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Keanu can act!!
Ok, so I just got back from watching the infamous "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and I have to say - I really enjoyed it! Now I've heard and read negative review after negative review about this movie - more so for Keanu Reeves' character. Im not going to talk about the movie itself, I dont even know/care about the 1950's movie, or how this one doesn't live up to the original....blah blah blah. You've read and heard about that. What I will ask is....
Why the hell is the whole world against Keanu Reeves all of a sudden?
When he was Neo everyone worshipped the guy, so he's had a few slump movies during and since then (Sweet November - $15 dollars and two hours of my life I will never get back!!) but to crucify him the way some of you have is ludacris. I dont have a man crush on the guy, but I dont despise him like alot of you. The Matrix was a kick ass movie, one of the best trilogies (best being Matrix 1) of our time and Keanu portrays Neo better than any other actor could ever do. You say that he's boring as Neo, no emotion and all his lines are in monotone...well, morons, he's the protagonist!! A damn superhero! Living in a time where the survival of mankind is in your hands, would you act as flamboyant as Jack Nicholas' Joker? No douche's, the script would demand you to be as serious as you need the character to be.
Now since then, alot of critics have drawn similarities of his type of acting as Neo to most of his work post Matrix. Well, lets have a closer look - ill only pick out a few of my fav movies played by Reeves:
1) Hard Ball.
Reeves character reluntantly takes on as coaching job for a kids baseball team. Dead face you say? Lack of other emotions played by Reeves you say? .... The guy is in serious debt! He makes a few bad choices at luck and he's pretty much on the verge of being killed. Yeah, should we suggest a more Chris Tucker approach?
2) Constantine.
Badass British (in this case American) demon killer who's life is threatened by.....smoking? I dont care, I loved the comics, I loved the film and even though they chose not to go with the Sting look-a-like, I believe that Reeves gave justice to the character. Constantine has been plagued with a curse to see demonic creatures since he was a kid, he has every reason to be an emotionless and foul mouth cynic. Again, how did the audiences expect Reeves to portray the Hellblazer character? Cheery and happy that he's performing excorcists daily and negotiating his soul with Lucifer himself. Yeah right guys.
3) Street Kings.
I've never heard so much ramble about an actors performance than I did after watching this film. Reeves plays an honest cop working for a corrupt unit. His ex-partner is killed, his co-workers are all crooked and his boss is the ultimate king pin of this debauched city, so....Keanu should have played his character more like Eddie Murphy's delirious? His character is a dillusional drunk who is motivated in bringing down crooked cops at the some time saving his own ass... I say he did a damn good job of portraying a disturbed and complex persona, sure this isn't the Training Day - Alonzo Harris type cop/acting but he comes close.
And now the same is being said about his portayal of Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still....
I mean really guys? He plays an ALIEN. Do we need to go further?
Ok, so.....as much I enjoy his movies (yes, even The Lake House) i'll be the first to admitt that he's not going to win an Oscar anytime soon. But this doesn't mean that he's one really, really bad actor! Yes, he seems to strike roles that don't allow him to show alot of emotional range, yes he can't really do accents, but if we are going to go into "lets torment someone's acting ability" then don't get me started on Jon Heder.... I love Jon Heder!! I really do - but let's face it, he's what I would consider as one-dimensional actor. But that's another blog :P.
What do you think?
Why the hell is the whole world against Keanu Reeves all of a sudden?
When he was Neo everyone worshipped the guy, so he's had a few slump movies during and since then (Sweet November - $15 dollars and two hours of my life I will never get back!!) but to crucify him the way some of you have is ludacris. I dont have a man crush on the guy, but I dont despise him like alot of you. The Matrix was a kick ass movie, one of the best trilogies (best being Matrix 1) of our time and Keanu portrays Neo better than any other actor could ever do. You say that he's boring as Neo, no emotion and all his lines are in monotone...well, morons, he's the protagonist!! A damn superhero! Living in a time where the survival of mankind is in your hands, would you act as flamboyant as Jack Nicholas' Joker? No douche's, the script would demand you to be as serious as you need the character to be.
Now since then, alot of critics have drawn similarities of his type of acting as Neo to most of his work post Matrix. Well, lets have a closer look - ill only pick out a few of my fav movies played by Reeves:
1) Hard Ball.
Reeves character reluntantly takes on as coaching job for a kids baseball team. Dead face you say? Lack of other emotions played by Reeves you say? .... The guy is in serious debt! He makes a few bad choices at luck and he's pretty much on the verge of being killed. Yeah, should we suggest a more Chris Tucker approach?
2) Constantine.
Badass British (in this case American) demon killer who's life is threatened by.....smoking? I dont care, I loved the comics, I loved the film and even though they chose not to go with the Sting look-a-like, I believe that Reeves gave justice to the character. Constantine has been plagued with a curse to see demonic creatures since he was a kid, he has every reason to be an emotionless and foul mouth cynic. Again, how did the audiences expect Reeves to portray the Hellblazer character? Cheery and happy that he's performing excorcists daily and negotiating his soul with Lucifer himself. Yeah right guys.
3) Street Kings.
I've never heard so much ramble about an actors performance than I did after watching this film. Reeves plays an honest cop working for a corrupt unit. His ex-partner is killed, his co-workers are all crooked and his boss is the ultimate king pin of this debauched city, so....Keanu should have played his character more like Eddie Murphy's delirious? His character is a dillusional drunk who is motivated in bringing down crooked cops at the some time saving his own ass... I say he did a damn good job of portraying a disturbed and complex persona, sure this isn't the Training Day - Alonzo Harris type cop/acting but he comes close.
