“Keanu” is a pure pop confection that delights even as it proves to be wildly uneven. This big screen debut of comedic powerhouses Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as leading men highlights many of their greatest strengths, as they bounce between personas, voices, and different physicality with ease. The premise gives them the opportunity to play uptight and loose, milquetoast black men and outlandish thug stereotypes sometimes in the same scene.
Their striking differences and chemistry as comedians give the film its ragged energy. But “Keanu,” directed by Peter Atencio, only provides you exactly what you expect and nothing more. In many ways, it plays like a less subversive sketch from the duos magnificent, defunct show “Key and Peele,” been ballooned to 98 minutes—the film’s greatest problem.
Rell (Jordan Peele) fills his empty days after a breakup with excessive weed smoking and morose lounging on his couch, surrounded by posters of films like “Heat” and “New Jack City.” When a kitten finds its way to his doorstep after escaping a crazed shootout at a drug running facility, Rell’s life finds purpose again. Soon, Rell’s grief gives way to a near-obsession with Keanu, as observed by his cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key). When Keanu is kidnapped by powerful drug kingpin Cheddar (Method Man), the duo adopt the identities of the mysterious Allentown assassins they’re mistaken for in order to get close enough to get Keanu back.