The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film) writing that the generally poor reception for the film was "a sad fate for a surprisingly sincere tribute to Robert Wise's 1951 classic." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" 'congratulated' Keanu Reeves's performance and wrote in his review that "This contemporary remake of the science-fiction classic knew what it was doing when it cast Keanu Reeves, the movies' greatest stone face since Buster Keaton." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" was not impressed with Reeves' performance, commenting that "even Klaatu looks bored and distracted, much as he did back when we knew him as Neo." William Arnold
Keanu Reeves to play the lead character in two 2008 films, "Street Kings" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still". In February 2009 he starred in director Rebecca Miller's film "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", which premiered at Berlinale. Beginning in 2008, Reeves began pre-production on his directorial debut, "Man of Tai Chi". The film is a multilingual narrative, partly inspired by the life of his friend, stuntman Tiger Chen. Filming occurred on mainland China and Hong Kong. During "Man of Tai Chi's" five years of scripting and production, Reeves acted in several B movies with lead roles as Henry in