Street Kings

Aside from being a collective of “oh I know that guy” type actors and crossover celebrities, Street Kings turned out to be a pretty entertaining film. Not attempting to win any awards for writing or originality, it seemed like the main intent of the movie was to paint a picture of corruption and the L.A.P.D. Though I found it hard enough to accept Keanu Reeves as a broken military-caliber cop, it was even harder watching Cedric The Entertainer and Terry Crews play serious roles. Forrest Whittaker must have been in a good mood to accept a part in this one, but I will chalk it up to his willingness to help out a young cast by donating some real acting to the mix.

Street Kings details the life of Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves), a renegade badass, killer cop with a chip on his shoulder. Tom’s shoot first, ask later tactics are always covered up by his congratulatory boss Captain Jack Wander (Forrest Whittaker) and scoffed at by rival officer Terrence Washington (Terry Crews). Things seem to stick to this method until an officer is killed off duty by two gang members and Tom is caught on camera during the entire episode doing little to nothing to help the officer. Captain Jack steps in to help Tom cover his tracks but the hot headed Tom goes on a vendetta to find the two killers. What he exposes during his hunt for the two gangsters leads to an unexpected twist in corruption that will force him to point the gun in the opposite direction…

Yes we have all heard this plotline before, a few hundred times but it is like the feel good sports movie or the chick flick… predictable but entertaining. This movie has every cop cliche you can think of outside of donuts. You have your corrupt cop, your Dirty Harry cop, your ambitious cop, your lazy cop, your a-hole cop and your young hero cop. The cinematography is dark and gritty, and the camera scarcely leaves Keanu’s back so it’s like watching the cop version of Grand Theft Auto. Here’s the part where I gloat on the things I liked the most… Martha Higareda was sexy, Naomie Harris was beautiful with some unbelievable lips… good to see her in a regular role since her part on Pirates of the Carribean hid her true looks to us fanbois. I wanted to offer her a sandwich though, she needs to eat something, maybe I can send her and Keira Knightley a few gift certificates to Bennigans. Anyway Forrest Whittaker delivered like he always does and I must say I love Keanu Reeves in these roles. Neo seems to do best as the dark, troubled anti-hero, ie: Constantine, Neo, and erm A Scanner Darkley.

I cannot reccommend you go burn money on this, but if you like Common, Cedric The Entertainer, Jay Mohr (for you Jim Rome clones out there), The Game and any other rapper I may have missed, then go see it. There seems to be a trend with the get a rapper in a badly written action movie thing going that is actually working these days post DMX. I must think on this… oh I know, they just rehash old scripts, meh whatever, it was an entertaining flick. Check it out.

Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.

Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.