Street Kings (David Ayer, 2008) — Keanu Reeves / Hugh Laurie LAPD thriller (merged)

[The Bus]

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.cinematical.com/media/2008/02/kings2-(2).jpg
IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421073/) | HD Trailers (http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/streetkings/hd/) | Release: April 11, 2008

This could go either way. On one hand, it looks and sounds like every LA cop movie from the last ten years (half of wich David Ayer has had his hands in). On the other hand, it's got a decent enough cast and crew and the trailer looks pretty good. I might see this if the reviews are above mediocre.

[JPRaup]

It looks absolutely awful.

[TheNightFlier]

Definitely has a good cast. I didn't think it looked that bad, but I'll wait for the reviews.

[Charlie Goose]

WTF. That didn't look even remotely interesting. And aside from Laurie and Forest Whitaker in small parts, the rest of the cast is hot runny shit.

This looks like the same movie Steven Seagal has been making for the past ten years.

[Geofferson]

I was wondering what Reeves has been up to.

[Fanboy]

What are they saying at the end in that song? It sounds like "team okra", but I don't imagine that's it.

[TheNightFlier]

What are they saying at the end in that song? It sounds like "team okra", but I don't imagine that's it.

It's "daywalker," it's from the Blade 3 song "Fatal."

[thegame370]

Looks great, im in!

[mikelowry]

Solid casting. This is worth checking out.

[Artman]

After suffering thru Harsh Times i'm not inclined to let David Ayer take up another two hours of my time - certainly not with a preview like this one. Some writers can transition into directing...others can't.

[GoldenJCJ]

In my experience, movies starring rappers always turn out to be great. :sarcasm:

[Brack]

It could be okay, but the trailer sucked, and by sucked I mean is completely unoriginal. How hard is it to make a movie look interesting in 90 secs?

[SuckaMC]

Just saw this and thought it was excellent. Some good twist and turns and some fairly tough action.. I always liked Reeves in action roles, and he nailed it here again. A good "guy" movie. Great cast too.

[DJariya]

Very good Cop thriller. I think this should be in some kind of box set called "The David Ayer Dirty Cop Trilogy" with Training Day and Harsh Times.

I thought Keanu was actually pretty good as an anti-hero badass in the realm of Vic Mackey. Ayer did a pretty good job capturing the grittyness and essence of being a Cop in Los Angeles. I thought Whitaker was a little over the top as his captain. Some of his dialogue and mannerisms were a little too much.

Everytime I saw Hugh Laurie on screen, I kept thinking House with a badge. I thought it was pretty cool that he dropped a few F bombs.

Some interesting twists and turns and it was well worth the price of admission. However, there was some really bizarre casting with Jay Mohr as a Cop :confused: and his little porn mustache. Also, I find it hard to believe the casting director couldn't come up with anyone better than Cedric the Entertainer to play a street snitch :rolleyes:

A solid B+ David Ayer has become a very credible director IMO in the Cop Thriller genre.

[Finisher]

I'm a David Ayer fan but Street Kings doesn't really work.

Two main problems: 1) Lead character needs to be hardened and intense; the laidback Keanu, while serviceable, is not right for the role. 2) The "twists" are spelled out pretty much from the start.

And Forest Whitaker, good as he is, seemed out of his element.

[Silverscreenvid]

As an action film, the movie was quite successful. Ayer handles that aspect of the movie quite well. Unfortunately, Keanu Reeves is miscast in the lead role. This is not a guy you want playing a badly conflicted character. On the other hand, Forest Whitaker goes way overboard, as if he was using this role to audition for Idi Amin. I don't know if Ayer has a problem reining in actors (Christian Bale did much the same thing in Harsh Times) or he believes that this type of overly showy scenery chewing is what works. In either case, showboat overacting hurt this film as it did Harsh Times.

The other problem I had was with the screenplay. Despite the fact that the movie was from a story by James Ellroy (and has that authentic cop talk feel to it), it is badly disjointed and relies on the villain to conveniently explain all the plot twists towards the end of the movie. My gut feel is that Ellroy's original script was considerably longer and that when the film was condensed, some of the more dramatic, less action-oriented material got slashed and they brought in some other writers to add the explanatory scenes so that the audience would know what was going on.

