Less than a year after their Peabody Award-winning Comedy Central sketch series wrapped, Key & Peele team-up for their first movie. With endless possibilities – they chose to base the plot around the love of a cute wittle kitty cat – And Me-OW – the results are painful.
“Substitute Teacher” is a really funny “Key & Peele” skit. But you can’t picture it as a feature-length film because the gags and one-liners based on the simple premise would wear thin rather quickly. Well, the same goes for “Keanu”, which could’ve been very entertaining as a five-minute bit on YouTube, but is not as a 100-minute movie.
Rell (played by Jordan Peele) and cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) live in LA. When Rell’s girlfriend dumps with him, he’s devastated. But, like a gift from Heaven, an incredibly cute kitten shows-up on his doorstep – and for Rell it’s love at first sight. He names the kitten Keanu and is immediately “back in the game”, including taking pictures of the cat in costumes in a variety of movie scenes (all of them distributed by Warner Bros.). But so many cat owners do this in real life, so this is just one of the film’s many unoriginal elements.
Upon returning to Rell’s home from seeing the latest Liam Neesons action film, the duo discover that the house has been broken into and Keanu is gone. The pair think the break-in has something to do with Rell’s drug dealing neighbor (Will Forte). So, to get the cat back, Rell and Clarence pretend to be notorious gangsta killers and get in deep with a rival gang that’s got the kitty. This is when “Keanu” officially hits the Formulaic Freeway and never looks back. We’ve seen this storyline so many times before, and there’s nothing fresh here.
But the amazingly-clever dialogue and sharp comedic timing of Key & Peele saves “Keanu”, right? Not this time. I don’t think I chuckled more than twice during the entire movie. There’s nothing – from the George Michael music to the celebrity cameos (including one from a famous Keanu), to any of the scenes that drag-on endlessly that comes-off as remotely funny. This is just another example of why sketch comedy is best served in small doses – and never at movie theaters.
Dull, often dopey and extremely disappointing, On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Keanu” gets a D.
Running Time: 100 min.