Elanso

Movie: Street Kings * Keanu Interview * Official Site	In Theaters:	April 11, 2008
Directed by: David Ayer	Runtime:	109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and pervasive language	Gecko Rating:

As much as I love Keanu Reeves (in a he-seems-like-a-really-nice-guy kind of way), his acting always feels like he’s reading from a cue card. Kind of wooden. Not a whole lot of range. And it doesn’t help when he’s playing a cliched anti-hero-alcoholic cop like in Street Kings.

In a Reuters story, Fox Searchlight president Peter Rice called this movie “a story that’s familiar, but told in a fresh way.” I beg to differ. This movie has every cliche known to crime-thriller fans, from rogue cops to dirty cops to dead cops with grieving widows.

Reeves plays Detective Tom Ludlow, a veteran LAPD cop who’s struggling emotionally after the death of his wife. He’s kind of a Jack Bauer type, in that he doesn’t always play by the rules to get the job done. When Ludlow busts up a porn ring and rescues two little girls, he shoots all the suspects, then…

…fires off a few rounds of one of their guns to make it look like he was fired on first.

When Ludlow’s former partner, Terrence Washington (Terry Crews), is gunned down in a convenience store, the security video implies that Ludlow stood by and let it happen. In reality, he was following his partner on a tip that he might be involved in shady dealings, and tried to warn him when he saw what was happening.

When Ludlow’s mentor, Capt. Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker) banishes him to a desk job, Ludlow sets off on his own investigation which leads to assorted seedy creatures in L.A.’s underbelly, played by guys with real-life names like Cedric the Entertainer, Common, and The Game. (Yes, I know who these guys are, but their ridiculous names bug the heck out of me.)

And here’s what else bugs me about this movie:

1) I think that James Ellroy, who penned the screenplay, needs to take some time off or find a different genre or something. It’s been 11 years since L.A. Confidential came out in theaters. Let’s move on.

2) You can see the plot coming 1000 miles away. World-weary alcoholic cop, slain ex-partner, seedy characters, green-behind-the-ears sidekick (played by Chris Evans), lurking Internal Affairs guy (played by Hugh Laurie), worried nurse-girlfriend (played by Martha Higareda), yada yada yada. I knew where this movie was headed in the first five minutes.

3) Forest Whitaker’s character was way too deer-in-the-headlights to be believable. I don’t care who you are. You don’t spend that many years on a police force without being jaded and cynical. And it bugs me that a veteran cop like Tom Ludlow wouldn’t have any inkling that his co-workers were dirty. Please. What was he, born yesterday?

Ok, that’s all I have to say about this movie.

  Images: Street Kings, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2008

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