All in all worth seeing, but not on a level with Training Day or Dark Blue or LA Confidential (the films this movie most imitates).

[mdc3000]

Liked it and thought the performances, style and action were quite good...but man, some of the dialogue was kind of brutal and the 'twists' could be guessed from the outset... thematically it didn't bring enough new to the table and the cliched plot (which I didn't mind until the predictable last act) knocked it down for me. Still, worth seeing for fans of this kind of movie, I had just hoped for a bit more from Ayer. 3/5.

[Mercury&Solace]

Saw this in an advance press screening last Tuesday in Seattle to a barely 3/4 filled theater, and it was free! Weird.

The movie was good, as a cop thriller on the surface it worked, the story was good, and I always like seeing the LA underworld (not as good as Mann can do, but still good.) I liked the action, and it wasn't too over the top. The characters weren't that engaging, and some I didn't give 2 shits about anyways. The Keanu character was a little cliche for me (cop on the edge, heavy drinker ect.) But I thought the whole Vice Squad thing, and what they did was very intriguing, I wish they would have focused on that material a little more, Keanu going in first, only his story being told. I really liked that angle. I think you could have done a lot with that material, too bad we didn't get as much of it as I wanted.

Here are my gripes.

Casting-The casting for this was horrible. Keanu, ya he worked for me (though i kept thinking Johnny Utah), and I loved Hugh Laurie (though under used) Forest Whitaker was good (a little too lover the top) and Chris Evans was decent. I absolutely hated the casting of Cedric the Entertainer, I mean please come on, the guy is a "comedian" and you cast him in a cop thriller, absolutely did not work for me. Jay Mohr, I love Jay Mohr, he also did not work in this movie for me. Amaury Nolasco was ok, but didn't work for me that great either. Naomie Harris when is the girl going to get some lead roles, I thought with the limited material, she was very good.

The twists-Whats a cop thriller without the twists. This is a joke though right? The "twists" could be seen coming from a mile away. The "twists for me weren't that exciting, or suspenseful and were pretty cliche, nothing out of the norm with that.

Overall pretty decent. I would say C+/B-

[FantasticVSDoom]

Yeah, my only gripe was that you could pretty much figure out what was going on at the beginning, but I still enjoyed how they got there. Good action and loved the whole "underground LA" feel.

[Patman]

Keanu Reeves returns to the big screen as Tom Ludlow, a helluva vice cop who takes no prisoners in the line of duty (much to the consternation of the rest of his vice unit), but finds the line between duty and corruption becoming blurred. An off-the-books personal investigation of the murder of a former partners leads Tom down a twisted path a la "Dark Blue" and it's a fun ride to the end. Kudos for going the rated R route as the action is violently nasty and the dialogue allows for an adult treatment of the material.

Keanu's performance is actually quite serviceable and Forest Whitaker is forever chewing the scenery with great comic effect. I liked the overall cast in general. In fact, the film is violently hilarious at times and the dialogue cracked me up in spots given the confidence Tom exudes in spite of the odds against him as events and situations unfolds. I wouldn't consider this a great film, but it's pretty entertaining within the cop drama genre with a lot of machismo on display.

I give it 2.75 stars or a grade of B-.

[B.A.]

I thought it was a good, albeit predictable as hell, flick.

I liked the cast for the most part, except for the over-acting of Whitaker. Cedric seemed a bit out of place, but he did what they needed him to do.

It was a perfect role for Keanu. They didn't need a guy w/ a lot of range. They needed someone who could handle the action and appear w/out emotion while doing so. The character was practically dead inside - he played it just fine.

The chick who played the nurse/girlfriend was nails.

*** out of five.

[Giantrobo]

I just got back from seeing this and it was a decent flick. I had no real gripes other than them not using Common and Hugh Laurie more but other than that I came out entertained.

