Keanu Reeves has been one of our most consistent movie stars for decades now, with his work stretching back five decades into the 1980s. Kickstarting his mainstream career with Bill & Ted and then going on to give us Neo in The Matrix films and the title character across the John Wick franchise, Reeves has been a star who has moved around on the call sheet. Even with all of his starring roles, the actor has largely been a supporting player, with many of his recent film appearances being on the side and not front and center. With his new movie, though, he finally got back to being the star, and audiences have rewarded him for it.
This past weekend saw the release of Outcome, a new dark comedy on Apple TV directed by Jonah Hill and starring Keanu Reeves. The new film ends the three-year streak of Reeves only appearing in films in supporting roles and never as the actual star, with his last film as the lead actor being none other than John Wick: Chapter 4 back in 2023. Even wilder than that time gap is that Outcome and John Wick: Chapter 4 are just two of only four movies this entire decade where Reeves is the primary star (the others being The Matrix Resurrections and Bill & Ted Face the Music, both of which are arguably ensemble movies). Though the film has quickly climbed to the top of the streaming charts, it’s not all good news.
Keanu Reeves’ Outcome Debuts at #1 on Apple Amid Terrible Reviews
In Outcome, Reeves stars as Reef Hawk a Hollywood star on the cusp of being cancelled, who is forced to confront his hidden demons and trace his steps to figure out how to keep his career intact. Forced on a “soul-searching journey,” Reeves is flanked by a strong supporting cast including Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Laverne Cox, David Spade, and Martin Scorsese. Despite this all-star cast, though, and the fact that Outcome has climbed to the #1 place on Apple TV (according to Flixpatrol the film is #1 in every country around the world where the app is available, except for, apparently, Gambia and South Korea, where it is #2), it doesn’t have that many fans.
As of this writing, Outcome has landed with a 27% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a not-that-much-better 32% audience score. Critic Peter Travers said the dark comedy “leaves out all the laughs,” with The Wrap giving it a 1.5 out of 5 and saying it “rarely has anything of value to say.” Even The New York Times roasted the movie, noting that it’s “streaming filler in which its big names, including the composer Jon Brion, are trapped.”
On top of Outcome being the first movie that Reeves has starred in in three years, the film’s score breaks another impressive streak for the actor. With its rotten score, Outcome is the first film of Reeves’ in eight years to have that dreaded green splat on the review aggregator. The film’s 27% is his first rotten film since 2018’s Replicas, which has an appalling 9% rating. Between the two films, Reeves has fifteen films he was involved with earn a positive score, and now that streak has ended too.
