The 10 worst Keanu Reeves movies
Although many know him as “the internet’s boyfriend”, Keanu Reeves is an anomaly in Hollywood. Not only does he lodge a solid claim to being the most gracious star in the movie business, but he’s also starred in a myriad of terrible movies, with a list of failures perhaps even more extensive than that of Nicolas Cage, which is quite a feat.
However, Reeves is undoubtedly a talented actor, as his most cherished projects, such as My Own Private Idaho, The Matrix and John Wick, display. Ultimately, Reeves has been able to dodge being dismissed as a terrible actor by being such a legend off the screen. Put it this way, no other actor could have survived starring in titles such as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Chain Reaction and Street Kings but remain so lauded by audiences. Such is the magic of Keanu Reeves; there’s no one like him.
The lengthy list of outright awful movies that Keanu Reeves has starred in is quite remarkable. Whether it be rom-coms, thrillers or quasi-mumblecore indies, Reeves has tried his hand at almost every genre over the years. Demonstrating this scope, strangely, he once even played Prince Siddhartha, the Buddha before Enlightenment, in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1993 drama The Little Buddha. Still, you can’t fault him for trying.
Today, we’re listing Keanu Reeves’ ten worst movies, given that there have been some absolute crackers over the years. Prepare to revisit some egregiously horrendous titles. Just a warning, though, we’ve omitted the likes of Johnny Mnemonic and Constantine, as they’re cult favourites.
The 10 worst Keanu Reeves movies:
10. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Scott Derrickson, 2008)
They say to leave the classics well alone, and this remake of the pioneering 1951 sci-fi movie ranks among one of the worst contemporary reimaginings. Starring Reeves as the mysterious alien messenger, Klaatu, alongside the likes of Jennifer Connelly, John Hamm, Kathy Bates and a young Jaden Smith, on paper, it had promise. This point is strengthened when you note that it replaced the original film’s theme of nuclear warfare with environmental destruction. It’s pertinent.
However, all promise quickly fades away with this one. Whether it be Reeves’ incredibly stoic performance as Klaatu, the scriptwriting, or the extremely 2008 reimagining of GORT into a Transformers-esque destroyer, there’s a lot to loathe about The Day the Earth Stood Still. I’m sure many of those involved won’t remember it too fondly. It could have been much, much better.
9. Replicas (Jeffrey Nachmanoff, 2018)
Another film that has prescience on paper, Replicas is a catastrophic failure in reality. The plot tells the tale of a neuroscientist who violates the law and codes of ethics to bring his family back to life after the car accident that claimed all their lives. Starring the likes of Alice Eve and Thomas Middleditch alongside Reeves, this movie is devoid of positives.
Replicas is complete with plot holes, moments so lousy they make you chortle, and character behaviour so puzzling that even a 15-year-old media GSCE student would vastly improve it. Duly, there’s no real surprise that this flick disappeared almost instantly after it was released. Unfortunately for him, Reeves even had co-production credits on this flop.
8. Feeling Minnesota (Steven Baigelman, 2016)
On the face of it, a film that stars the likes of Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Vincent D’Onofrio, Tuesday Weld, Dan Aykroyd, and Delroy Lindo should be at least watchable. However, there’s a reason that the romantic crime flick Feeling Minnesota is largely forgotten by those who were around to remember its release. Even those who remember it don’t do it in the intended way. This is yet another god-awful Reeves outing.
It tells the story of Diaz’s ex-stripper, Freddie, who is forced to marry Reeves’ protagonist’s brother, Sam, to repay a debt to a nightclub owner. However, at the ceremony, she meets the oddly named Jjaks – Reeves’ character – and the two immediately fall in love. What ensues is a positively dumb romp that could have only been made in the 1990s. Prepare for the ending as well; it is garbage.
This performance and film are glaring examples of why Reeves was stuck in a mire at the time. Luckily for him, The Devil’s Advocate and The Matrix were only a few years away.
7. Generation Um… (Mark L. Mann, 2012)
I get what Mark L. Mann was trying to achieve with this picture, with it a ‘day-in-the-life’ account of the haphazard nature of life in a sprawling urban metropolis, which in this case is New York. A candid love letter to the city in all its glory, we find Reeves as John Wall, a lost soul who meets two party girls played by Bojana Novakovic and Adelaide Clemens. The trio form a strong bond against their circumstances and seek solace.
It’s clear what the movie hoped to do; however, the promise falls flat on its face within minutes due to the scriptwriting and acting. Reeves is incredibly taut in his performance, with his pair of co-stars equally so. There’s also a great deal of cheese poured in too, with it ultimately a tremendous waste of time. Sometimes, films can try too hard, and it is the case here.
6. Siberia (Matthew Ross, 2018)
It’s an achievement in itself how many forgotten movies Keanu Reeves has wasted his time being involved in, with 2018’s Siberia another one that leaves you scratching your head. It’s a very familiar crime thriller following Reeves’ character, Lucas Hill, who travels to Russia to sell rare diamonds to a dangerous gangster before their handler goes missing. A twisting tale of deception and doomed love soon unravels. However, we’ve seen it all before.
An utterly unnecessary offering that added nothing to popular culture and did nothing for everyone involved. From the turgid script to the equally risible acting, it’s funny to think that the main star of this film is the one who shines in the bombastic John Wick series, which shares some minor similarities with it.
