Street Kings Review

"Street Kings" sees the return of Keanu Reeves, an actor we're all still a bit unsure of despite his good fit in The Matrix trilogy, maybe he hasn't quite shaken off the Californian "dude" roles of his early days.

"Street Kings" is a police thriller and as such is a bit predictable in the same way that romantic comedies are, there's suspense and tension to be found between the credit sequences, but the movie is saddled with an ending that doesn't sit too well. Reeves, stars as Tom Ludlow, a dirty cop who begins to grow a conscience. It helps, of course, that his supporting cast includes Forest Whitaker and Hugh Laurie. Director David Ayer, making his second feature, has a screenwriting background in cop movies (including Training Day) and co-writer James Ellory is a respected name in the crime genre. The result of this collaboration is a generally strong motion picture that implodes two minutes before it ends.

Ludlow has appointed himself as judge, jury, and executioner and shows a blatant disregard for any law that stands between him and who he sees as a bad guy. When he adds a few too many corpses to his body count, Tom finds himself under investigation by Captain Biggs (Hugh Laurie) of Internal Affairs. Things go from bad to worse when Tom's former partner and current IA snitch, Washington (Terry Crews), is gunned down in a convenience store robbery. Tom's boss (Forest Whitaker) tells him to forget about it and move on, but Tom partners with homicide detective Diskant (Chris Evans) to follow the evidence and make amends. The trail leads him into a web of police corruption.

For the most part, Street Kings does what any solid police thriller is supposed to do, and while this one stumbles at the end, it is overall a gripping and entertaining film.