Sparks fly in action-packed crime thriller
Not since San Francisco Inspector Harry Callahan tortured and executed a serial killer in 1971's "Dirty Harry" has there been a police drama this violently engaging and gleefully touting the virtues and necessity of a safer, corrupt police state.
The down-and-dirty thriller "Street Kings" comes from director David Ayers, a downstate Champaign native and writer of the Oscar-winning "Training Day," a crime drama also covering cowboy cops on the edge.
He joins forces with "L.A. Confidential" author James Ellroy, one of three screenwriters behind this muscular, visceral pitch for law enforcement officers to do whatever they have to in order to stop the bad guys.
Even if they become bad guys in the process.
Imagine if Keanu Reeves' police officer in "Speed" became depressed that Sandra Bullock tossed him over for Jason Patric in "Speed 2." Roughly, you'd get a quasi-suicidal, lone-wolf undercover cop who shoots first and never asks or answers questions later.
Actually, Tom Ludlow (Reeves) has lost his wife, which supposedly gives him the freedom to take ridiculous chances, as in the movie's firecracker opening sequence when Ludlow single-handedly guns down a crack house of sexual slavers who've imprisoned two abducted young sisters.
Ludlow rigs the crime scene so his questionable methods won't be questioned. If he forgets something, he knows he'll be covered by his commanding officer, Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), a man who encourages Ludlow to take out the trash.
"You went toe-to-toe with evil and you won!" Wander waxes poetic. "You are the type of cop we need! Who's going to hold back the animals?"
Not everyone agrees with this zoo view of police work. Ludlow learns that his former partner, Washington (Terry Crews), might be ratting him out to Internal Affairs.
Ludlow decides to confront Washington outside a convenience store, but in a wild confluence of coincidence (or is it?), two punks come in to rob the place and air-condition Washington with automatic weapons.
They presumably don't see Ludlow hidden in the corner.
Things look bad for Ludlow, since Washington testified against him. The situation is even worse because Ludlow accidentally shoots Washington in the shoulder while returning fire.
It's deep doo-doo time, and even Captain Wander may not be able to fix it. Meanwhile, Ludlow vows to find his partner's killers before Internal Affairs finds him.
"Street Kings" should be taken at face value as a straightforward action film. The dialogue verges on black-and-purple prose ("I'm lighting a match and burning all of you!"). The plot has more holes than Washington's corpse. And we can see the conspiracy coming miles before Ludlow does.
(For a forgotten gem in the police drama genre, check out Sidney Lumet's "Prince of the City," a more realistic look at police corruption, albeit a box-office disappointment.)
Reeves, who once had an excellent adventure as part of the "Bill & Ted" team, makes a formidable action hero incapable of registering the nuances of internal conflict.
He gets back-up from Chris Evans as an idealistic recruit (and we all know what happens to idealistic recruits in crime dramas, don't we?), Hugh Laurie as the relentless head of Internal Affairs, Martha Higareda as a stereotypical hot-blooded Latina lover, Cedric the Entertainer as a comic relief character, and rappers The Game and Common as bad, bad guys.
"Do everyone a favor," Wander says to Laurie's I.A. head, "Wash your mouth out with buckshot!"
You gotta love a cop tale with dialogue like that.
"Street Kings"
3 stars
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans, Hugh Laurie, Cedric the Entertainer, The Game, Jay Mohr
Directed by: David Ayer
Other: A Fox Searchlight Films release; rated R (extreme violence, language); 108 minutes