Everything We Need
It must be noted that these past couple of days, I have done nothing but luxuriated in my blackhole of Keanu Reeves. It’s interesting because I didn’t see this happening. Not even when that unsurprisingly poignant clip of him promoting John Wick 3: Parabellum on Stephen Colbert came out — where he waxed poetic about death.
See, I didn’t really have plans to watch John Wick 3 this weekend and only went and bit the bullet when my teammate told me he was watching it with his wife this weekend. I was introduced to the series 2 years ago when the second movie came out. A guy I thought I was seeing had introduced me to the series and we watched that, the first John Wick and then re-watched all of the Matrix together.
Though that thing didn’t pan out, my love for John Wick remained. And so in an effort to reclaim things that I associate with memories of the past, I thought, yes, let’s watch John Wick 3 alone (I actually did invite others but it was last minute and late) on opening day. And no regrets. Because as I sat in between 2 couples that Friday night and Keanu came on screen. I had reclaimed John Wick all over again. Because Keanu is a goddamn gift.
And because it’s a long weekend, I thought, why not revisit the Keanu Reeves movies of my ‘childhood’ — these are definitely not his iconic roles, but the ones I enjoyed the most — you’ll notice there’s a pattern here.
Speed
I don’t recall when exactly I saw this movie — when it first came out or when I was more of age to realise how Keanu was in that speeding bus. Baby-faced clean cut and saving the common folk, I think this prepared me for my love of action movies down the line.
It doesn’t hurt at all that we know look back on it fondly — and thanks to Ellen DeGeneres, now know that both Keanu & Sandra Bullock had a crush on each other (I have watched this clip TOO MANY TIMES). Clearly, I’m going to be re-watching this over and over just to get myself all giddy.
The Replacements
Yet another from the VHS/Laserdisc days of my youth — my dad probably chose this because football (and god knows I love a good sports movie) so it didn’t hurt one bit that Keanu — now with grown-out hair (but still that clean face) looked so goddamn adorable as Shane Falco as replacement QB.
The cast, now that I look back on it is quite stacked and it was a not so criticaly received but I thought it was funny back then movie. And of course, they had to have Every Breath You Take playing in this scene at the bar — so you know I’m hooked. I distinctly remember telling my teenage self to keep it together when this played out first — I was watching with my family. But now thanks to Youtube I can watch it on repeat and just get all kilig by myself. Goddamn, I’m easy.
The Lakehouse
He’s had his share of sad sappy movies and you’ll see more of that later, but you know I prefer this one over Sweet November just because that Charlize movie was sad sad sad and I need a happy ending. And so it was wonderful that we get Keanu & Sandy all reunited in this time traveling masterpiece.
Sure was the Korean version better? Yes, also I was deep in my Korean-loving phase here. Were there plot holes you probably shouldn’t ignore? Sure. But I will not say no to Keanu and Sandy ever so here we are. Once again, so clean looking and fresh with just enough hair length and lots of brooding and looking into space. But I’ll take that voice narrating letters any day. And of course, these last 3 minutes of gloriousness.
A Walk in the Clouds
I would say this was the first movie where I crushed on him hard and I definitely watched this on laserdisc which my mom probably chose because it looked like a quaint love story and boy was it. I didn’t know what a vineyard was, I didn’t know how you made wine but this might be what incepted my love for the vino because when you see Keanu go crush those grapes, you’ll want to be drinking that forever.
Also Keanu in uniform? Keanu as a chocolate salesman? Keanu pretending to be the father of a lady’s unborn child so she doesn’t get shunned by her family? This is romantic movie gold. The amber hue of this film? I have never wanted to bring home a man in uniform to meet my parents so hard after this. Someone pass me a glass of wine.
Something’s Gotta Give
It’s funny that one of my favourites isn’t even Keanu as the lead but as the other guy. This movie though, is lovely on its own accord. We have Nancy Meyers to thank for that — and for Diane Keaton’s amazing Hamptons wardrobe, but the creme de la creme of this treat for me was Dr. Julian Mercer. That’s right, you think you’ve seen hot Keanu and then you life-saving-Keanu and not in a guns a-blazing way (we’ve seen that before) but with a scalpel and the healing touch.
I seriously just wanted them to keep going back to the emergency room so we could see more of him and honestly, I wouldn’t mind a freaking spin off where they show what happens to the good doctor in the end. Because really. Why wouldn’t you? Lucky, Diane Keaton. I’m never going to be over this one.
And I realise there are a lot of his filmography I haven’t seen — for example, I have Destination Wedding on my queue (even if it was horribly panned — much like a lot of his filmography) but given my Instagram Discover is now basically a shrine to Keanu, I might as well.
Finally, I leave you with the last few seconds of Ali Wong’s Always Be My Maybe, because this is the summer of Keanu and boy am I glad. Don’t stop the content train, people. Please don’t stop.
