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Director: Peter Atencio

Writers: Jordan Peele, Alex Rubens

Runtime: 1h 38min

Main Cast:

• Jordan Peele as Rell Williams / Oil Dresden
• Keegan-Michael Key as Clarence Goobril / Smoke Dresden
• Tiffany Haddish as Hi-C

Review: by Chris F

Key and Peele have come a long way from being stars on the late MadTV (RIP) and have cemented themselves as tv icons with their self-titled sketch comedy show. Now that the show is over they attempt to hit the big screen with their starring debut. Enter Keanu, a love letter to movies about a quest to find the adorable kitten that shares the name with the Matrix star. With this movie key and Peele prove to be masters of their own unique style of comedy and remain a great comedy duo.

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After being devastated after a breakup man-child Rell finally finds a new love in the kitten Keanu, who turns up at his place through questionable means. Rell recovers from the breakup and bonds with the kitten much to the happiness of his more responsible, yet straight-laced cousin Clarence. Things go sour and Keanu is kidnapped by some gangsters. Now Rell and Clarence much pretend to be notorious gangsters to infiltrate the gang and rescue Keanu.

What I Liked:

Great comedy. Key and Peele are usually hit or miss for me. While I do like some of their skits, many of them ran a bit too long to me and never seemed to end right. It made me fearful of a full feature making their brand of comedy seem even worse, and I am happy to be wrong. Keanu constantly surprises with new tricks and a quick pace to keep the movie fresh. While the intro to the gangster den and “black people voices” were bothersome at first, the joke got less extreme and it worked as the film went on.

The supporting cast. With Method Man’s name being on the posters, I expected him to steal the show in terms of supporting characters, but everyone in the main cast did an excellent job. The main crew of Blips (blood & crip rejects…yea, good stuff) are fantastically varied and realized. They had some great chemistry with each and gave the film some surprising heart. Nia Long also shows up, not aging a day, demanding your attention the few, but great scenes she is in. Including some crazy quest cameos and you have a complete cast of characters that entertain without Key and Peele needed to run the show.

The story. After hearing the concept I expected something crazy, and thats exactly what I got. The movie is more unpredictable than I expected, going to some clever places in terms of character depth and arcs. Both Clarence and Mel had some amazing transitions that felt natural to their character based on the circumstances. I saw these characters grow, which wasn’t expected for a movie about saving a kitten from gangsters. A damn good ending helps this fast paced movie feel right.

What I Didn’t Like:

As stated above the jokes in the first 15-20 minutes weren’t all that great. Many of the early gags with the 2 leads felt like knockoffs from the show, but it later gets better. The blackcents begin really over the top, but it fit with these two clowns reacting on the fly and got better. I would’ve also liked to see more from 2 characters in particular which I felt were wasted as potential antagonists.

 

Images Courtesy of IMDB