Triana Pardon
Street Kings is another crime drama, blockbuster-wannabe that will make you laugh, even if it is unintentionally.
The film has an all-star cast featuring Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, and two famous musicians well-known in the hip-hop scene: Common and The Game.
Besides the familiar faces and suspenseful shootouts, David Ayer’s depiction of this serious crime drama loosely based on a story by James Ellroy is frankly cheesy all around.
Keanu Reeves plays Detective Tom Ludlow, a corrupt cop who thinks he is above the law.
When Captain Biggs (Hugh Laurie), the head of Internal Affairs starts getting suspicious of Ludlow’s dealings, all eyes turn to Ludlow’s ex-partner, Washington (Terry Crews), who has been talking to Internal Affairs. Ludlow follows Washington into a convenience store, where he had planned to confront him, but sees gang members ready to shoot up the store.
Washington is killed and Ludlow appears to be the prime suspect.
In order to cover up this mess, Ludlow goes to his boss and mentor, Captain Jack Wander(Forest Whitaker), who is only more than happy to help him. However, to cover it up, Ludlow would have to forget about searching for Washington’s killers.
Ludlow doesn’t listen and goes after them anyways to avenge his ex-partner’s murder and the story goes on from there.
The script was not original. There have been many films about corrupt cops in this gritty and harsh town of Los Angeles and this one did not stand out from all the rest. Although the story contains a few twists, they were sadly predictable.
The dialogue was cheesy at times, yet humorous because you weren’t sure if it was intentional or not.
Although there are many well-known and established actors in this film, the script called for some cheesy lines that took them out of their element. Some performances come off a little too intense, which makes it seem like they are overacting.
When pairing the likes of Keanu Reeves’ wooden acting style to the intense and commanding role of Forest Whitaker’s Wander, there were times when ones performance couldn’t help the other and imbalanced the nature of the scene.
Hugh Laurie’s performance, though good, was one you have seen before as his other well-known character of House.
Chris Evans, surprisingly, had a great performance that not only helped scenes with Reeves but also helped feed the actual humor within the film.
Street Kings is definitely for the men or women who love guns, action, blood, drugs and dirty cop dramas.
If you are one of those people who are looking for a nice date movie with your other, an Oscar-worthy film, or an original story, this movie is not for you.
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