Let's face it, at some point in time, you've thought it, we've thought it, everyone's thought it: what is the point of Keanu Reeves? The actor, now 49, has appeared in over seventy movies to date. But as nice and as charming as he appears, how has this happened exactly?

Of course he will always be remembered for being either Bill or Ted in their most excellent adventures, as well as being in the Matrix franchise, but they only account for five films in total. How many of the other sixty five films can you name? That's what we thought.

The fact that he's worked on so many films deserves a certain amount of credit, even if the majority of them weren't worth watching; after all, it hasn't stopped the likes of Vin Diesel having a career, sadly.

For this role, Reeves takes on the persona of a samurai-but-not in medieval Japan.

Despite not having been born into a Japanese family, the half-breed known as Kai (Reeves) had been adopted by the Lord of the land after finding him as a young child in the woods. Although being half-Japanese and half English prevented him from ever being accepted socially – which explains why he was bullied by the other children growing up – he was taken into a household to work and be looked after.

The hierarchy of which they are all a part is swiftly thrown into disarray when their Lord attacks a guest in his home, thinking he's out to murder his daughter. Unbeknownst to everyone, this was due to witchcraft used by the guest himself, Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano), in order to create the ensuing chaos.

The elderly Lord is sentenced to death, therefore creating a large number of Ronin: a samurai without a master. On top of that, Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), the now deceased Lord's loyal counsellor, is imprisoned in a deep pit, to prevent any comeback.

A year later and Oishi is released, and all he has on his mind is revenge. Knowing the dastardly deeds committed by Kira, Oishi wants to get the rest of the Ronin together, including Kai, to restore their Lord's good name, at any cost necessary.

That's, erm, totally bogus dude sir.

The story surrounding Ronins is a fascinating one, so it's a shame that director Carl Rinsch did such a ham-fisted job with it. As a debut feature, he can't take all the blame; what was the studio (Universal) thinking putting a rookie in charge of a film with a budget supposedly in excess of 200 million dollars? He may have directed a number of adverts previous to this, but he is so clearly out of his depth with this, his first feature. The scale is just too darn big for him and it simply swallows him up whole. For his effort, the film has become one of the biggest box office failures of all time.

He's not helped out by his leading man Reeves that much either. His performance is the standard one note that he consistently hits in all of his films. So in one respect, he can't be blamed either, as he gives just what you would expect of him. What is unusual though is that as a leading man, his character does take a back seat a lot of the time, to the point where he comes across as more of a supporting character more than anything else.

The first half of the film is also one hell of a cinematic bog; it is incredibly slow and heavy footed as far as the script and story and concerned, making for dreary viewing.

Surprisingly, it does pick up the pace in the second half and becomes more fluid, making it more enjoyable in the process. Maybe Rinsch was just finding his directing feet by this point; better late than never.

In Reeves' defence, it's difficult to see how any other actor in his role could have made a huge difference to the film overall, considering its many other faults. But it is proof, if any further were needed, that Reeves is still dining out on a few successful scraps from yesteryear. When will someone do the decent thing and tell him that audiences lost their appetite for him as a leading man years ago? Fingers crossed sometime soon.