After the success of The Matrix, Reeves avoided another blockbuster in favour of the 2000 sports comedy The Replacements. He agreed to a pay cut to enable Gene Hackman to co-star in the film.[87] Against his wishes, Reeves starred in the thriller The Watcher, playing a serial killer who stalks a retired FBI agent. He said that a friend forged his signature on a contract, which he could not prove; he appeared in the film to avoid legal action.[97] Upon its release, the film was critically panned.[98] That year, he had a supporting role in another thriller, Sam Raimi’s The Gift, a story about a woman (played by Cate Blanchett) with extrasensory perception asked to help find a young woman who disappeared. The film grossed $44 million worldwide.[99] Film critic Paul Clinton of CNN thought the film was fairly compelling, saying of Reeves’s acting: “[Raimi] managed to get a performance out of Reeves that only occasionally sounds like he’s reading his lines from the back of a cereal box.”[100]
Keanu redirects here. For other uses, see Keanu disambiguation.