5. Chain Reaction (Andrew Davis, 1996)
In truth, it was a tough call ordering the top five on this list, given that they’re all bad in their own ways. Still, to kick off this half, there was no place better than 1996’s sci-fi action thriller Chain Reaction, straight from the period when Keanu was still very much on the creative heath. Although it boasts Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Morgan Freeman, and Brian Cox, this is another terrible 1990s movie.
The plot concerns the invention of a new non-contaminating power source based on hydrogen and the US Government’s attempts to prevent the spread of the technology. Reeves plays Eddie Kasalivich, a machinist from the University of Chicago framed for the murder of his boss and the destruction of his laboratory. Whilst thrilling at points, the movie is overblown and leaves you as clueless as you were at the start. It’s like a Pierce Brosnan-era James Bond meets The Fugitive.
4. Sweet November (Pat O’Connor, 2001)
If you were being cruel, you could go as far as to label Sweet November as one of the worst films of all time, and if you were less so, you could categorise it as one of the worst of the 21st century. Either way, the movie stinks, with it questionable how Reeves went from the excellence of the first Matrix to this in two short years. Loosely based on the 1968 title of the same name, it stars Reeves opposite Charlize Theron.
An overly dramatic movie involving two complete opposites who fall in love and live together for November before a melancholic twist; there is one main takeaway from it: the entire thing is ultimately pointless. Nothing is resolved, and Reeves’ character Nelson is in a much worse place than before, with nothing of worth for him or the audience, who have just spent 120 minutes of their life that they’ll never get back. Additionally, Reeves’ jerk of a character was a stretch, even for him.
3. The Lake House (Alejandro Agresti, 2006)
Whilst culture might be nostalgically looking back at the 2000s, wishing we could go back to a simpler time when life and art were supposedly much better, it’s titles like The Lake House that make you remember just how much of a fallacy this is. Written by David Auburn, it is a remake of the South Korean picture Il Mare from 2000. Interestingly, it also stars Reeves and Sandra Bullock in the lead roles, with their last appearance together coming in 1994’s international blockbuster Speed.
Sickeningly cheesy, with horrendous acting, and dreadfully produced, watching this movie today makes it seem like a B-movie, despite bringing in $114.8million against a budget of $40million. Another clear example of the period when the scope of rom-coms was getting really out of hand, it is genuinely shocking to see both Reeves and Bullock in something that is such tripe. I guarantee moments in The Lake House will make your skin crawl. It’s painful.
2. The Watcher (Joe Charbanic, 2000)
I cannot believe that The Watcher is not more storied because of how utterly garbage every aspect of it is. It’s up there with some of the decade’s more well-known duds, such as Tiptoes and Battlefield Earth. Even just reading the lineup is a source of wonder. It stars The US Office‘s Robert California, also known as actor James Spader, alongside Keanu Reeves and Marisa Tomei.
Set in Chicago, the film follows Spader’s retired FBI agent, Joel Campbell, who is stalked by a serial killer, David Allen Griffin, played by Reeves. The film is so bad, to the extent that words don’t do it justice. Spader’s performance is horrendous, with the rest of the acting equally as dreadful. Elsewhere, the directing and editing are also complete failures, with Reeves’ character of Griffin possibly the most unhinged of his career.
Although the serial killer was intended to be terrifying, he is so goofy that any hope for him dissipates within seconds of first meeting him. On top of this, the cat-and-mouse between him and Campbell is almost at parody levels. Reeves also revisits something akin to the wooden accent he produced in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, qualifying Griffin as a walking meme. The movie is so awful you’ll be laughing the whole way.
1. Exposed (Gee Malik Linton, 2016)
Taking the top spot on the list of the ten worst Keanu Reeves films had to be 2016’s Exposed. A movie that is so deficient, from Reeves’ performance to the editing, when watching it, you feel like you’ve entered the real Matrix. From start to finish, this flick is enough to either send viewers into a fit of hysterical laughter – of the kind that would have got you interred 60 years ago – or a furious rage at the extent of its ridiculousness.
Exposed is supposedly a thriller, but it’s more like a parody of the kind you’d see on The Mitchell and Webb Look or an offering from Chris Morris. Despite the presence of Ana de Armas, Mira Sorvino and Christopher McDonald next to Reeves, all should be ashamed. Even as a layman, I can’t imagine reading this script and thinking, ‘Oh yeah, that’s certainly worth my time’.
The plot follows Reeves’ police officer Detective Galban, who is investigating the murder of his partner, Joey Cullen, a man so heinously evil that he deserved to die. The film tries hard to be both gritty and profound, but everything falls flat due to the neglected basics. This is a masterclass on how not to do a feature-length project.
It was originally written as a surreal bi-lingual drama analysing child sexual abuse, violent misogyny and police corruption. However, the executives at Lionsgate thought they had been sold a cop thriller specifically for Keanu Reeves. Then, to increase the potential box office returns, they changed the story to focus on Reeves’ character during editing.
Broadly speaking then, the blame should go to the Lionsgate executives for this grotesque blight on Reeves’ CV. Yet, he also has to take great responsibility; his attempt to be the traditional moody cop is as frigid as they come. The moment he strikes his desk in anger is exceptional. It’s all just so poor. Even Ana de Armas’ haircut is horrible.
