Saturday, April 4, 2020

Introducing the Keanu Reeves Movie Project

Oh, hey.  What's new?

Well for me, it's all about the same except, oh, of course, THE WORLD IS INSANE and I'm locked up in my house even more than usual. 

It looks like I haven't written anything here in quite some time, but given my newfound confinement and incredible amount of free time I was thinking that perhaps it's time to find a creative outlet.

Sure, my friend Rocky and I have decided to reboot our AMAZING Lifetime Movie "Podcast" (always available on the noted podcast network we all know and love, Youtube, with new episodes premiering soon), but at most, this will only take up an hour or two here and there before Rocky gets bored with it again and we give up.

So, I need something of my own. 

Unlike many people around the world, I'm actually not that bored just yet, even though it sounds like we might have another two or so months of general isolation before things get back to "normal," whatever that looks like now.  I have plenty of games, movies, and TV shows to occupy my time, especially considering I have what seems to be a never-ending list of things to get through.  I also have more time now than ever to continue my very stupid project of watching 1990s professional wrestling, which is also just so very exciting.

But, if all I do with my free time is catch up on TV shows, movies, old pro wrestling and random video games, I'm worried my brain will absolutely turn to mush.

"Read a book!" one might say to me.  Well, I'm doing that too, sort of.

In any case, I feel like I need a creative outlet, so I took it upon myself to brainstorm a few ideas before settling on one.

Anyone who knows me to nearly any degree is aware of my Keanu Reeves fandom.  Look, I get that it's not original.  In fact, Keanu Reeves absolutely blew up in 2019 as it seemed he was everywhere and society at large finally realized that Keanu Reeves is in fact, amazingly awesome.  A lot of people were slow on this and have only recently jumped on the Keanu Reeves bandwagon.  Maybe it was that video of him stranded on that flight where he helped people get to their final destination, or maybe it was that time he offered his seat on the subway, or his appearance promoting Cyberpunk 2077.  Whatever it was, it seems like nearly everyone all of a sudden loves Keanu Reeves.

And look, that's cool.  I'm not the guy to be mad when everyone starts loving the thing that I like.  I mean, I'm stoked that Keanu Reeves is finally getting his due.  I don't know why it's taken so long, but no matter. 

My Keanu Reeves fandom started back in 1989 after I saw Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for the first time and has been going strong since.  I've probably seen that movie no less than 100 times and even my cats are named Bill and Ted.  Keanu Reeves stars in several of my favorite movies of all time: John Wick, Bill and Ted, Point Break, The Matrix (just the first one), Speed. 

But here's the truth: Keanu Reeves has 106 acting credits on IMDB (not all of these are feature films for the record) and I probably have only seen at most, 25 to 30 of these movies. 

How can I claim to be the huge Keanu Reeves fan that I am and not seen so many of his movies?  Sure, I can tell you about the throw pillows I own with him on them, or the autograph my friend Matt got for me when he met Keanu Reeves at the hotel he worked at (which is framed and one of my prized possessions), or even my Ted Logan action figure.  But what I can't tell you is that I've seen Johnny Mnemonic, Chain Reaction, or Little Buddha. 

So here's the project.  I'm going to watch every single Keanu Reeves movie I can from the start of his career to present day, assuming I can find all of them and write my thoughts on the movies as well as Keanu's performance.  Because he's got 106 acting credits (again, not all of these are feature films), and I don't know if I'll be able to find all of them, I'm going to limit myself to movies where he is no lower than 4th billed.  I'm not for instance, going to try to dig up a full version of the 1986 Patrick Swayze movie, Youngblood, in which I think Keanu is in all of one or two scenes; nor will I be watching Always Be My Maybe for the one scene that he appears in. 

But, for total project completion, I will do my best to at least find clips from the movies where he is not top billed just to get a read on his performance.

I am going to commence this project right now with the goal of wrapping this up by the time self-isolation is over, whenever that is, starting with his earliest appearances in the mid 1980's.

I hope this brings you as much joy as I expect it to bring me.  After all, Keanu Reeves is a national treasure who, while maybe not being the "best" actor in the world (although also not nearly as bad as many people might claim he is) is just a totally awesome dude.

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