All About that Cat

Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key found massive success with their comedy sketch series, the obviously titled Key & Peele, which ran for five seasons (and one Super Bowl special) from 2012 to 2015 on Comedy Central. It was a fun mix of pre-produced sketches, with only a few live segments (the hosts chatting in front of a studio audience) included in the first couple of seasons. The segments tackled a lot of topics, from relationships to friend groups to pop culture, and the show always managed to find a fun angle or interesting hook for each of its sketch stories. It worked really well and it was clear the comedy duo would find solid success after, whatever they did.

And they did, with Jordan Peele becoming one of the most acclaimed horror directors, with films like Us, Get Out, and Nope, while Keegan-Michael Key went on to have a very successful voice acting role in films like The Lion King, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. However, in between their sketch show and then finding success on their own, the two starred in one more project together, a film that promised the strange zaniness of Key & Peele, but in a longer setting to let a fill storyline develop and grow. That film was Keanu and, sadly, it didn’t quite land at the Box Office.

I think there are probably a few different reasons why Keanu didn’t manage to take off with audiences. For one, it’s not Key & Peele even if both stars were in it, so any expectations about getting more of the same would be met with disappointment. This film has its own comedy style, its own way of doing things, that didn’t line up directly with the sketch show. It also has an odd name, pulling from the famous actor Keanu Reeves for reasons that don’t make a whole lot of sense even when you watch the film. But, most of all, if we’re being honest, the film just isn’t that great.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times the film is blisteringly funny. There are segments of the film, like when Keegan-Michael Key’s Clarence goes on about the “gansta” music of George Michaels, where the film finds some of its best humor. But it also has a meandering pace, and a number of scenes and sections that simply don’t pay off like it should. This results in an uneven, and at times not that great, watching experience. Even at 100 minutes the film feels shaggy and bloated, which likely chased off a lot of people that might otherwise have been willing to see whatever the two affable lead actors were up to.

Rell (Peele) has just gone through a breakup when the film opens, with his heart having been stomped on, leaving him incredibly depressed. His cousin, Clarence, comes over to make him feel better but, in between when Rell calls up Clarence and when his cousin comes over, in wanders a cute little kitten. Rell instantly falls in love with the cat, naming the tiny guy “Keanu”, and he begins to devote his life to this cute kitten (to an unhealthy degree, if we’re being honest, but that’s part of the joke).

Unfortunately for Rell, when he and Clarence head off to the movies for the night, some drug dealers break into his apartment and toss the joint, stealing his cat in the process. The dealers actually intended to toss the apartment of Hulka (Will Forte), who lives across the driveway from Rell, but they got confused. Rell probably could have gotten over having his place tossed, but he loved that cat and wants him back. So they track the gangsters back to their club, and demand to talk to their leader, Cheddar (Method Man). This would be a bad move and likely should have gotten them killed, except they are immediately mistaken for two seriously evil gangsters, Smoke Dresden and his brother Oil (also Key and Peele), and this earns them serious respect. Now, to get back the cat they have to help out Cheddar and his crew on a deal and, as payment, they’ll get the cat back. These two guys from the suburbs have to act like gangsters from the hood if they want their cat… and if they want to survive.

There is, quite frankly, a lot going on in Keanu, and much of it doesn’t really work. There’s a plotline about Rell’s ex and his placing his obsession on the cat, which then morphs into everyone who ever sees the cat falling in love with it… which then means we didn’t really need the ex-girlfriend story at all. There’s also a storyline about Clarence’s wife, Hannah (Nia Long), going off for a girls’ weekend that then turns into something else, and it, too, doesn’t really lead to much. Plus, the meat of the story, with Cheddar and his gang, has so many different characters, so many little bits and sketches and storylines, that it feels both overstuffed and underdeveloped. It’s a lot, and yet most of it simply doesn’t pay off.

The film probably would have been better off focusing on fewer characters and developing out those that actually mattered. Clarence and Rell acting as fish out of water is an amusing idea, and if they film played with that more I think it could have worked. Keep the idea that they have to pretend to be people they aren’t, the two Dresden boys, but have them somehow bumble through each segment, succeeding in what they’re doing despite failing at everything. They come for a drug deal, say the dumbest things ever, but the people they’re talking to somehow think they’re dead serious and the deal sails through. Or they get caught in gunfight and despite aiming poorly, and maybe even dropping their weapons, they somehow maim everyone shooting at them, making them the victors.

It could also be that as they’re going about their business, the actual Dresdent boys are around, taking out bad guys before Clarence and Rell get to the next place, or cleaning up the mess behind them to keep their rep spotless. The film introduces the Dresden characters but then has them fade from the film for a long stretch of the runtime, and it would have been better if the movie had actually utilized them better. Make them actual characters instead of just props to keep the film moving forward.

The simple fact is that the two leads, Key and Peele, are great comedic actors that can really sell the hell out of what they’re given. Rell’s love for Keanu is funny, and there are a few good bits (like him making a calendar of photos of Keanu, with each month based on a different movie) that are great. Similarly, Clarence’s love for 1980s George Michael’s music is one of the best ongoing jokes in the film. It builds and builds and then leads to some of the funniest scenes in the movie, bar none. If the film had more gags like this, it would have been an absolute comedy classic.

But again, it doesn’t really seem to understand how to string along a single, cohesive narrative without a ton of padding. The film was written by Jordan Peele alongside Alex Rubens, and it feels like it strains to deliver both on the pop culture and relationship humor of the sketch show while trying to slide it all into a movie-length story. There are moments where it succeeds and transcends its own story, but it never finds a solid groove. It chugs along, moving from scene to scene without ever finding solid footing. Things just sort of happen, and the movie continues to meander until it gets to an overblown climactic finale that, honestly, it doesn’t earn. It has great laughs, but they come few and far between in and amongst all the padding.

It’s sad because I really want to like this film. It had great moments and its two leads are trying to sell it for all its worth. The film just needed better focus, better laughs, and a tighter story. There’s a thread of something really good here, but the end result doesn’t pay off its amusing concept. This is a film that needed to spend more time in the drafting stage before it went to print. It could have been great, but the end result is far from a good time.