And now the same is being said about his portayal of Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still....
I mean really guys? He plays an ALIEN. Do we need to go further?
Ok, so.....as much I enjoy his movies (yes, even The Lake House) i'll be the first to admitt that he's not going to win an Oscar anytime soon. But this doesn't mean that he's one really, really bad actor! Yes, he seems to strike roles that don't allow him to show alot of emotional range, yes he can't really do accents, but if we are going to go into "lets torment someone's acting ability" then don't get me started on Jon Heder.... I love Jon Heder!! I really do - but let's face it, he's what I would consider as one-dimensional actor. But that's another blog :P.
What do you think?
Comment
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Comment by ??????????? on January 4, 2009 at 12:07pm -
if the guy has made a 20 year career for himself, appearing in big blockbusters and working with great directors, he must have at least some degree of talent
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Comment by Travis Pickle on December 18, 2008 at 7:27pm -
Is that a question or a statement!?
The guy can stand in front of a camera and mouth the lines but he can't seem to move his other face muscles?
In the Matrix he wore sunglasses at night so he fooled a lot of people, I liked Bills Bogus journey coz I was a kid so I can't coment on him in that, I despised Contantine with a vengeance but Point Break was amazing! so Hey! I liked him in that but recently he just sort of mummbled through Street Kings once again forgetting to move the rest of his face and The day the earth stood still looks like he's talking in his sleep with his eyes open so... Oh! I did kind of like him in A Scanner Darkly but they drew over him so If you ask me he is a semi decent voice actor or not too bad action dummy or if you want comedy watch him in Dracula!
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Comment by Justin Credible on December 18, 2008 at 7:04pm -
...protagonist to do. I say he rocks.
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Comment by Justin Credible on December 18, 2008 at 7:02pm
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Thanks Jessica and Beau for your opnions. I think we are all the same page here, we all agree that Reeves is a great actor in his own right. But no where near where we would like him to be, but either way I'll still pay a full price ticket to see any film of his. His resume does include a few stinkers, but his awesome movies outshine those.
Josh - the reason why I used Street Kings is because it recieved so much ridicule from critics and fans alike. I honestly didn't see what was wrong with his performance there, he did what we wanted the
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Comment by Beau on December 18, 2008 at 6:32pm -
Well, I won't really debate Keanu's alleged skills. His only real flaw is that he doesn't really possess any range at all. He has one style and he does a fairly good job of using that style if he's suited for the part. In other words, Keanu can only taste like a tomato-put him in a salad or some salsa and he's going to be tolerable to enjoyable but put him in ice cream or a cherry pie and he's going to taste like ass.
However:
"all of a sudden" ????
I hate to tell you but people have been bagging on Keanu since 1992 or so when he proved completely incapable of handling both period melodrama (Dracula) and Shakespeare (My Own Private Idaho/ Much Ado about nothing).
I think he learned his lesson-despite what people seem to think here he's not really very good in anything that requires him to stretch. Thankfully he seems to get that.
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Comment by Jessica on December 18, 2008 at 6:23pm -
I do think that Keanu Reeves can be limited in some type of scenes but he is consistent throughout his movies. And for such a "bad actor", he has had a florishing career and has starred in many very enjoyable films. So at least give him credit for that. Also, he seems to work very hard and take his roles quite seriously, according to what I've read about him. So there's no doubt that he has earned the success he's had. He's just an easy target and has such a distinct way of speaking that it's even more easy to make fun and impersonate him. But it gets old and it shows the lack of originality of his detractors. I think Steven Segal is a bad actor so I stay away from his movies. Those who are so bothered by Reeves' acting should do the same instead of repeating the same thing over and over again. Sure, Keanu Reeves is far from being the best actor of his generation, but he is up there with the most watchable. I've never found that his presence has taken anything away from any movie he's been in, but I can say that about a few other actors out there who are as famous as he is.
I disagree with Tessa about the parts that he takes. I think his role choices have been quite good, for the most part. His roles in Street Kings, Constantine, The Matrix trilogy, A Scanner Darkly, The Gift, Thumbsucker, Something's Gotta Give, etc, are all pretty different from each other and most have a certain complexity beneath the surface, even if they demand a more subdued performance. It's not like he went the Matthew McConaughey route and decided to do crappy rom-coms for the of his career.
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Comment by Josh on December 18, 2008 at 6:20pm -
Wait, you used Street Kings as evidence of Keanu being a good actor?
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Comment by Dominique Meyer on December 18, 2008 at 6:11pm -
He plays an alien.... why is that an excuse to act shitty?
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Comment by Dr. Detfink on December 18, 2008 at 8:16am -
What Tessa's trying to say is, she really loved Keanu's performance in Johnny Mneumoni where he says...
"I want ROOM SERVICE! I want cold mexican beer and a 10,000 a night hooker!!!!!"
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Comment by Tessa on December 18, 2008 at 7:12am -
Being one of the only people on the planet who doesn't like The Matrix, I can tell you that Keanu doesn't bother me too much. I think as the first person said, he just needs to start taking more interesting roles.
I really loved him in Constantine and his part in Thumbsucker really surprised me. I think he's good, he just doesn't take good parts.
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