Street Kings

Street Kings, based on a story by James LA Confidential Ellroy, tells the story of detective Tom Ludlow (Reeves) a veteran LAPD cop who is willing to break the law in order to bring down the bad guys. His methods bring him into conflict with his former partner detective Washington (Crews) and internal affairs captain Biggs (Laurie). Though with the support of his boss captain Wander (Whitaker) and other cops Ludlow always manages to come out clean. When Detective Washington, who was talking to internal affairs about Ludlow, ends up dead Ludlow vows to track down the killers even if it means implicating himself.

Looking at the cast, the plot, the director and the writers of Street Kings you would think you where on to a winner. You would be wrong. The only thing Street Kings succeeds in doing is proving that it takes more than the right ingredients to make a good film.

With his first and only other film as director, Harsh Times, Ayer gave us an excellent study of a gulf war veteran unable to fit in after returning to LA after a tour of duty. To say Street Kings is not as good would be an understatement. The story is convoluted and yet the ending is obvious ten minutes into the film, the characters are clichés and the dialogue tries far too hard to be cool.

Keanu has given us some great films over the years but the poverty of this material shows up his limitations as an actor. Neither Forest Whitaker nor Hugh Laurie offers any salvation. Indeed there are some memorably bad performances. If there is a silver lining here it is some decent action scenes and a good supporting performance by Chris Evans.

Rather than going to see Street Kings, go rent LA Confidential or NARC.

2/5