The creative geniuses behind Comedy Central’s hit show “Key & Peele” are back together again, this time on the big screen, with their cat-tastic new film “Keanu.”


The movie kicks off with a wonderful pre-credit scene that rivals most American action sequences.  Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s love of cinema is well know, and they spare no-tropes as the bullets fly, the leather clads, and the slow “moes” inside a Spanish cathedral.  As the last of the cartel fall, a kitten escapes from the mayhem, traveling across the city until he lands at the doorstep of the very needy Rell (Jordan Peele).  Lacking love and reason in his life, Rell’s world is immediately brightened by what is arguably the cutest kitten to ever walk the Earth.   After a night out with his bachelor-for-the-weekend cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key), he returns to find that his house has been ransacked and Keanu catnapped.  This kicks off their adventure into the seedy gangsta underbelly of LA.  It doesn’t take them long to find Keanu in the possession of Cheddar (Method Man), but it will take extreme measures to get him back.

What follows is a hilarious menagerie of encounters and homages as Rell and Clarence try desperately to convince everyone they are “harder” than they really are.  Assuming the role of assassin brothers from Allentown, they find themselves in increasingly dangerous predicaments (Sometimes with surprise celebrity cameos.)   The movie shines when Key & Peele do what they are known best for; riff on their favorite films, and interact with ridiculous characters.  However, at times, their madcap exchanges drag on just a bit too long.  A few scenes start to feel like a SNL skit that’s overstayed its welcome.  Each time this happens  Peele, who shared writing credit with Alex Rubens, does something surprising.   Literally.  Something shocking happens the moment the audience starts to get restless and jolts everyone back into laughter.  Genius.  

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that since it’s a comedy and the poster has an adorable kitten on it, that it might be OK for children.  “Keanu” has earned a pretty solid R rating.  While there’s no sex, there’s plenty of violence, drugs, language, and nudity to go around.  Besides, most youngsters are likely to miss a majority of the humor anyways.  Anyone who thinks Point Break was released in 2015 or doesn’t understand why Andrew Ridgeley “was never seen by nobody ever again” should just stay home. (WHAM!)