Keanu

Assassins (Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key) shoot up a drug factory. A kitty escapes. Rell Williams (Jordan Peele) is depressed after getting dumped by his girlfriend. He is lifted up by finding the kitty on his doorstep and he names her Keanu. His cousin and best friend Clarence Goobril (Keegan-Michael Key) needs to man up for his wife Hannah (Nia Long). Rell's home is ransacked and Keanu goes missing. Small time dealer Hulka (Will Forte) points the finger at a local gang. The guys take on gangster persona "Tectonic" and "Shark Tank". They meet Hi-C (Tiffany Haddish) and leader Cheddar (Method Man) who mistakes them for the assassins Allentown Boys.

Firstly, the kitty is really cute. The guys have great chemistry. The ridiculous premise is set up for outrageous humor. There are some cute laughs at times but it doesn't stay at a high enough level. It's funny skit material but it doesn't fill out. It's a little thin. The movie tries to add a couple of comedic performances from Will Forte and Anna Faris. They only really hit singles rather than home runs. The movie needs to be more ridiculous. It needs to take on the gangsta genre in a deeper way. The guys are capable of more.

Who hasn't been waiting for Key and Peele to put out a movie together? 'Key and Peele' was one of the best sketch comedy shows of recent memory. Their dynamic on screen is always must watch television and so we were all waiting to see how it would translate to the big screen. For the most part, Keanu works. It does a good job of incorporating the same humor from their show into the film. I just wish they pushed it even further. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments, but the plot of Keanu falls back into clichéd territory far too often.

It's largely a spoof of action films in the same vein as the avidly popular Jump Street films. Instead of going undercover to take down drug dealers, the duo played by Key and Peele, pretend they are drug dealers to win back the kitten that was taken from them. But besides that, the plot unravels exactly as you would expect. You could make the argument that it's not even necessarily a full on spoof, especially with its attempt at drama quite a few times throughout the film.

With that said, when the laughs hit, they hit hard. There's something about the quick witted banter between Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele that it becomes addicting to watch after a while. I just feel they could have taken it a step further. The runtime feels a little long in the tooth too, especially towards the climax.

The supporting cast is okay, with a few surprises here and there, but the real hero here is Keanu the kitten. It isn't named Keanu by accident, and I enjoyed how they played off his name throughout the film. But don't go in expecting Keanu to be the center focus. The kitten only gets like 25 minutes of screen time, but it isn't wasted.

Overall, Keanu features the incredible duo of Key and Peele and fans of the sketch show will no doubt walk away loving this, but there was still some untapped areas to be tackled. Whether it's a sequel to Keanu, a return to TV, or a completely fresh idea, I'm down to watch anything these guys do.

+Incredible duo

+Brilliantly stupid premise

-But it ends up feeling cliché and uninspired

-Uneven

6.8/10

Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) is a conservative suburbanite with a wife and child. His cousin, Rell (Jordan Peele), is a bong-smoking slacker. Then one day Rell finds a kitten on his doorstep and immediately takes it in. He names the kitten Keanu. A few weeks later, in a case of mistaken identity, members of the Blips drug gang break into his house, ransack it and take Keanu. Rell and Clarence set off into Blips territory to recover Keanu.

Only watched this because it stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Loved their comedy show, Key and Peele, and a full-length comedy feature film starring them sounded promising.

The movie certainly retains much of the trademark Key and Peele humour. Add in an absurd-yet-fun plot and a cute kitten and you have a good comedy movie. Some great scenes and lines. Key and Peele are in fine form in the lead roles, with spot-on delivery and the wonderful comedic chemistry that their TV show demonstrated.

Not brilliant though. As with many transitions from TV to film, the momentum and ideas seem to diminish as the movie goes on - the core plot line proves difficult to sustain for 90+ minutes. The comedy is still there, but the movie becomes more uneven the further into it you go. Some pretty weak scenes towards the end. The plot becomes quite haphazard and farcical.

Overall, however, Keanu is good fun and well worth watching.

First off, I love Key & Peele... I was devastated when I realized that the last episode was their series finale. The movie plays as a weird surreal action movie... I guess it's like Ride Along but played with less slap stick. After watching the trailer multiple times, I figured Keanu was going to have a lot more... but the trailer had all the best parts and the best punchlines.

The plot is a bit shallow as the premise is a runaway kitten and then being found and then going to get the kitten back from captures. I guess you can compare this with Pineapple Express which basically is a simple story of stoners running away... but Pineapple Express has a ton of interesting characters and weirdo situations. Keanu had a couple of weird situations and no real interesting characters except one cameo. Watch the trailer and you're good - it pretty much sums up the entire film and all it's jokes.

Keanu is a comedy film about nerdy friends who disguise as gangsters to steal their kitten. The film stars Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, best known for their Comedy Central sketch series Key & Peele. They play Rell, the besotted owner of Keanu the kitten, and his uptight George Michael-loving cousin Clarence. The film has a geeky, film-literate flavor to some of the humor, which defuses the semi-ironic gangster posturing. A cameo from Anna Faris is unexpected and not entirely successful. The central joke, that even the most ruthless underworld drug wholesalers are putty in the paws of an adorably cute kitten, is a good one but not enough to sustain an entire movie. The film is intended for the duo's loyal fans, introducing them to a wider audience, and directing at children. However, the movie is a weirdly generic fish-out-of-water tale, where bungling cowards impersonate tough guys, familiar territory for male comedy duos past and present. Key and Peele play their familiar, nerdy suburban characters, with Clarence being a mild-mannered people-pleaser and his cousin Rell being a single, stoner artist and graphic designer. Keanu, played by a team of seven kittens, fills the hole in Clarence's heart and becomes his artistic muse. The film's chemistry is one of its main assets, and the central joke, that even the most ruthless underworld drug wholesalers are putty in the paws of an adorably cute kitten, is a good one but not enough to sustain an entire movie. Key & Peele, a group known for their roles in Hollywood comedy, can act outside of their signature characters. Their intense friendship and individual personalities draw viewers in, but their bromance is absent in this show. The characters play it straight, with little frisson between them, and their black nerdiness is neglected. Keanu has potential, but the code-switching shtick becomes tiresome and neglects their black nerdiness. However, the team works to translate representations of black masculine anger and impenetrability into comedy, revealing the adorable kittens underneath the swagger. The film also satisfied the guilty pleasure of rappers/actors, with Method (Acting) Man defying the adage of avoiding performances with children or animals. Overall, Key & Peele's performance is enjoyable and satisfying, despite the potential for more mature roles. Keanu is a film about a family of gang members who are chased by the 17th Street Blips, a savage gang of former Bloods and Crips. The cousins, led by Will Forte, pursue the kitten into the urban underworld of L. A., where they bond with the Blips and battle drug kingpins and a crime duo. The film has only a single comic narrative setup and extended joke, which is part of the problem with the film. While Key & Peele are appealing on the big screen, the film feels declawed and lacks anything we haven't seen before, except for the kitten. The production feels televisual, staged in enclosed spaces like cars, clubs, and rooftops. The cousins visit urban spaces explored in their program, such as the Club, strip joints, back alleys, and vacant lots. However, the hood and neighborhood are flat, missing the playful surrealism that animates these quotidian urban and suburban spaces and the eccentric characters that occupy them in the show.