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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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 Street Kings Stars: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Jay Mohr, Terry Crews and Amaury Nolasco Director: David Ayer Scriptwriters: James Ellroy (from his story) and Kurt Wimmer Music: Graeme Revell Fox Searchlight Rating: R Running Length: 110 minutes Street Kings is a combination of Training Day (written by director David Ayer), The Shield and House. Nothing original in this script, even shooting a fish tank with water running over the floor. Keanu Reeves manages to demolish one thug after another with only a few scratches. Hugh Laurie is shown in a hospital, sitting on a doctor's stool chewing gum, and it is so much like his House character on the television series that you expect to see a group of medical students trailing behind him. Forest Whitaker, also, is much like his character of Lt. Kavanaugh on The Shield. There is even Amaury Nalasco from Prison Break as a police detective. When he goes near an open grave, you remember the scene from the Prison Break series. See what I mean by nothing original here? The story by James Ellroy concerns corruption in the LA police force. Reeves opens the movie by setting up three guys who are part of a drug ring. Behind the ring, though, they kidnap little girls and keep them in cages. Enough reason for Reeves to permanently dispose of the bad guys. Enter Forest Whitaker as Reeves captain who covers up for him. Everyone, it seems, wants kidnappers of little girls taken care of. As we go through Reeves day, we find him at odds with a former partner (Terry Crews) who now is talking to Internal Affairs. Rumor has it that Reeves is being set up by this ex-partner. When the ex-partner is murdered and Reeves is nearby, rumors begin of a planned murder. With the clock running out, and Hugh Laurie as an Internal Affairs investigator breathing down his neck, Reeves has to figure out what to do. Trailing along are other police detectives including Jay Mohr and Chris Evans. Cedric the Entertainer provides some comic relief as Squiggles, a snitch. When Reeves is temporarily given a desk job, some of the people coming in for complaints are eye-openers. One of the detectives looks suspiciously like John Corbett, even talks like him, but mostly he's shown in a shadow. Could this have been a cameo? There are few women in the movie and the two who are given speaking lines are also roughed up. Martha Higareda is Reeves girlfriend who is a nurse, while Naomie Harris is the wife of Reeves former partner and dubious of Reeves motives. As it goes, this film had potential to be a searing police drama. As it plays out, there is extreme violence and the lead actor has nary a scratch, though bullets are flying everywhere. The favorite method of dying is to bleed out and cover the entire floor. Miranda Rights are for other films and there is a humorous moment when a thug is beaten and then asks the cops, "Aren't you supposed to read me something about now?" No love scenes, though references to previous conquests. Drinking and driving is not a good idea. The sound track by Graeme Revell sizzles at times and Reeves, with a stoic face, is believable as a killing machine, but plot as presented here is stale. This may have been a better film with a switched-around cast and had actors playing against type. Chris Evans, for example, who ends up as Reeves sidekick, could have had the Reeves part. I would have put Keanu Reeves as the sidekick, Hugh Laurie as Reeves' superior officer, Whitaker as Reeves former partner, and actor Terry Crews the former partner, as the Internal Affairs man. Copyright 2008 Marie Asner Submitted: 4/11/08 
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