Street Kings

Keanu Reeves had The Movie Slut at "Speed."

"The Matrix" solidified her devotion.

She even forgave him for "The Lake House."

Now he's a hard-drinking, hotheaded, fast-shooting, blue-bleeding L.A. cop of "Serpico" ilk. Based on a story by James Ellroy ("L.A. Confidential) "SK" is a giddy, gory, gangsta-meets-good guy tour de force that only a Keanu queen could love. And she does.

Also stomping the street: Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie (sans limp) and John Corbett, "Sex and the City's" Aidan.

See you at the movies, The Movie Slut

Samuel Johnson once said that: “Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier.” That was the 18th century view. In 2008, every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a cop. Maybe it’s the word “cop” that does it. “Cop”, from the Latin capere, meaning to “to capture”. Ah, the hell with etymology. “Cop” sounds cool. It sounds like a profession for drunks and brawlers, and all the other guys men want to be. Men want to be cops the way women want to be Kate Moss; because cops/Moss don’t take shit from anyone. When Keanu Reeves dons a badge in Street Kings, he isn’t a real cop anymore than I am; he’s a fashion spread.

There’s only one cop who isn’t crooked, drunk or violent in Street Kings, and he gets whacked shortly after the opening credits. His name is Washington. He’s the virtuous one. Santos is the Hispanic. Biggs is the guy from Internal Affairs and Subtlety doesn’t work in this precinct. Our hero is Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves). He’s a cop in the sort of anti-gang unit that gives you sympathy for gang members. Tom drinks like he’s trying to scare people. He and Washington used to be partners (dammit!), but Washington now works with Internal Affairs. When Washington is gunned down during a convenience store robbery, Tom sets out to find his ex-partner’s killers.

The ability to take a punch is crucial to being a movie cop. Throwing punches is easy. Time it right and anybody can land a good punch. But taking punches takes stoicism. Just look at Keanu Reeves in this movie. Observe the beating he takes at the start. Is it plausible anyone could just get up and walk away from that beating? Of course not. Is it believable Reeves could drink the way he does and not piss himself? No. But Reeves is a movie cop in Street Kings. He’s playing a role which many feel reached in zenith with Bruce Willis in The Last Boy Scout. The idea Tom Ludlow would fill out a report or, I dunno, show up sober for work is laughable. He beats suspects almost as a hello to them. Why? Because movie cops who play by the rules are an oxymoron.

I wouldn’t change movies like this for the most part, but one scene I would like to re-write is the obligatory spousal dispute. You know the scene (Street Kings has one): the cop’s wife complains about what his job is doing to them. She wants a “normal life” like “regular people”. She cries. He holds her. Am I the only one who’s sick of this? How about a new scene where the cop cries and the wife tells him: “Suck it up. You chose this.” How about the wife knows what being a cop’s wife is like, and she shuns the naivety that breeds complaint? This will never happen because males 18-30 like to tell themselves they’re bulletproof. But damn, I’d love to see what would happen if you wrote a woman (instead of a “girlfriend”) into a cop movie.

As for the rest… Hugh Laurie plays House. Forrest Whitaker shouts. Chris Evans goes the way of all rookie cops who “just got engaged last week”. A lot of rappers busy themselves setting the African-American community back thirty years. Director David Ayer rehashes hisTraining Day script, again.

What Street Kings has to say about policing is what all movies have to say: get ’em! A while back I reviewed Jodie Foster in The Brave One, and I talked about vengeance, and the id, and why bad guys have to die. There’s a good exchange in Street Kings, where Reeves says to Whitaker: “What happened to just locking up bad people?” And Whitaker says: “We’re all bad”. That’s cop movies in a nutshell. Because we don’t come to see bad people arrested, or tried, or sentenced. We want bad things to happen to them. Could we live with what Reeves does in this movie in real life? Of course not. We want to be cops. We don’t long for the real world.

BOTTOM LINE: Keanu Reeves appears to be getting better with age playing a hard-nosed cop to perfection in this gritty police drama where nothing is as it seems, and with a story that will keep you guessing right until the end.

THE GOOD: Sporting an older look and a slightly bigger physique, Keanu Reeves plays Detective Ludlow from the LAPD; a straight-shooting cop who does whatever he needs to do to put the bad guys away. The opening scene show how he cleverly infiltrates a group who have kidnapped two teenage girls; he kills them all mercilessly before making the crime scene look like he was fired at first. Enter Forest Whitaker who plays Captain Wander, who covers up what happened to ensure justice is done. Who cares if they didn't do it by the book? This initial scenario is quite intriguing and introduces us to a world of characters that are all grey and keep us guessing as to their motives. You never really know who the bad guys are. Some are bad who do good. Some are good who do bad. It's a fascinating setup, which gets more complicated when Ludlow is caught in the middle of a shootout which sees a fellow officer (who was going to rat him out to internal affairs) get killed. Wander saves Ludlow from the heat, but Ludlow smells a rat and decides to investigate further. The more he digs, the more of a mess he creates for everyone including himself. The story is quite strong, especially coming from James Ellroy who gave us L.A. Confidential and like that film we're given an unpredictable storyline with strong, uncompromising characters. Los Angeles is also faithfully represented in the visuals, capturing the more gritty side of life there. Another surprise is the casting of Hugh Laurie as the head of internal affairs; he's got the mannerism of his "House" character but also imbues them with a layer of complexity that befits this story. "Street Kings" is a fascinating police thriller.

THE BAD: If there's one thing I had to pinpoint as a flaw, it's Forest Whitaker. He's usually excellent, and there are some great moments in this film for him, but he just doesn't seem to comfortably fit the corrupt character he's playing. In the beginning it seems right but as time passes it gets worse and worse. The final sequence where Keanu faces off against him, he really doesn't look like the nasty piece of work that he's supposed to be, rather a misguided but loveable uncle. It might have been a case of miscasting, and I might be unfair to Whitaker, but his performance didn't ring true for me.

RATING: 8/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Let’s get Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Stephen Chow, Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat acting in the same movie. That’s kinda like PS3 and Xbox 360 isn’t it? Too much of good stuff in one single package may not be an advantage. Take Street Kings for example. We have at least six leading men materials – Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie, Forest Whitaker, Jay Mohr, Josh Corbett and Chris Evans. Plus familiar faces like Cedric the Entertainer, The Game and Terry Crews. If not careful, things might be a mess of reels. David Ayer took careful steps to ensure that Reeves remain as the leading man and the others just do well as the supporting cast. It did turn out well, thankfully. The story is a gripping police/crime drama. When the credits roll, I felt like I have watched all this before. The whole structure plus the supposedly surprise ending was all too common in Hong Kong crime movies. It might be new to the western audience though. Reeves willingly put on weight, look like a haggard and threw in more authentic acting chops here. His onscreen presence is less magnifying this time around. I can’t help but to feel that Whitaker was doing a Denzel Washington here. And Terry Crews... I have been watching this guy acting as psychos and bullies in too many movies. Nice to see him having a serious role here.

Rating: 7/10