Keanu Review

5.5 out of 10

Cast:

Keegan-Michael Key as Clarence

Jordan Peele as Rell

Method Man as Cheddar

Tiffany Haddish as Hi-C

Will Forte as Hulka

Darrell Britt-Gibson

Nia Long as Clarence’s Wife

Rob Huebel as Spencer

Jason Mitchell as Bud

Floyd Anthony Johns Jr. as Blip

Jamar Malachi Neighbors as Stiches

Luis Guzmán as Bacon

Anna Faris as herself

Keanu Reeves as the voice of Keanu

Directed by Peter Atencio

Keanu Review:

We have heard this story before, unfortunately. A brilliant new comic mind (or minds, as the case may be) arrive on the scene, impressing all before them with their scathing or weird or some wise new perspective. They amass a considerable cult following with which they beat down establishment doors and proceed to carry their particular style to the masses. But then, through either fear of scaring off a mainstream audience or desire to pander to them, their first big film is an underwhelming, uninspired misfire which turns out not to be made for anyone. Keanu, the first feature film from comedy duo Key & Peele, is an unfortunate exemplar of this tradition.

Having only a little bit to do with actor Keanu Reeves (mainly a side effect of Key & Peele’s noted love of sci-fi and geek culture), Keanu the film is mostly a retread of the old idea of two tame suburban dudes forced to find their inner tough guys in order to convince a powerful drug kingpin to return their stolen cat, Keanu. It’s set up if not as old as time at least as old as vaudeville and it becomes quickly apparent that for all their skill as comedians, Key & Peele have nothing new they can (or want to) bring to it. Empty of ideas or wit, the film takes what elements it has and strings them out forever, leaving a film with no rhythm or drive where characters continually stop what they’re doing to take part in routines which can last an entire reel and are never funny enough to pay off that kind of time commitment. The longer it takes to set a joke up, the funnier the payoff has to be and the payoffs almost never are.

It would actually be less damning if the modifier ‘almost’ couldn’t be used. Some genuinely funny ideas do show up in Keanu, be it Clarence and Rell’s argument over who got beat up by tougher guys in high school to Clarence introducing the joys of George Michael music to a set of hardcore gangbangers. But they are either passed over extremely quickly, good for a short chuckle and little else, or are strung out so long all real humor is drained long before the bit comes to an end. Worse, in between the genuinely-funny ideas, Keanu resorts back to well-worn, well-used ones like Clarence and Rell embarrassedly turning down their gangster rap when a police car pulls up next to them.

If it were just a random comedy featuring a couple of regular actors, it would probably not be so keenly disappointing and judged on its own merits it’s just average. It brings nothing at all new to the urban comedy of errors – it actually seems to go out of its way not to do so – but it doesn’t trip over its own feet. But the fact that the minds behind it have shown themselves repeatedly to be capable of so much more, the response to Keanu can’t be any more than disappointment.