No cracks, please. I've seen and heard too much chatter on line and in my day-to-day life to remain silent much longer. The guy doesn't get enough credit is all I'm saying. Everybody giggles about the dumb dude persona that he played in the BILL & TED flicks and in PARENTHOOD, somehow conflates that with the big-budget movies in which he plays a blank slate (the MATRIX films, mainly), fuelling a popular misconception that the man can't act. Boo, I say. None of his detractors have seen his two best performances: as an abusive but vulnerable husband in Sam Raimi's The Gift and a strung-out loser tasked with coaching a little league baseball team in Hardball. It must be said that The Gift is the better film (Hardball's a tad corny in parts), but Reeves gives earthbound, completely different, and completely believable performances in each.

He's done some admittedly crappy work, some great work, and most levels in between - his last film, Street Kings, was problematic, but delivered with verve by its cast, particularly Reeves. I think he's fun to watch and usually look forward to whatever he's doing next (yes, I'm psyched for The Day The Earth Stood Still)

Your thoughts?

Incidentally, a fun and compulsively readable interview that'll stoke the fires of both pro- and anti-Keanu camps (conducted back in 1990) by writer Dennis Cooper can be found here.