But the character he does play is perfectly credible.
I tried to discard my expectations, but I found him laughably wooden. Maybe there are people like that, but I wouldn't give them 90 minutes of my time.
'Jaynestown'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
But the character he does play is perfectly credible.
I tried to discard my expectations, but I found him laughably wooden. Maybe there are people like that, but I wouldn't give them 90 minutes of my time.
but I found him laughably wooden
Did you really laugh?
I laugh at Chevalier Danceney's "It was sublime, don't you find?" no matter how many times I watch Dangerous Liaisons.
Keanu is the little wooden boy.
Did you really laugh?
It was a wry laugh, and it was a laugh at myself for expecting much else (I swear, The Matrix made me forget so much...but it was just a better match for him).
Maybe the Wachowskis did thousands of takes. I still cringe at "I'll give you the finger and you give me my phone call" but the rest of the movie he's pretty tolerable. I can't imagine how much better Neo might have been had Brad Pitt accepted the role but then we wouldn't have his Tyler Durden.
The Matrix and Speed were the only two films I can think of where I actually enjoyed watching Keanu be Keanu, but in action mode.
Maybe the Wachowskis did thousands of takes. I still cringe at "I'll give you the finger and you give me my phone call" but the rest of the movie he's pretty tolerable.
Laga is me
The Matrix and Speed were the only two films I can think of where I actually enjoyed watching Keanu be Keanu, but in action mode
The first time I watched Speed was during a school trip on a chartered Greyhound Bus. The watching-while-riding experience was awesome. At one point we pulled over at a rest stop, I hadn't noticed and I had a knee-jerk type reaction when the bus stopped. Great combo.
Keanu is OK when he does not talk. He should play nothing but mutes. Or people who speak imaginary languages. It would have been an OK junk movie if Keanu had not kept speaking. He can't deliver a line decently.
Keanu is OK when he does not talk. He should play nothing but mutes. Or people who speak imaginary languages. It would have been an OK junk movie if Keanu had not kept speaking. He can't deliver a line decently.
The bummer part is that the last part is not true! Okay, so he can't NOW, but I rewatched River's Edge a couple years ago, just before I canceled cable, and holy fuck, he could, like vary his pitch and shit! No monotone! He was really good in it. Actually, I think he was the best of all the actors in it, and that's saying something.
Suddenly, I remembered why people used to be so excited by him!
I think I sort of liked Keanu in Johnny Mnemonic, but it might have just been that his performance was thrown into sharp contrast against Coppola's Dracula around the same time.
Constantine is totally worth seeing for Djimon Hounsou and Tilda Swinton though. Even if you factor in Shia LaBoeuf as the most annoying sidekick since Short Round.