Brett Maciech
bmaciech@uwyo.edu
Bringing their expert comedic sensibilities to the big screen, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele deliver a pretty good comedy with some decent laughs.
The movie follows two cousins, Clarence (Key) and Rell (Peele), as they track down Rell’s stolen kitten Keanu into the heart of the seedy Los Angeles underbelly. The two hapless dorks have to fake their way into a murderous den of drug dealers by embracing gangster personas and getting out before anyone catches on to what they’re doing.
Like any sketch comedy show, “Key & Peele” had its home runs and duds. Mostly home runs, but it definitely had a few low points. “Keanu” is interesting in that it hits a sort of middle ground of their comedy. None of the jokes fall flat by any stretch, but the movie did feel short on the higher-grade comedy that leaked out of the best episodes of the TV show. Mostly it was just entertaining, and that satisfied me enough. I’m one of those sub-human creatures who watched “Mad TV” religiously back in the day, so really it’s just nice to see the funniest guys on that show still around and making good content.
Co-starring in the film are Method Man, Tiffany Haddish and Will Fortre along with a few surprise celebrity cameos. But other than Forte, who you’d have keep actively tranquilized to not be funny, the rest of the cast are mostly there for Key and Peele to play off. They get a few good lines, but Key and Peele are the focus. It’s fine, but there’s just so much more that could’ve been added with a stronger comedy support.
There’s also a surprising amount of heart here. Peele’s love for Keanu drives the whole plot and you can feel the connection between man and kitten. Not that it would be hard, since Keanu is unfathomably cute and steals every adorable scene he’s in. Key’s character is dealing with unwinding his suburban lifestyle and getting closer to himself as a person.
There’s a conflict here between the “urban black” and “suburban black” lifestyles and the film finds a fair middle ground for both of them. They have their ups and downs and neither is mutually exclusive. It’s all about striking that balance and not getting too caught up in either extreme.
The biggest problem overall, and something that confounds me about this film, is the choice to have Key and Peele also play a duo of seemingly supernatural assassins. Nothing ever comes from it. The assassins never do anything funny and they’re barely in the movie. It doesn’t take away from anything either, it’s just there. All it does is distract from every scene they’re in.
I doubt “Keanu” will ever be considered a comedy classic by anyone, but I can imagine it eventually becoming one of those DVD rack favorites that everyone has on their shelves. It was a solid first outing for the debut film as a leading comedy duo, and I definitely want to see more from them. I just hope that next time around they bring a little more to the table.
