you realize that if Neo can fairly effortlessly battle 100 Agent Smiths, where is the threat when just one grits his Baba Booey like teeth? There in lies the major problem with Matrix Reloaded. The good guys are too good. You never feel that they are any insurmountable danger. The first movie had this as the villains were more powerful than the heroes and there was great doubt that they would come out unscathed. This time it seems that anyone can kick anyone's ass at anytime with no consequence. If you feel that this is a problem then skip the movie, you won't like it. If you watch these battles as just action sequences and enjoy them for being exciting in and of themselves, then you will have a good time. One has to understand that the unwritten rules for sequels to action/sci-fi movies is that part two has to be bigger thrill wise than the first one with a sacrifice of coherent plot. Matrix Reloaded is just a showcase of the powers of Neo and the harshness of Zion, the last human outpost. Zion is shown for the first time in Reloaded and after seeing it, you might wonder why anyone would want to leave the artificial world of the Matrix. It is a dreary place and there is no real effort made by the filmmakers to have the audience care about it. A good half hour of screen time is spent in Zion during the first hour of the movie and it can be tedious at points especially the slow motion rave segment that is an excuse to show some see thru nipplage on some gyrating women. Gotta earn that R rating some how since the violence is fairly bloodless. These movies cost a lot of money, so any excuse for extended down time is necessary. Lots of side characters like Pinkett's Niobe are introduced but there stories are fleshed out in the video games and not here. In fact and hours worth of footage was filmed using these side characters just for the game. The other part that is somewhat anticlimatic is the scene near the end where everything is explained about the origins of the Matrix. You have to listen carefully because it goes by fairly fast and odd words like "ergo" are used to make pontificating points. Once the slow parts are tolerated, the continuing story has to be dealt with. Well, let's just wait for Revolutions to flesh that out since it really does not go anywhere in this movie. The relationship between Neo and Trinity seems forced as they feel too obligated to be with each other without any real chemistry between them. Life and death are big concerns between the two, but I have to say that Trinity is no Edith Keeler. Fishburne seems a bit more uptight in this movie and almost a bit bored. He has plenty to do, but his stiffness is hard to watch at times. Hugo Weaving seems to be wasted as he has become just another Snidely Whiplash bad guy. Monica Belucci shows up as some strange woman named Persephone who has an odd way of making deals. She is hot, but very very uninteresting. Lambert Wilson as Merovingian steals the picture in my book as a crazed Matrix program who guards a major secret. His speech on the beauties of the French language is hilarious and his recipe for chocolate cake would make Meg Ryan proud. Wilson's moments on screen are fairly brief, but a breath of fresh air in the morose that the Matrix can be. The big car chase is exciting and is one of the best ever filmed. The second half of it is better than the first when a one on one battle and a motorcycle are introduced and the ending is spectacular. Matrix Reloaded has many faults to it, but you have to realize that this is just half a movie as the second part which will wrap up much of the loose ends comes out in November. Once the two are put together then things will hopefully make more sense. Plus, it would behoove those who can to get the Animatrix DVD coming out in June 2003 and find a summary of or rent the Enter the Matrix video games to get the entire experience. I enjoyed myself while watching TMR, but I could tell it was very flawed. The special effects are great, but very special effecty. You can tell that nothing is real and in some sequences the actors look like they were taken out of the Final Fantasy movie. Reloaded is basically there as a transition film and one to show off exciting set pieces. Reloaded is not the end all be all fans of The Matrix were hoping for, but it is a pretty good sequel nevertheless. Final Review: 2 1/2 stars out of 5; 6 1/2 out of 10; B-; thumbs up. If you were a huge fan of the first movie you would probably lower those grades by a point.

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10

1.    Eddy Murphy may be back in some people's eyes, but until he is able to say the "eff word" again and have the movie make over a $100 million, he will still be under whelming.

2.    But until then, Daddy Day Care 2 looks like it might just happen.

3.    It is quite surprising that X2 is down to the number 3 spot in only its third week.

4.   The pillow talk around box office circles is making a movie that imitates the 1960s' cute romances may not have been a great idea.

5.    Lizzie is popular with the pre-pre teen set, but it seems that that crowd is running out.

6.    It's too bad that Identity did not get a better word of mouth response as it is the type of movie that has the type of twists that usually get good box office.

7.    Anger Management is now Jack Nicholson's biggest hit since As Good as it Gets.

8.    Holes is a Newbery Award winning children's book that has become a moderately successful children's movie.

9.    The Mighty Wind continues the long line of SCTV vets who seem to make better quality films than their rival Not Ready for Prime Time Players.

10.    Football is popular all over the world, and is trying to sneak into the United States who seem to lack the enthusiasm when it comes to soccer and its bending.

Jim Carrey returns to over the top comedy with Bruce Almighty.  It may work for him, but his co-star is box office death killer, Jennifer Aniston whose track record is very poor.  We will see.  Bye for now.