Review: Keegan-Michael Key And Jordan Peele's Big Screen Cat Comedy 'Keanu'

This is a reprint of our review of the work-in-progress screening from the 2016 SXSW Film Festival.

In “Keanu,” a patchy mix between kidnapping crime comedy and glorified cat video, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele cap off their sketch show success with a first feature that adds a large budget to their specific brand of humor. After five incredible seasons of “Key & Peele” skewering black masculinity in its various forms, the duo here settle for an uninspired riff on Los Angeles gang culture, stringing together fish-out-of-water vignettes by using a stray kitten as thread. While this ensures an adorable animal reaction shot to match every gag, just a few of those earn the sharp result that you’d expect from the film’s talented creators.

Key and Peele play Clarence and Rell, respectively, two cousins living in Los Angeles in separate stages of adulthood. Clarence is an uptight family man and people pleaser, agreeing to set aside time for himself only if it will please his...