If you like Keanu Reeves, and more crucially, you like watching Keanu Reeves fight, then the next few months are going to be a good time for you. The actor, now actor-turned-director, has two movies on the way that will both feature him kicking various kinds of butt, both as a good and bad guy.
First up is his directorial debut, “Man Of Tai Chi,” which premieres at TIFF next week. In this one, he plays the smarmy head of an underground fight club who seems to be manipulating a tai chi master into winning fights for him, until fast forward they end up fighting each other. And if looks straight-to-VOD, that’s because it kinda is, as you can order it up on your TV or computer starting on September 27th or keep your fingers crossed that it comes to your town on November 1st. That said, the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping choreographed the fights, so perhaps those will be worth watching at least.
Meanwhile, in a movie that cost a few more million and then some, Reeves stars in the long delayed and somewhat embattled “47 Ronin.” The directorial debut of commercial helmer Carl Rinsch, this one sees Keanu on the side of good, helping a band of samurai seek vengeance for the death of their master. And somehow CGI monsters get involved or something. We still don’t know what to make of it, but we suppose we’ll find out on Christmas Day.
MAN OF TAI CHI isn't "premiering" at Toronto, it came out in China months ago (and pretty much bombed there). I'm glad the trailer is spoiling the climactic Chen vs. Keanu fight, since that allows me to publicly air one of my biggest complaints about the film–for a few minutes I was actually convinced they were going to do something unexpected and let the movie end without pretending Keanu could hold his own against an honest-to-god competitive martial artist. So I guess you can stamp and certify me a grade-A sucker.
That's all fine and dandy but aren't you scared Keanu is going to use his techno shamanic magic (that he learnt from reading The Invisibles whilst filming the Matrix) and summon a velociraptor to end you for spanning this post ???
FINISH HIM
I've always liked Keanu.