Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Directed By: David Ayer
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker

David Ayer brings us another hard-hitting, street cop story of corruption and betrayal with Street Kings. Reeves stars as Tom “Lud” Ludlow, a borderline alcoholic who’s indiscretions have been skillfully covered up by his team and his commanding officer, Jack Wander (Whitaker). But when Lud is implicated in the death of another cop he is forced to turn against the force he loves and men who were once his friends and find out if he has been on the right side from the start.

Other than the odd TV trailer I hadn’t seen or heard much about this movie and I have to confess that when I walked into the cinema I had every intention of seeing In Bruges but it didn’t start for nearly 3 hours and I couldn’t be arsed to wait that long. Street Kings, however started in under an hour so I bought my ticket for that. From the word “go” this had David Ayer all over it and I began making comparisons to Training Day and Harsh Times straight away. In many ways this movie is very similar to both of those movies but that is no detriment to it as I absolutely loved them, especially Training Day which remains my favourite ever cop movie (Oh god, I hope they don’t spoof them all and call it Cop Movie… I can’t take any more.). So yeah, criticising the writing and direction for being too similar to Training Day and Harsh Times would be like criticising your wife or girlfriend for looking too much like Angelina Jolie. The film is different enough for you to be surprised but familiar enough for you to enjoy the similarities.

The cast was very good but it was obviously a huge risk. After all, who’d have thought of casting Keanu Reeves in a role where he’d have to display some emotion? But they did it and I have to say he really delivered. This takes the number one spot away from The Matrix for the best performance of Reeves’ career in my opinion. Forest Whitaker was good too but this wasn’t his finest hour by any means. That said, my opinion of the man hasn’t changed, he’s still one of my favourite actors. Supporting cast were also very good but not obvious choices. Hugh Laurie gave a good but slightly too familiar performance as House MD… erm oops, I mean Captain James Biggs and Chris Evans (Human Torch, not Annoying Ginger) was convincing as wet-behind-the-ears Internal Affairs Detective Paul Diskant. My biggest problem with the cast was the smaller supporting cast of small time drug dealers and gang members… in this area the casting showed no real originality like the bigger roles in the film. Noel Gugliemi played the obligatory hispanic gangster… AGAIN! and The Game showed his stroke-victimesque face as the token black gang member/snitch (AKA Snoop Dogg’s role in Training Day) Although these guys both played their parts pretty well, I just wish that they had gone with some unknowns so you didn’t know what characters they were before they spoke a single line. Cedric The Entertainer made an appearance as Scribbles, a heroin addict forced to snitch or be sent to prison… he was okay (He said “Be cool” ) but when was the last time you saw a fat heroin addict?

Smaller casting problems aside I still have to say this movie is pretty damn good, if you enjoy this type of thing. It has plenty of action and a story that is complex and interesting enough to keep non-action fans watching. If you weren’t a fan of Training Day or Harsh Times then I’d suggest you stay away because you won’t like this either.

Verdict: