081109 - RESPONSE TO GENERIC KEANU BASHING THREAD (2)
miles_ny: Matrix, My Own Private Idaho, Dangerous Liaisons, Little Buddha, Speed, Point Break, Devil's Advocate... the list goes on and on. All credible movies with amazing filmmakers and actors, and right there with them, the beanstalk that is Keanu.
Who the hell is his agent, and what is Keanu paying him back for all these roles in these prominent movies without a single ounce of talent or screen charisma?
He is just terrible from top to bottom. By far the worst thing in Dangerous Liaisons and almost any other movie he was in, this guy is a joke. Yet he made himself a somewhat credible career that would make many actors just jealous.
I just don't get it. He is by far the most overrated actor in history.
Anakin McFly:
How can an actor this terrible could be this lucky?
1. Because he's not half as terrible as people make him out to be
2. It's not luck. It's hard work, determination, persistence, extreme dedication and commitment to any film he chooses, working well with his co-stars and directors. And yes, talent.
I don't know how seriously to take that list of yours. He was great in The Matrix (not as much in the sequels), and prepared very much for it. I can't imagine anyone else as Neo, except maybe Will Smith. Many other actors turned down the role because they were unwilling to commit to the three months of pre-film physical training and the Wachowski's compulsory reading list. Keanu didn't mind because he loved the script and believed in the movie when others didn't, and it paid off. This isn't "luck".
I personally didn't think he was that good in My Own Private Idaho, but there are lots of professional acting critics who disagree and think that one of his best performances. I haven't watched Dangerous Liaisons. I saw a clip of Little Buddha and he was pretty bad in that, but then again it was just a short clip and the rest of the film might have been different.
He was fine in Speed. He disappeared into the character well enough for me not to notice he was there (in a good way). Meanwhile, if not for Keanu, it would not have been the credible film you claim. Keanu contributed largely to the script and the end product. He didn't do any actual writing (I think), but it had originally started off like a Die Hard rip-off and nothing new. Keanu changed that; he especially didn't like the way that Jack Traven had been written (as stereotypical action macho cop who went around dropping flippant one-liners), because that wasn't at all like the real SWAT guys he knew, who were people with heart who genuinely cared about saving lives. So he got down with the director, they got another scriptwriter, and together they reworked the script.
Haven't watched Point Break.
He was downright brilliant in The Devil's Advocate. Please do not use that as an example. It was definitely one of the best of Keanu's performances, and I don't know why some people can't see that. I'm not alone though; there have been people (in all seriousness) who have said that he should have got an Oscar nomination for that.
Who the hell is his agent
Kevin Huvane. One of the top agents in Hollywood and responsible for a sizeable portion of its A-list. Go look him up.
Yet he made himself a somewhat credible career that would make many actors just jealous.
Again, it didn't just come to him like that for nothing. Keanu is known among directors and other actors to be extremely hardworking, a perfectionist who keeps trying and trying to get better regardless of how often other people put him down. He doesn't let what others say get him down, and I admire him for that. He loves acting and just wants to improve at his craft, doing as many good movies as he can. Unlike so many other actors, he's not there for the fame or the money; he would actually prefer if he had neither, as it shows not only in his interviews but his life. He's there because he wants to act. And he's going to keep acting.
He is by far the most overrated actor in history.
I don't think you understand the meaning of the word 'overrated'. If anything, I would call Keanu underrated, because I honestly don't think he deserves half the flak he gets. He had some bad performances, but so does everyone else in the industry, and no one seems to pay enough attention to his good ones. Most of them don't even see it and go by other people's opinions.
I've heard people putting down Keanu's performance even before they have seen a film. They go into the cinema already with that idea there that he is going to be bad, and with that kind of mindset so firmly established I doubt that they'd be able to notice even if Keanu gave an absolutely wonderful performance. Over and over again on IMDb I've seen people picking at really strange details in Keanu's performance that I never even noticed because I just don't pay that much attention - I'm too busy watching the film and I really don't get it when people insist that Keanu's presence makes a movie unwatchable. Which just shows how there are people who watch a Keanu film with almost the explicit intention of watching him for the smallest slip up, then jumping on that and bashing him up for it. It's kind of sad, really.
Meanwhile, just look at all the people out there like you putting down his acting and repeatedly insisting that he's the worst in history. That's not overrated at all.
Just look at this -> http://www.whoaisnotme.net/wallofshame.htm. Any actor who gets that kind of things said about him cannot, by my definition, be considered anywhere near 'overrated'.