How does Bruce Willis pull it off?

Quote: Wizard

Is it just me or does anyone else think Keanu Reeves is overrated?

I think everyone thinks Keanu Reeves is over-paid.

Basically he had one mega-hit movie in 12 years, "Speed", but the Wachowski siblings had a single credit (a tiny picture that sold less than 1 million tickets . They wanted to do something unprecedented (at the time) which was to make an R rated film with a $63 million budget as unknown filmmakers.

Although James Cameron made Terminator 2 with an R rating for $100 million production budget, he had already made two big hits with Terminator and Aliens. So Keanu Reeves was given a percentage of gross for the trilogy. Of course, the trilogy made $600 million domestically and $1 billion in foreign markets meaning his percentage was $220 million + his $40 million salary.

Arguably if you remove Reeves top 6 films and give most of the credit to other people
Three Matrix films -Wachowski siblings
Speed - Sandra Bullock
Something's got to Give - Jack Nicholson & Diane Keaton
Parenthood - Steve Martin

the remaining 35 Keanu Reeves films averaged $25 million domestically.

While he is a respectable star, he is not one you would pick for a quarter of a billion dollar payday.

Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time... didn't Alec Guiness get a percentage of Star Wars in perpetuity for his role as Obi-Wan? Because Lucas and the production company needed some star power to get things rolling.

Quote: TheCesspit

Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time... didn't Alec Guiness get a percentage of Star Wars in perpetuity for his role as Obi-Wan? Because Lucas and the production company needed some star power to get things rolling.

James Earl Jones has revealed that he received only $8K for providing the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars. He said: “My agents didn’t envision it being a success and advised me to just take the money and run.”

Alec Guiness received 2% in perpetuity which may have added up to $100m to date. But when Sir Alec died he left an estate worth less than $4 million, so his son received most of the payments.

But I believe that this contract set the standard for an established actor asking for a percentage to agree to do a risky new film. But if Alec's estate made $100m over a 40 year period, Keanu made $240m in a matter of a few years. Alec Guiness had also been in movies and stage for 40 years and was age 63 before taking on the Star Wars role. By most opinions he was one of the half a dozen greatest actors of Britain.

Shortly after Star Wars John Gielgud, Helen Mirren and Malcolm McDowell agreed to star in Caligula (still the most highbrow actors to appear in a porn)

Keanu Reeves was age 34 when he did the first Matrix film.

Keanu Reeves has been in only one movie I liked,
Constantine. I bet I've seen it a dozen times. He
plays a very dark character and the whole movie is
dark. It also has a wonderful Rachel Weiss and the
best depiction of Satan I've ever seen onscreen.

Reeves was offered to do a followup as the same
character, but felt it beneath his 'talent' to do sequel
movies. What talent.

To me, Constantine is a masterpiece. It has everything,
and does it all well. I get something out of it on every
viewing. Swinton is wonderful as the angel Gabriel.
The views of hell are chilling. Satan is frightening,
a great acting job. Reeves underplays the main character
to the point that he actually seems to be Constantine.
Everything is matter of fact to him, an everyday occurrence.
There is so much hidden in this movie, there is no
way you can absorb it all in one viewing. It spooks me
out every time I see it.

Quote: Evenbob

Keanu Reeves has been in only one movie I liked,

We found something else we agree on! I agree 100%, but the only KR I like is Point Break. I've never seen Constantine, so maybe it should be two.

By the way Keanu is a Hawaiian word. I forget what it means but somehow I'm sure Paco knows.

Quote: Wizard

We found something else we agree on! I agree 100%, but the only KR I like is Point Break. I've never seen Constantine, so maybe it should be two.

Reeves is 50 and he has exactly one
movie coming out this year. Johnny Depp,
who has lots of duds in his past also, has
five films coming out this year alone. He's
51. At 50, this is where Reeves should be
and he's nowhere close.

To be fair, George Clooney is early 50's and
has only one movie this year, Monuments
Men, which was not a blockbuster. It's
been out 10 weeks and just made double
its budget. But Clooney was in the monster
hit Gravity last year, so he gets a pass.

Reeves was in 47 Ronin which didn't even
recover is its 175mil budget. Gravity cost
100mil and has grossed 750mil worldwide.
That's huge.

Quote: Wizard

Is it just me or does anyone else think Keanu Reeves is overrated?

Apparently he is dumb as a stump too.......Although I have never held a conversation with the man so I don't have first hand knowledge of that statement.

Quote: Evenbob

Keanu Reeves has been in only one movie I liked,
Constantine. I bet I've seen it a dozen times. He
plays a very dark character and the whole movie is
dark. It also has a wonderful Rachel Weiss and the
best depiction of Satan I've ever seen onscreen.

Reeves was offered to do a followup as the same
character, but felt it beneath his 'talent' to do sequel
movies. What talent.

Point Break was pretty good. Keanu was so so in it.

Quote: Evenbob

Reeves was offered to do a followup as the same character, but felt it beneath his 'talent' to do sequel movies. What talent.

Tilda Swinton brought a lot to that movie as well, but it really was the director's show.


I read interviews in early 2008 where Keanu said he was totally uninterested in doing a sequel. But that year, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" had a lackluster showing. Keanu has done only one major movie since 2008, 47 Ronin, and it bombed spectacularly.

Now there are more interviews where he says he always wanted to play the character again.

For the 9th anniversary of the movie they have cast a young British actor to play John Constantine again for a television series.