STUDIO: Fox Searchlight
STARRING: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Mohr, Terry Crews, Naomie Harris, Common, The Game, Martha Higareda, John Corbett, and Amaury Nolasco
RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2008
DIRECTED BY: David Ayer
WRITTEN BY: James Ellroy and Kurt Wimmer and Jamie Moss
GENRE: Action
RATING: R

"From the writers of L.A. Confidential and Ultraviolet!" Which one of these things is not like the other? We would never go as far as to suggest that all of the good parts of Street Kings come courtesy of the master of modern noir, James Ellroy, and that all of the bad parts come from Kurt Wimmer, the man who wrote the Milla Jovovich disaster, but there is an odd duality to the film, in terms of quality. For every element that works, there's one that doesn't. The action is well-paced and occasionally riveting, but the film is seriously miscast and to call the dialogue cliched would be an understatement. The ideas are interesting and the plot is never boring, but it's simply not original enough, coming across all too often like "L.A. Confidential 2008" or a big-screen version of The Shield. I imagine nearly everyone who sees Street Kings will be right on that line, a balanced scale of pros and cons that could go either way to a thumbs up or down, depending on the mood you're in that day. For me, I'm barely in the up position, but even I'm not exactly sure why.

From his first scene, you know this is not going to be the family-friendly Keanu Reeves. He looks puffier and more out of shape, like he's actually lived in his character's well-worn shoes. Reeves tries his hardest to shed his pretty-boy image in a role that feels more written for the Michael Chiklis or Russell Crowes of the world, and he actually does a decent job of channeling the world weariness of a cop who went over the edge of the law years ago. Reeves' Detective Tom Ludlow is the kind of cop that we claim we don't want, but that Hollywood has taught us we need. He's the guy who shoots the child rapists first and never bothers asking questions. He's too busy putting guns in their hands and planting evidence. His unlawful-but-righteous behavior has been covered up by his Captain (Forest Whitaker) and his partners on the force (the very oddly-cast TV trio of Jay Mohr, Amaury Nolasco, and John Corbett), but his former partner (Terry Crews) might be ratting on him to Internal Affairs (headed by Hugh Laurie). When Ludlow goes to confront the guy who used to have his back, he gets caught in a robbery, where the soon-to-be snitch gets gunned down. There's no way to defend what Ludlow was doing there, so the cover-up begins and, when Ludlow starts to wonder exactly who killed his partner and why, the answers are not easy. Common, The Game, Cedric the Entertainer, and Chris Evans co-star in this large ensemble piece of actors you would never imagine pairing together. Jay Mohr, Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans, and Cedric the Entertainer? You have to give the casting director points for originality.

Sadly, the casting is about where the originality of Street Kings ends. After a series of riveting opening scenes involving some pretty racist dialogue from Keanu Reeves and an intense shoot-out, Street Kings starts to devolve into a relatively predictable story of bad cops and worse cops. The idea that there's a line of lawfulness that you can push but not break has been done a thousand times before, and Street Kings doesn't really bring anything new to the table. Having said that, a lot of cliched cop movies are poorly made, but you can't say that about Street Kings. It's very well-shot and there's not really a bad performance in the film. Reeves still brings a lot of baggage to everything he does, but it's not as bad as it used to be and, to his credit, he gives it his all. Whitaker is always good and Common nearly steals the movie with just one five-minute scene. Like he did in Smokin' Aces, he almost feels like he's walked off the set of a better movie. The guy is riveting.

Street Kings is a tough call. If you're the kind of person who demands originality every time you open your wallet, this might not be the movie for you this weekend, but there's something to be said for a story well-told, no matter how ridiculous it may be. We've undeniably seen films like Street Kings before, but does that make it worthless? Can something be said for a derivative and cliched movie if it's well-made enough that most audiences will never be bored? Granted, if you think about Street Kings for more than five minutes, its house-of-cards screenplay will totally collapse, but there's something to be said for being entertained for two hours (even if it’s a guilty pleasure), something not a lot of 2008 movies have been able to pull off.