Street Kings Review

Overall 4.00 of 5 view all 2 reviews

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jmdobies
Austin, TX

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Intense, Violent Action Drama About Corrupt LAPD Officers

forty something, a music lover, a man, sleep deprived, Film Noir Fan, married, parent of two, TV Personality

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Pros

Ellroy's Dialogue, Intense Action

AUG

2008

Street Kings reunites director David Ayer with writer James Ellroy, who collaborated on the screenplay for 2002's Dark Blue. Actually, to be more accurate, it was not so much a collaboration as a rewrite job by Ayer on Ellroy's original screenplay The Plague Season. Like Dark Blue, the script for this movie was written by Ellroy in the early '90s, and spent years in development. Unlike that film, which was conceived as a period piece taking place during the 1965 Watts riots, then updated to the '90s for budgetary reasons, Street Kings was always meant to be a contemporary story.

Inspired by the O.J. Simpson trial, the movie tells the story of hard-drinking, morally ambiguous vice cop Tom Ludlow, played by Keanu Reeves, who is implicated in the death of his former partner. Reeves is particularly intense in the role, his line readings given without any of his usual surfer dude inflections. The opening set piece starts things off with a bang, as Reeves takes out a Korean drug gang in spectacular fashion.

Although the script underwent a few drafts by a couple of other writers, much of Ellroy's trademark dialogue has survived the rewriting process. Co-starring are an over-the-top Forest Whitaker as the ambitious squad commander, with John Corbett, Jay Mohr, and Amaury Molasco as Reeves's fellow vice cops, and Hugh Laurie as an Internal Affairs investigator. Chris Evans plays "Disco," a young cop who partners with Keanu to solve the killing of Reeve's partner.

Rounding out the cast are Cedric the Entertainer, Common, and The Game.

Street Kings is a fast-paced thriller involving extremely corrupt cops, drug-crazed street trash, and violent action. If you like your crime dramas dark and violent, with plenty of killings, you will love this movie.

Available on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Last edited on Aug 28, 2008