Today – 2nd September – is the 47th birthday of Keanu Charles Reeves. While it’s fairly well-known that his first name means ‘cool breeze over the mountains’ in Hawaiian, what else do what about the Canadian actor?
Well, he is undoubtedly best known for his role as Thomas A Anderson/Neo in the Matrix trilogy. Thomas A Anderson is a computer programmer who moonlights as the hacker Neo. After meeting the mysterious Morpheus, Thomas is giving the choice of continuing his normal life or finding out what the Matrix is…
For this role, Reeves recieved multiple nominations including an MTV Movie Award, which he won, and a Saturn Award.
What are Reeves’ other well-known roles? Well, Ted in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Excellent Adventure follows two teenage ‘metalhead slackers’ who travel through to time in order to assemble a group of historical figures for their high school history presentation. Excellent Adventure currently holds an 82% fresh ranking over at Rotten Tomatoes.
Another well-known role is that of John Constantine in 2005’s Constantine. Though it didn’t do too well critically, I really like Constantine. I think it’s a clever, dark and stylish film with an interesting premise and strong performances by its cast, including Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Djimon Hounsou and Gavin Rossdale.
Constantine himself is a brilliant anti-hero and Reeves impresses in the role.
- What do you reckon – what is Reeves’ best role to date?
Cinematic Delights 
I think my favourite Keanu Reeves’ performance is in Speed. A bit mindless but he looks good in a white t-shirt and I think it worked well with his talents.
I prefer it when Reeves doesn’t try too hard to be an actor….
Hehe, I agree Louise! I thought he was quite good in The Day The Earth Stood Still because he was supposed to be an alien with little emotion 😛
The Matrix. I just remember his anger and confusion at realizing that the world that he lives in isn’t real. It also helps that he works so well with his great supporting cast.
The Matrix is a fantastic film and I agree, it does have a very strong supporting cast. Did you watch Reloaded and Revolutions? I haven’t watched them all the way through. I really like The Matrix but the sequels really did not appeal to me…