An intermittently funny crime comedy of mistaken identity and love for one’s kitty, Keanu finds sketch comedy duo Key & Peele out of their element in their transition from TV to movies.

There is no doubt that as far as sketch comedy is concerned, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are two of the best working today, delivering outrageously funny material from their time on Mad TV to their immensely popular (and recently ended) show Key & Peele.

Yet the comedy worlds of TV and movies are two different beasts. While Key & Peele have mastered the art of the 5-minute laugh fest, the pacing and tone needed to hit those beats in a 100-minute movie was a challenge for the pair that they could not live up to, with Keanu an over the top hit and miss of gags upon gags within an urban crime story that fails as both tribute and spoof.

As directed by frequent collaborator Peter Atencio, Keanu stars Key as Clarence, a suburban family man with an unhealthy obsession with George Michael, and Peele as Rell, a photographer gone through a devastating break-up who befriends a stray (and cute as, well, kittens) cat he affectionately names “Keanu”. Unbeknownst to them, Keanu is just as loved by the criminal underworld, so when he is stolen by a drug lord (Method Man) the out of their depth pair assume the identities of drug dealers and go undercover to take back their beloved pet.

What follows is a comedy of good ideas yet over the top execution, as gags revolving around urban crime movie clichés and oft-kilter pop-culture references are dragged out, beaten, revived and then beaten again until there is nothing left but a corpse of a joke. The ham-fisted performances from Peele and especially Key do nothing to help matters, which is a shame considering the pair are talented performers.

Much like forcing a square peg in a circle, Key & Peele’s brand of sketch humour simply doesn’t fit in a medium where made for TV gags are exposed as exactly that. Both comedians are currently in the midst of establishing film careers. Hopefully Keanu signifies a goodbye to past accomplishments, and not what to expect in the future.