Keanu Reeves Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", where I rank a franchise or filmography and hand out some related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Keanu Reeves-whose latest project "The Matrix Resurrections" releases in theaters and on HBO Max this Wednesday. 

Keanu Reeves' Filmography Ranked:

27.47 Ronin (D)

26.Little Buddha (D)

25.River's Edge (D)

24.Knock Knock (D)

23.The Day the Earth Stood Still (D+)

22.The Matrix Revolutions (C-)

21.The Replacements (C-)

20.The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (C+)

19.To the Bone (C+)

18.Man of Tai Chi (B-)

17.Point Break (B-)

16.Hardball (B)

15.Constantine (B)

14.Always Be My Maybe (B)

13.Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (B)

12.Bill & Ted Face the Music (B)

11.The Gift (B)

10.Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (B)

9.Street Kings (B+)

8.Speed (B+)

7.The Matrix Reloaded (B+)

6.Destination Wedding (B+)

5.Toy Story 4 (A-)

4.John Wick (A-)

3.John Wick: Chapter 2 (A-)

2.The Matrix (A)

1.John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum (A)

Top Dog: John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum (2019)

Stepping up the narrative stakes and an increased budget that allowed the franchise's signature exquisitely choreographed/edited fight scenes to become even more creative and elaborate in scope makes John Wick: Chapter 3 the clear best entry in the hit action franchise to date.   

Lowlight: 47 Ronin (2013)

Prior to John Wick being released in October 2014, Reeves was in the midst of a significant professional rough patch. Whatever shine remained from his success in The Matrix trilogy had faded by 2007 and seemingly the only scripts that were coming his way were for stuff that was DOA with every relevant cinematic audience (Generation Um.., Henry's Crime, The Day the Earth Stood Still). Just 10 months before John Wick started his career resurrection, Reeves toplined a particularly dreadful film called 47 Ronin that remarkably didn't permanently banish him to the cheap VOD wasteland that a good number of his former A-list peers currently dominate. Despite being written by Fast & Furious architect Chris Morgan and having some really cool special effects, 47 Ronin is a dreary, dull slog that fails to make its fantasy meets Samurai action mash-up fun for even a split second.  

Most Underrated: Destination Wedding (2018)

Smug, miserable assholes can find love too and Destination Wedding finally gave the world a romantic comedy that normalized that concept. Reeves and Winona Ryder are able to seamlessly pull off the delicate sparring partner/love interest balance that the story called for by delivering Victor Levin's sharp dialogue with the right amount of spite, bitterness and thinly veiled flirtation. Plus, there's just something really lovely about seeing a genre that's traditionally correlated with warmth be tonally flipped on its head while still eventually weaving its way to an earned "happy" ending without compromising its cynical ideals.  

Most Overrated: Point Break (1991)

While Point Break is a decent enough movie as is, I really wish that a movie about a hotshot college football player turned rookie FBI agent (Reeves) infiltrating a group of surfers that moonlight as bank robbers was more willing to lean into the abundant ridiculousness of its premise.

Most In Need of a Reevaluation: The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The most striking revelation that came from revisiting the original The Matrix trilogy in preparation for Resurrections is discovering that I was lying to myself as a teenager and Reloaded is actually great.  After a reasonably rough start with the exposition-heavy scenes set in the final human city of Zion, Reloaded settles into a really nice groove once it re-enters the world of the Matrix by delivering massive action sequences that are even more jaw-dropping than those in the original, cool expansions of the mythology (Smith becoming a rogue program after his fight with Neo in the finale of the prior film, Neo's conversation with The Architect) and a much more convincing romantic arc for Neo and Trinity.   

Top Really Bad Movie with a Great Ending: Knock Knock (2015)

Eli Roth muddied up his underrated filmography with the grating, idiotic home invasion thriller Knock Knock. The only moment where Roth's depraved wit really came through was during the "IT WAS FREE PIZZA" scene that concludes the film. It was such a perfect, deeply hilarious note to end what ultimately proves to be a sleazy morality tale that I was left to wonder why Roth sidelined his most valuable asset until the final moments of a film that could've really benefited from more of it.