by Peter Callaghan

One of the advantages of having a Cineworld Unlimited Card is that for no additional cost you get to watch films you wouldn’t normally touch with a barge pole. One of the disadvantages of having a Cineworld Unlimited Card is that for no additional cost you get to watch films you wouldn’t normally touch with a barge pole. Keanu, starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele who created the Primetime Emmy Award-nominated sketch show Key & Peele, falls into the latter category.

The premise is simple. Rell  (Jordan Peele), a depressed singleton and self-proclaimed Apollo Creed look-alike – “Which Rocky?” “The one where he died!” – persuades his reluctant cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key), a George Michael enthusiast who sounds “like Richard Pryor doing an impression of a white guy”, to help him reclaim his beloved kitten Keanu (voiced, briefly, by the star himself) from the bling-ringed clutches of seriously cheesed off gangster Cheddar (Method Man aka Clifford Smith).

But before the frankly, my dear, I don’t give an edam hardman decides to part with his pussy magnet, he asks Rell and Clarence – who by this time have assumed the secret identities of Tectonic and Shark Tank –  to teach his hapless gang members fronted by undercover cop Hi-C (Tiffany Haddish) how to  conduct a high-profile drug deal with celebrity-on-the wane Anna Faris (playing herself) whose career has hit the skids because she is “too old for Scream 5”. But things go from bad to worse when a game of truth or dare descends into bloodshed forcing Rell and Clarence to flee for their lives with Cheddar, LA assassins the Allen Boys and Mexican drug lord Bacon Diaz (Luis Guzmán) in hot pursuit.

Framed as a slapstick gangter flick, Keanu by Key & Peele director Peter Atencio is really a satire of black culture – particularly the stereotypical portrayal of black main in movies. With a nigger count higher than a Tarantino first cut, our out-of-their-depth and in-it-up-to-their-necks protagonists are forced to man-up from zulu males to alpha males in order to win the respect of Cheddar and reclaim Rell’s cute kitten Keanu. Great premise and well executed, but 85 minutes too long for a five minute comedy sketch. And given the recent spike in mass shootings in the States, a satire about gun crime feels somewhat inappropriate.

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Peter Callaghan
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