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Street Kings

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[Movie review] [Eng | Esp] Street Kings@jrjaime611d
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  1. Film Review: Street Kings (2008)@drax628d

    (source: tmdb.org)

    The boyish looks and reputation of the "nicest man in Hollywood" have often hampered Keanu Reeves' career, making it challenging for audiences and critics to accept him as a world-weary or morally challenged protagonist. One such film that exemplifies this struggle is the 2008 action thriller Street Kings, directed by David Ayer. In this film, Reeves attempts to break away from his established persona, portraying a character that embodies the darker aspects of human nature.

    In Street Kings, Reeves plays Tom Ludlow, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who grapples with personal demons following the death of his wife. His descent into alcoholism complicates his life further, yet he remains part of an elite undercover unit. Ludlow uses his position to dispense his own brand of street justice, eliminating criminals without regard for actual law. While his colleagues appreciate his actions, his former partner, Detective Terrence Washington (played by Terry Crews), has a different perspective and is allegedly cooperating with Captain James Briggs (played by Hugh Laurie) of Internal Affairs in an investigation that could bring Ludlow down. Ludlow decides to confront Washington, but their encounter ends when two masked gunmen kill Washington. Although there is incriminating evidence against Ludlow, it is suppressed by his boss, Captain Jack Wanger (played by Forest Whitaker). Ludlow, nevertheless, decides to investigate the killing of his former partner, with the help of Detective Paul Diskant (played by Chris Evans).

    The script for Street Kings was originally written by James Ellroy, a crime fiction author famous for his novels exploring the dark underbelly of Los Angeles and police corruption, which have inspired notable films like L.A. Confidential. The film was directed by David Ayer, who, as a screenwriter and director, has also explored similar subjects, most notably in his script for Training Day. Street Kings covers many of the same subjects and features similar situations to many of Ayer's films, which is both its strength and weakness. On one hand, Ayer directs the film confidently and energetically, establishing a fast tempo and filling the plot with exciting scenes. On the other hand, the script doesn't seem too original, and viewers will quickly realise how the plot will unfold.

    Reeves delivers a commendable performance as Tom Ludlow; however, some critics argue that an older actor might have better matched the intensity required for the role—drawing comparisons to Mel Gibson’s portrayal in Lethal Weapon. The supporting cast also performs well, although some question the casting of British actor Hugh Laurie in the underwritten role of an Internal Affairs investigator.

    Critics were not particularly kind to Street Kings, expressing dissatisfaction with its high levels of violence and perceived racial stereotypes. Additionally, many pointed out the lack of significant female characters; the only prominent woman in the film is Ludlow’s nurse girlfriend, played by Mexican actress Martha Higareda, who is largely relegated to being eye candy rather than a fully developed character.

    Despite these critical shortcomings, Street Kings achieved respectable box office success. Its commercial viability led to a direct-to-video sequel titled Street Kings 2: Motor City in 2010, set in Detroit and lacking any direct connection to the original film.

    Street Kings is, despite its flaws, still a very entertaining and stylish action thriller, at least for those who can tolerate similar films from the 1980s or won't be too bothered by a lack of originality.

    RATING: 6/10 (++)

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  2. Street Kings: Not the best, not the worst Keanu film@netflixr1667d

    Street Kings is not new but for some reason it popped up on the top ten in my region list in the past week. The film was originally released in 2008 and was considered a minor success by most people's standards but a flop by Keanu standards. I think I know what that is as well.

    image.png src

    Keanu plays the role of Tom Ludlow, who is a LAPD police detective that seems to be able to do whatever the hell he wants to with very little oversight. This is basically the role that has been done so many times before by so many others and while Keanu does nail his role, there are a lot of really impractical things that happen throughout the story. This isn't to say that it isn't entertaining but when there are moments where he is in the armory room at the police station just taking whatever weaponry he feels like taking with him without checking it out with anyone it starts to become a "I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that" type story.

    image-w1280.jpg src

    He's a bad ass cop who drinks on the job and just goes after his various missions without any sort of checking in with his superiors to the point where when the captain does turn up at the crime scenes he is completely unaware that Tom (Keanu) was actually going on this mission at all. This is where we start to figure out that the stupidly named Jack Wander (played by Forest Whitaker) is probably a dirty cop. Sorry for the spoiler but seriously, this is evident really early on.

    At no point during the film does Tom face any sort of penalty for his renegade actions and for reasons that would not exist in the real world he continues to do everything without any oversight at all, presumably because he gets the job done.

    The films is still entertaining because of Keanu's performance, but when there are certain twists introduced it almost seems as though they were trying to do a reboot of Training Day but on level where the renegade cop isn't the bad guy. It's a copycat film and the review scores are reflected accordingly as it has around a 38% approval rating. Professional critics across the board basically panned it calling it "soulless" and I can kind of agree with this assessment. It is just a bunch of violence with a completely impractical story behind it.

    [src](https://www.themoviescene.co.uk/reviews/_img/2971-3.jpg)

    For me the most disappointing thing about this film wasn't the flimsy story but rather the very poor performance of Forest Whitaker who just seems like he is one shout away from drooling all over himself throughout the entire film. I've never really thought he was a very good actor anyway though, so I might be a bit biased here. I tend to look for his shortcoming because I don't think he is good.

    Should I watch it?

    Upon watching that trailer I just came to the realization that this film has the same director as Training Day .. lol, so I guess that it isn't that surprising that the films are actually very similar. I think that if you wanted to have something on in the background with some good action every now and then that this would be ok but there are probably a lot of other things that you could be watching that are a lot better than this. This film has its moments, but mostly it isn't anything special.

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