Better Late than Never on the Violent, Funny, and Perfect "Keanu

That is one bad ass kitty

I know that I am rather late to the party, but I just recently saw the movie "Keanu", and I loved it. I was already a pretty big Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key fan before seeing this movie. They were the only decent part of the mid-series run of "Mad TV". I would only tune in to see their skits and stories. I was an absolutely avid fan of their show on Comedy Central, "Key and Peele". They brought a new kind of sketch show to cable TV that was an absolute homerun. I watched every episode, in real time, and some of their skits and bits were some of the funniest things that I have ever watched on television. One of their very first skits, involving 2 guys griping about their wives and saying that they called them a "bitch", but going as far away as outer space so their wives wouldn't hear them, is one of the most memorable things on recent TV. I was saddened when they ended the show after a short, but very memorable run.

I found out one of the reasons they ended the show was to work on this movie "Keanu". I know in a very old podcast, I mentioned how it was one of the movies I was most looking forward to in 2016, but it is hard for me to get to the theaters now, what with 2 kids, work and coaching. So, that is why I was so late to seeing this movie that I have been looking forward to for almost a year. When my wife and I finally had a night with nothing scheduled, we sat down and watched, and laughed, and were just absolutely blown away by how much we enjoyed this movie. I was predestined to like this movie for all the reasons I mentioned above, but I did not think my wife would like it as much as she did. She was laughing as hard, sometimes harder than I was, throughout the whole movie. She put her phone down to watch because she was enjoying the movie so very much. I was very happy that she liked the movie as much as I did.

Lets get back to my review of this movie. I thoroughly enjoyed every single second of "Keanu". I liked how much Key and Peele put their touch on this movie. At its bare bones, the movie is about 2 guys, one who is a pushover, Key, and one that is depressed because his girlfriend broke up with him, Peele, that are lifelong friends. Key's character comes to soothe and help Peele get through the breakup, but when he gets to his house, he sees that Peele has found a cat, which he names Keanu. Now, at the start of the movie, we see a humongous shoot out between two guys called the Allentown 2 take down an entire drug cartel. Throughout the whole shootout, we see this tiny kitty running away, dodging bullets and finding its way through downtown LA to Peele's apartment. Peele finds the cat, and he immediately starts to feel better about the breakup. He then proceeds to give Keanu his full attention. He loves this cat.

Then one night while he is out, some people come looking for his weed dealer, hilariously played by Will Forte, because they think he has the cat, but they soon find out that it is in Peele's house. The bad guys trash his house and steal Keanu. When Peele returns to his home, he is distraught to see that his kitty is gone. Peele then becomes obsessed with finding Keanu, and he drags Key along with him. This is when the movie gets crazy.

There are a ton of big time drug dealers involved in this little cat's life. They go to a strip club, hilariously named Hot Pretty Vixens, or HPV, and that is where they find a notorious drug dealer Cheddar, played by Method Man, who has become a very good actor I might add, and he has Keanu now. He has renamed him New Jack, and he also puts a bandana on his head. From this point on, Key and Peele have to act like they are the Allentown 2, as Cheese has confused them for these guys, and they continue this act because Peele wants his cat back. They have to go on drug deals, a hilarious encounter with Anna Faris playing herself is not to be missed. They have gun fights. They smoke something they call in the movie "holy shit". Key teaches young thugs about how great George Michael is, and that team work and team building exercises are important. Key starts to fall for a female dealer that he meets. All this stuff is great, has Key and Peele's comedic touches everywhere and is just so, so funny. Everything that they go through leads to one big shoot out, where you find out some things about some of the characters that we have already met, and it culminates very violently, but also very funny. Key and Peele end up in jail, spoiler alert, but while in there, they are looked at as bad asses because they are believed to have taken out the Allentown 2.

"Keanu" is a great movie that I am glad I finally got to watch. It is funny, but it is also very violent, has bad words and goes way further than any sketch they ever did on "Mad TV" or "Key and Peele". I recommend this movie, and you do not necessarily have to be a fan of Key and Peele's comedy to enjoy. My wife never watched either show, and she thought "Keanu" was great. Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He once had a roommate with two cats, but Ty could have cared less of they were stolen by drug dealers. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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The Greatest American Band Debate: Wu Tang Clan

Today for the greatest American band debate, I'm nominating the Wu Tang Clan.

I love Wu Tang. They're one of, if not the best rap group of all time. People will throw out Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five or Eric B and Rakim, both I will be writing about on a later date, but Wu Tang is far superior. They have great, very memorable songs, but they get my nomination simply based on the fact that almost every single member of the band is still performing rap music and some are doing great things in acting. The fact that these guys not only have hit record after hit record while with Wu Tang, but most of them have had hit records as solo artists. That doesn't happen too often, but some of the members are more known for their solo stuff than their Wu Tang stuff.

