Keanu Reeves: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

1. John 'Johnny' Utah - Point Break (1991)

One of the common criticisms about Reeves is that he has spent his entire career playing surfers and slackers, channelling his work on Bill And Ted into every role regardless of how appropriate it may be. It's therefore kind of fitting that his best performance should involve a large amount of surfing - along with sky-diving, American football and a number of other macho exploits with the star of Dirty Dancing. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty), Point Break is an action thriller about a group of bank robbers called the Ex-Presidents, so called because they wear masks of US Presidents during their robberies. Reeves plays Johnny Utah, an FBI agent assigned to spy on a group of surfers who are believed to be the robbers. The more time he spends with them, the more he is taken in by the rebellious philosophy of their leader Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), to the point where he questions which side he should really be on. Like most of Bigelow's films, Point Break is a very macho, male-driven affair. As with The Matrix, Johnny is a character who serves as the audience's way in to a strange and very driven world, and increasingly comes to believethat he belong there. And like The Devil's Advocate, Reeves' by-the-book nature and growing indecision is a great counterweight for the often manic Swayze. It's a performance of great sincerity, produced by an actor who was clearly having a lot of fun. Having proved his worth so far, now let us venture into more planky territory and look at Reeves' worst performances...