The Replacements

This is one from the "Can't believe I haven't watched this previously" file. Keanu Reeves is Shane Falco, a former college star quarterback who washed out of football after a disastrous showing in the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State. He and a host of other misfits are recruited to be replacement players when the regular NFL guys go on strike. What follows is a completely paint-by-numbers sports movie that nevertheless remains entertaining throughout. There's the obligatory bar fight, the hot girlfriend, the miracle comebacks, the whole ball of wax. The football scenes themselves are not particularly well-done, consisting entirely of ridiculously over-the-top collisions and tackles, combined with incorrect rules (one scene shows Keanu's team advancing an onside-kick, which you can't do) and stupid timeouts (Keanu's guys call timeout after that on-side kick when the clock would already be stopped), and so on. Still, this is nice light, easy entertainment. Keanu is Keanu for 2 hours, there's some funny moments, a hot girl, and football stuff. Good enough. 6/10.

John Wick

Do you want to see 90 minutes of Keanu Reeves half-growling his lines and busting out headshots on a whole bunch of fools? Yes, yes, you do. This movie does nothing original - except perhaps not having Reeves bang the hot female assassin trying to kill him - but it does everything really well. It's slick, it's fast-paced, it has some humor and Reeves is fantastic in this. The bad guys are a bunch of cliches (Russian bad guys who smoke with the youngish son who's a totally entitled douchebag listening to obnoxious rap music) mixed with the "Mayhem" guy from car insurance commercials but you don't care. They mess with Keanu's dog and he makes them pay. And it all just...works. So ignore the flaws, dream of a world where John Wick kidnaps Liam Neeson's daughter or something, and enjoy this movie. It's a lot of fun. 9/10.