Much Ado About Keanu

I am not a Keanu Reeves fan. I don't like him as an actor. I don't find him attractive. He might be a great guy, but I am NOT a fan.

I Netflixed the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing, and had a good laugh as the main characters rode in on horseback. There is Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington, Kenneth Branagh, and Robert Sean Leonard.

Now, I love Kenneth Branagh. His film adaptations of Shakespeare rock my world, and I find his arrogance/self-confidence and liplessness oddly sexy. If you want a good look at him, there's a great scene in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein where he's topless and completely covered in amniotic fluid. Pretty funny stuff. I also loved him in Harry Potter 2.

Denzel? Denzel needs no introduction. I love him as an actor, and I think he is a very good looking man. Don't care for him as a director, but he did the Shakespeare surprisingly well. [A little trivia: Much Ado was the first movie he did after Malcolm X. ]

Robert Sean Leonard (the cute oncologist from House, M.D.) played the very young and love-struck protagonist, Claudio. He was just too cute, and played the fawning/ailing, love-afflicted Claudio wonderfully. Andrew thought it was a little over the top, but what is young love if NOT over the top?

[This makes me wonder, where are the days of gazing upon a complete stranger, and marrying them before you've spoken two words to them? ]

A very young and strikingly homely Kate Beckinsale played Hero, Claudio's main squeeze. She spoke about 5 words, and the whole time I could not believe that the awkward youth on screen was the lovely Ms. Beckinsale. Adolescence was cruel to us all, apparently.

Then there is Keanu. He had five lines in the whole thing and was Don Pedro's [Denzel's] jealous little brother. He was supposed to be eeeeeeeevil. But he was just funny. [I was laughing and repeating his lines a la "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"/"Speed"/Any other movie he has done.]

The best scene, in my opinion, is the celebratory home-coming at the beginning. There is some great homo-erotic play in the fountains while the soldiers all strip down and rough house in the nude. [AWESOME!]

So, I have to say, it was a great movie, made only funnier by Keanu's sheer presence. Maybe that was part of the intended humor, and nobody told him…

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