[Tarantino]

Saw this with a big group tonight. Most of us thought it was terrible. Horrible dialogue! Twists that could be seen from the very beginning. Just bad, all around.

= J

[danstheday]

Loved it. Dark, dirty and violent as hell.

[Paddy963]

I found it to be very formulaic. The whole time I sat there thinking "there must be some twist I don't see coming" but in the end the whole thing played out exactly liked I thought it would.

I hate watching crime movies where the cops are trying to solve the case and you've figured it out long before they have. It's as if the director thinks were idiots or something and we won't realize the obvious.

[Layziebones]

Great Movie but I saw a lot of stuff that looked like it was ripped straight from Training Day. The good News? Training Day is my favorite movie. Terry Crews, Quicks, and a coupel others were in Training Day aswell.

[DJariya]

My only problems with the movie was some grossly miscasted characters like Cedric, Jay Mohr and even Terry Crews. I didn't buy Crews being the righteous Good Guy.

Alot of people probably thought Keanu was miscasted, but I thought he was very good. As mentioned above his character was angry and dead inside.

[Geofferson]

I got around to seeing this tonight (was either this or 88 Minutes). Keanu wasn't bad in the lead, but it played out like a below average episode of The Shield. I expected better dialogue and a tighter plot from the likes of Ellroy. Grade: C

[Zen Peckinpah]

Saw this last night. I'm a whore for a good cop thriller/action/drama, so I was mildly interested in seeing it despite the mixed reviews. Keanu isn't De Niro, but he was serviceable. However, the supporting cast makes it, Whitaker and Laurie are greatness (my cousin said the latter was basically House with a badge; haven't watched the show before but know the route he's going). Chris Evans has a lot of potential from what I've seen here, and I'd like to see him in other things not involving flaming on. However, it did have some flaws.

What I liked:

-The opening scene is fantastic and brutal as hell.

-Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Terry Crews, Common.

-The grittiness and unrefined brutality of the film. The violence, especially when Crews' character gets killed was definitely a plus given its no-man's-land setting. Also loved John Corbett's death. Shades of Re-Animator!

-The dialogue was aptly written.

-Keanu Reeves isn't a complete retard in his role and is watchable, though I would have preferred another actor.

When it reaches the last third it got quite convoluted and was really veering into an overly Hollywood-y world. I wouldn't put this in the league of Serpico or The French Connection or To Live and Die in L.A. or Training Day, or the dark shadows of morality Gone Baby Gone displayed so brilliantly, but it was definitely highly entertaining and wouldn't rule out buying the Blu-ray.

*** out of four.

[sundog]

I really liked that the frame-up was obvious and out of the way quickly... it let the movie settle into a nice simmering boil. I would have liked to see more of Chris Evans, but I understand where his character stood in the scheme of things.

My buddy made the best comment about Keanu Reeves: "it's Neo, but instead of the Matrix, it's the LAPD".

Still, it's a cool, 'honest' flick, nicely lacking in pretension.

[Original Desmond]

good movie i enjoyed it

[Unclejosh]

I mildly agree with some of the criticisms about overacting, predictable, and dialogue issues, but I enjoyed the film. It did the only thing I expect from a movie, it entertained me.

Overall fun ride in the "guy" cop movie genre.

[EdTheRipper]

I saw this one tonight. I really enjoyed it. Solid action flick.

[pridesticks06]

I caught this a week ago and I too enjoyed it. It kept me paying attention and actually wanting to get involved. And I'm a sucker for Hugh Laurie :D

[Charlie Goose]

I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Reeves is Reeves, sometimes you're not sure if he's even awake. Whitaker is definitely hamming it up, but he does it so well, it's enjoyable. Laurie doesn't have much to do except look smug. The plot doesn't really hold water, and the twists are so obvious, but it's never boring.

Slight spoiler, no names mentioned
It also uses the movie cliche of The Talking Killer. Bad guy has good guy incapacitated, but starts flapping his gums rather than kill. Good guy figures out an escape.

[LickTheABCs]

I enjoyed it more than Training Day :shrug: