Keanu Reeves has been acting for more than 30 years, and here's how all his films rank, worst to best. A franchise fixture now involved in three trilogies, he's had a vast and varied career, from young, soulful heartthrob to goofy dude-bro to one of the most bankable action stars working - twice. Reeves has continuously managed to evolve and reinvent himself along the way.
Many would argue that a good amount of Reeves' films are far from great, with the actor often criticized as being stiff, wooden, and genuinely unemotive. It's the great irony of Reeves that his gift for Zen stillness can arguably transition into performances viewed as boring or disconnected. That said, when his skills are employed correctly, it's difficult to argue with the unique movie star charisma of the man who brought audiences Ted "Theodore" Logan, Johnny Utah, and Neo (a.k.a. Thomas Anderson).
With the "Keanussance" in full effect after the surprise success of the John Wick franchise, it's worth taking a look back at the one-of-a-kind actor's filmography. That's especially true given his recent return to the Matrix franchise. Here are his major films, ranked from worst to best - but first, a note of clarification. A handful of movies Reeves has appeared in aren't be included here, such as cameo roles, made-for-TV or direct-to-video films he did in his early days, and tiny indie releases that aren't widely available to easily watch. Thus, Reeves briefly voicing the titular cat in Keanu won't be ranked, and neither will his cameo in Alex Winter's Freaked.
58. Generation Um...
There's a reason why Generation Um... is at the bottom of the list: this mumblecore-wannabe currently rocking a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, Keanu plays an escort-service driver wandering around New York with two friends documenting their misadventures with a stolen camera, in what's easily the worst Keanu Reeves movie. It's presumably aspiring for an aimless, hangout vibe movie à la Richard Linklater, but the result is as tedious and inarticulate as its title.
57. Exposed
Another miss is the Keanu Reeves movie Exposed. Appraisals of the actor's career can often feel like a back-and-forth between calling him soulful and Zen, and stiff and boring. While he's turned in plenty of performances that can be classified as the former, it's hard to see this one as anything but a block of wood, even if he's ultimately the best part of the movie. Playing a police detective investigating the death of his former partner, he often gets lost in the shuffle of a tangled, incomprehensible plot and bizarre tone which mixes fantastical bits of magical realism with a clumsy handling of sexual violence.
56. The Watcher
A dud of a thriller with Hitchcockian ambitions - and a movie Reeves was actually tricked into making - The Watcher tries for a reversal of expectations with its cat-and-mouse game between a serial killer and an FBI agent, casting the iconically-eccentric James Spader as the cop and Reeves as the murderer. It's a role Keanu may be able to handle now, but back in 2000, his relative youth was a poor fit for the role.
55. Replicas
Replicas is another problematic Keanu Reeves movie. In the wake of John Wick, Reeves has been given fairly free rein to tackle a vast number of ion projects, and since his first love is a certain kind of high-concept sci-fi thriller, the results are bound to be hit-or-miss. Chalk this one up solidly in the "miss" column; it's a film so bafflingly inept that its most believable aspect is Keanu cloning his family after they die in a car accident.
54. Little Buddha
The Keanu Reeves movie Little Buddha has a host of problems. One can certainly understand why noted director Bernardo Bertolucci might want to cast such a Zen actor in the role of Siddhartha, the monk who would grow up to be Buddha. That doesn't necessarily make it okay. Sure, his grandmother is Chinese-Hawaiian, but there's something about his casting here that just inappropriate. Surrounded by a bounty of real South Asian actors, Keanu sticks out like a sore thumb with his bronzed skin, heavy eyeliner, and an Indian accent that would make The Simpsons' Apu blush.
53. Siberia
Siberia is another post-John Wick flick that attempts to be a more icy, slow-burn thriller but mostly winds up interminably boring. Keanu may have had an interesting idea initially for this role, but here he participates in maybe the dullest diamond heist ever committed to film.
52. Johnny Mnemonic
Johnny Mnemonic is a cyber-punk thriller that is so woefully misguided from start to finish that it's a marvel the Wachowskis later cast him to play Neo. Reeves takes on the role of a sort of human flash drive, transporting sensitive content to the mega-corporations that control this futuristic society. Keanu Reeve's sci-fi movie may attempt to say something about technology's grasp over modern culture, but the lack of believability here makes that message fall flat.
51. Feeling Minnesota
Co-starring Cameron Diaz, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Delroy Lindo Feeling Minnesota is a mashup of rom-com beats with a crime thriller. It borrows heavily from earlier films, but unfortunately does so with seemingly no understanding of what makes its forebears so successful. Playing a man who falls in love with his own brother's partner, a stripper played by Diaz, Reeves gives a performance that's frustratingly in flux between his Bill and Ted and Matrix personas.
50. 47 Ronin
While a martial arts Keanu Reeves action movie about a group of samurai who assemble to avenge the death of their lord sounds like a total slam-dunk, sadly, 47 Ronin fails to live up to its premise. The unnecessary remake of this twice-before filmed Japanese legend is the weakest version of this story. The film may boast an onslaught of mythical beasts and shape-shifting witches, but audiences are better off watching the original.
49. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Reeves teamed up again with My Own Private Idaho director Gus Van Sant for this considerably less-effective follow-up, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. A tonally-confused adaptation of a Tom Robbins novel, the movie sees Uma Thurman's large-thumbed hitchhiker meeting a whole cast of eccentric characters portrayed by actors Van Sant leaves hanging out to dry.