I do want to mention some of their famous songs still, and I'll do that right now. Songs like "C.R.E.A.M.", "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothing to F$&k With",  "Protect Ya Neck", "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Killer Beez". "C.R.E.A.M." Is an awesome, classic rap song with a great, great chorus. It's an acronym for cash rules everything around me and that's the epitome of a classic rap lyric. I love it so much. "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothing to F$&k With" is such a cool, dirty, hard core rap song. They put themselves at the front of greatest rap group with this song. They let it be known that they were the best, and anyone coming to get the crown, step off because you don't mess with Wu Tang. "Protect Ya Neck" is grimy rap at its best. This song is filthy in all the right ways and it gave each member a chance to shine. "Bring Da Ruckus" is a cool rap song about bringing the noise to rap. It's a joyous song about the beauty that is rap. "Killer Beez", while not one of their best songs, has the coolest music video ever. Each member kind of morphs into a bee while rapping and it was very, very cool. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

But, as I said earlier, they're getting my nomination because of the members of this group. This is a murderers row of all time great rappers. Let's list them off right now, RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Ol Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Masta Killa and U God. See, some of the best of all time. U God is still making solo albums, but he's probably the least famous. Masta Killa hasn't made an album since 2012, but he's still active with Wu Tang and he still performs live with the band. Cappadonna was in the first iterations of Wu Tang and he still performs with Theodore Unit, another hip hop group with Ghostface Killah. Inspectah Deck was a performer and producer for Wu Tang and received critical praise for his lyricism and way he rapped. He did some solo work, but now he's a top of the line producer, mainly doing things for Wu Tang. Raekwon is awesome. He's made a great career for himself as a solo artist, and he was an integral part of Wu Tang at their height. He's credited with creating "Mafiosi" rap. He's got one of the coolest styles of rapping that I've ever heard. We all know about Ol Dirty Bastard. He was one of the grossest, yet coolest rappers I've ever heard. His style was all his own and it will never be duplicated. His most famous lyric, "ooh baby I likes it raw", is disgusting and glorious. I loved ODB and I still miss him. Rest in peace. Ghostface Killah is my favorite member of Wu Tang. I love his style of rap, and his solo albums are the best of the bunch. His style is grimy and gritty and politically conscious. He's achieved critical acclaim for his work with Wu Tang and his solo stuff. Ghostface Killah is one of the all time greats in the world of rap music. Method Man has gained more notoriety for his acting than he ever did with his music. Now, that's not to say that he's not a great rapper, he is. Just listen to the Wu Tang song "Method Man". It's about him and he's the star on the track. But, he's taken to acting like a pro. He's been a star, a role player and a cameo guy and he always crushes. Just look at his role on "The Wire". He played "Cheese" and he was excellent as a thuggish drug dealer and, spoiler alert, when he got shot in the face, I was stunned. GZA is a genius. He wrote the majority of Wu Tang's songs and is the founding member of the band. He always seems like the most level headed guy in the room. He deserves way more praise than he gets. Without him, we never would've gotten Wu Tang. He has maintained a successful solo career as well. I love everything the GZA does. The final member, RZA has the most critical acclaim in music and acting. He's right up there with the GZA. Where the GZA started Wu Tang, the RZA produces everything they do. He's also, for most people, the first name you think of when talking about Wu Tang. He's made a ton of solo albums, he's appeared as a guest on a ton of albums and he's, hands down, one of the greatest rappers of all time. He's highly in demand. As far as the acting, not only has he done as much, if not more, than Method Man, but he's also written and directed movies. He's appeared in movies like "Ghost Dog", "Funny People" and "Coffee and Cigarettes" (ed note: Plus he was the Blind Master in the G.I. Joe: Retaliation - awesome movie). In these bit parts, he all but steals the show. He's a great actor. He's also written and directed and starred in "Man With the Iron Fists", both one and two. While these aren't the best movies, they're campy throwbacks to old school Kung Fu movies and he wrote them. That's impressive. He's right up there, influentially, with the GZA.

Wu Tang Clan is an all time great. This blog was easy for me to write because these guys are so famous and so influential to rappers today. Look at a group like Odd Future and tell me they're not striving to be the next Wu Tang. Wu Tang is awesome and they absolutely, 100 percent deserve to be in this discussion. These above reasons are why.

And remember, Wu Tang Clan ain't nothing to mess with.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He yearns for a Wu Tang Christmas sweater. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.