Keanu moves the comedy team of Key and Peele to the big screen with the most hilarious comedy of the year and the cutest kitten to ever hit the silver screen.

Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele first got on my radar when they starred on the latter seasons of Fox’s late night Saturday Night Live contender MADtv. They were solid utility players and really came into their own with their smash hit Comedy Central series Key and Peele. Many of their long form sketches were begging to be short films. Their performances on projects like FX’s Fargo showed that both had a lot of range and when they ended their Comedy Central series, one of their first announced projects was the film Keanu; where Peele’s newfound kitten is stolen from him by gangsters and he and Peele will go to any lengths to retrieve it. The premise sounded like a comedic take on John Wick on the surface and that piqued my interest. However, Keanu is more than just a spiritual sequel to John Wick. It is the best R-Rated comedy to hit the big screen in years, rivaling and surpassing Deadpool for that mantle and does so by also being an epic deconstruction of the tropes of 80’s action films.

Peele plays Rell, a stoner graphic artist/photographer whose heart is annhilated when his girlfriend leaves him and he is left inconsolable. His best friend Clarence, played by Key, is a henpecked, OCD, corporate synergy consultant whose wife wishes he was a little more assertive, but otherwise is a solid friend to Rell. Clarence is happy that Rell is away from this relationship, but Rell is distraught. Until a cute little kitten makes his way to Rell’s door and makes him the happiest guy on Earth. He names the kitten Keanu and it reinvigorates him as a person and an artist. However, this doesn’t last as a gang called The Blips (named because they absorbed the Bloods and the Crips) destroy his place and take his cat; confusing him for a weed dealer named Hulka (hilariously played by Will Forte. Rell and Clarence go to confront the head of the gang, determined at any cost to regain their cat, even if it means assuming the identities of 2 assassins who are also hot on Keanu’s trail.

Keanuworks mainly because of how dedicated Key and Peele are to the premise. The film lets them do impressions, musical comedy and offers many hilarious cameos. The greatest asset to the film being the kitten Clementine who is cast as Keanu. The cat is ridiculously cute and you can see why so many people would fall under his spell and want to keep him. Director Peter Atencio and screenwriters Peele and Alex Rubens craft the film to exploit the visual flourishes of many iconic film directors; from John Woo, to Antoine Fuqua, The Wachowskis to Michael Bay, the visual puns to iconic buddy action films are pretty fast and furious and they hit because the creative team knows how well these tropes are burned into action film audiences. Much like Deadpool, the filmmakers behind Keanu understand that the most iconic action films have a strong comedic element and while Keanu is a comedy, its also a solid action film even as it parodies the genre.

Keanu is solidly the best comedy to his 2016 so far and I am excited to see what the future holds from the team of Key and Peele and hopefully a sequel given the set-up provided from the end of the film.