Street Kings D-
Starring Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, and Hugh Laurie
Directed by David Ayer (writer of Training Day)
Rated R for strong violence and pervasive language
Appropriate for ages 17+
The Story: A dirty cop (Reeves), working with a team of dirty cops (everyone else in the film), finds himself growing a conscience when an ex-partner is killed by a couple of gang-bangers. Meanwhile, his current partners and boss (Whitaker) are trying to cover up the messes he leaves behind. Hot on everyone’s trail is the chief of internal affairs (Laurie).
The Good: The film has a few interesting moments and images, such as man rolling into a razor wire fence and a dead shark floating in an aquarium. Also, the action is constant which doesn’t allow the film to get overly boring.
The Bad: I can’t decide which is worse: the writing, the directing, or the acting. All three are so equally bad.
The story lends itself out for predictability in the first act, and the dialogue is embarrassingly stereotypical. Predicting the ending will not make you seem even slightly clever.
The directing is flawed throughout, including a humorously bad scene where Keanu’s nurse girlfriend tries to take care of his gun-shot arm by wrapping it with a roll of gauze without cleaning it or removing a bullet. Mind you, this only one of many bad examples.
The acting shows the poor ability of the performers to phone in their roles. This film has Eric Roberts and Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson straight-to-DVD written all over it and it’s sad that the filmmakers didn’t realize this before hiring and shooting such a talented cast of actors.
The Summary: This is a true stinker that could have you running for the doors long before it’s over.
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