Two best friends take a walk on the wild side to get back their prized pet cat “Keanu”. Tv’s highly popular comedy duo Keegen-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (Key and Peele) star as Clarence and Rell, two cousins who live in the city, far away from it’s most dangerous of streets. When Rell goes through the loss of his girlfriend, he wakes to find a pet cat on his doorstep. He names the cat Keanu, and begins anew with the newest love in his life. Things get crazy when Keanu is catnapped, and the hopelessly straight-laced pair must impersonate ruthless killers in order to infiltrate a street gang and retrieve the adorable feline. Matters become worse when Keanu becomes so coveted that the fight over his custody creates a surrounding gang war, forcing our two dimwitted heroes to take the law into their own hands, to save the neighborhood and their furry best friend. “Keanu” is directed by Peter Atencio, and is rated R for violence, adult language, drug use, and sexuality involving nudity.

For those unaware, I’m not the biggest fan of Key & Peele’s comedy. I think their show has some funny skits that are better than the rest, but overall, my thinking is that I think they are perfect in small doses. My biggest problem with “Keanu” is that it feels like a skit from their show that is 93 minutes long. Because of that, the movie sacrifices comedic flow for a big screen presence that really doesn’t add much to the look of the original offerings. What I mean by that is the camera style and cinematography is that of a Comedy Central Key & Peele episode, so this very much feels like three episodes bunched together for the audience. The idea is cute enough, with a furry protagonist who is easy to fall in love with. It’s crazy to think that this film is getting such rave reviews considering the movie honestly isn’t that funny. I will get to more of that later, but even our title character only appears for about seven minutes of actual screen time. When Keanu does pop up, he injects the movie with the same interest that got moviegoers into the theater in the first place. He is very charismatic, and can’t pop up enough in this bland offering. As a cat owner and lover, I can say that it will be impossible for any cat lover our there not to fall in love with him, and it will make his absence that much more noticeable.

For the material, we get a lot of reptition in jokes that feel like they are brought up over and over again. One such joke had to do with Clarance’s obsession with George Michael music. Funny enough the first couple of times that it is brought up, but once you realize that this is a central plot point that the movie goes back through all three acts of the movie, you start to see the kinds of problems with filling 93 minutes, instead of 3-4 per skit on television. I mentioned earlier the importance of comedic flow, and without that a movie can drag on and on. “Keanu” isn’t a terrible sit. It’s short enough, but I found myself giving pity laughs over and over in hopes that the movie would throw something of unpredictability at me. The good news is that it finally does happen in a dream sequence that is leaps and bounds the best part of the movie. I won’t spoil too much, but when Keanu finally talks in this scene, you will definitely want to keep your ears open. Besides this, I felt that the best parts comically were that when Key & Peele played the straight man to the gangster characters around them. Both of these men can sell the hell out of a reaction, and I wish the film would’ve focused more in that aspect, instead of playing goofy characters with accents. It’s during those goofy scenes where it feels like the duo is trying too hard to knock us out of our seats, and their reactions to the lifestyle changes around them when they encounter this gang reveal that less is more in this case.

It’s not all for a loss however, as Key & Peele still showcase why they are easily the most charasmatic duo in comedy today. These two have been together since their early days on MadTv, so it’s never a revelation that they mix well off of each other. Their improv for the movie, while not always funny, does give great replay value, as some of the fast-quip conversations between them are always so surprising that you are bound to miss something if you laugh once. You can certainly feel the passion between them for this film to succeed, and it even had me surprised to see them each playing multiple characters within the film’s script without it coming off as slapstick like Eddie Murphy. No film with these two would be complete without cameos however, and the film certainly brings a lot of surprises behind every corner. Because they are surprises, I will only go through the one that is shown in the trailer. Method Man really steps up his acting chops for a movie that isn’t anywhere near the serious material that his character requires. Method Man makes the most of his name as a method actor in this film, and I feel like his deliveries are getting better, especially when it comes to comedy.

“Keanu” scratches and claws its way to the finish line, but offers some memorable scenes between the fluff. The movie could’ve used more of the sentimental instead of the tedious repetition, but fans of the duo will enjoy this film regardless. To me, it was an overstretched skit that went on for 90 minutes too long.

5/10