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Whoa, dude, what’s happening to Keanu Reeves‘ career?
Yeah, he’ll always have the perpetual street cred of starring in the mega successful Matrix trilogy and helping a bus go fast in Speed.
And who can forget Point Break, a film about surfing, robbing banks with U.S. presidents masks and punting a pitbull.
But that was a long time ago.
The first Matrix film came out in 1999. The last in the trilogy was released in 2003. Over a decade ago.
Since then, Reeves has underperformed as a leading man with the so-so adaptation of Constantine in 2005 and The Day the Earth Stood Still in 2008. He’s been in other movies, but nothing near as memorable as Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures. Memorable, not necessarily good.
Now, his latest film, 47 Ronin, is performing poorly at the box office. After its first weekend, it made a worldwide total of more than $42 million. But the samurai epic came with a pricey budget of $200 million. The film had production problems, none of which were Reeves’ fault.
His name is top billing on this movie so its impending failure will fall on him. Reeves no longer has the star power to rescue a film, especially one as plagued as 47 Ronin.
Even with a smoothly made film Reeves isn’t a guaranteed success. Gone are the days of watching a movie because Neo from The Matrix stars in it.
Now, his films will flourish in spite of him. It’s not that Reeves is a terrible performer. He is capable of leading a project, if a solid script, director and cast back him up.
For the time being, Reeves must carry the burden of failure, especially with 47 Ronin.
