Post by BIGFANBOY on Apr 19, 2008 3:34:15 GMT -5
STREET KINGS
Review by Gary Dean Murray
I have never truly seen the attraction Hollywood has for Keanu Reeves. He has an edgy look that makes women swoon, but there never seems to be any substance behind his acting. To me there has always been stiffness in his performances. But one cannot deny his box office appeal. His latest venture is a dirty cop drama Street Kings. And it shows where Keanu Reeves is heading as an actor.
The story is of Tom Ludlow (Mr. Reeves), a lone wolf Los Angeles cop who goes ‘toe to toe with evil’. His captain (Forest Whitaker) calls him the ‘tip of the spear’ in the war against bad guys. By no means is he a perfect hero. He drinks, plants weapons and is sometimes scared out of his wits. Look on him as a modern version of the lone flawed gunslinger. But he is a gunslinger who hangs with other devious and dangerous fellow officers. Well, after he rescues some young girls from some bad men, Tom finds that his former partner Washington (Terry Crewes) is about to turn evidence on other members of the LAPD. Tom assumes that Washington is going to rat him out and the captain tells Tom to do two things. One--stay away from Washington, and two--lay low in a desk job taking civilian complaints against the police. Tom doesn’t listen to his boss and goes to confront his ex-partner. While this is happening, the store they are at is being robbed. Two masked figures gun down Washington in an orgy of bullets and blood. The chief in trying to protect Ludlow takes the surveillance disc. Tom wants to find the bad guys who killed his former partner and begins his own investigation, all the time being warned that he doesn’t want to do it. It is that eye-opening journey to the truth that is Street Kings.
The actual story is a mess, full of asides and complicated turns that never fool the audience. This is a film where anyone can figure out what is going to happen pretty much from word go. It is a plot that thinks it is more complicated that it truly is. Director David Aver knows how to frame an action sequence. There is a glee while capturing his barrage of carnage. It is as if every male in this world revels in destruction and the director wants to live the fantasy, wallowing in the gore. It rides a thin line between trying to entertain and trying to shock. Forest Whitaker is perfect as the chief. His crazed stare and manic gestures, he's a personification of someone trying to do anything and everything to save his own skin. Though he seldom works as an actor, this year we have already seen him in two different films.
This is the Keanu Reeves show, and he does it all with one emotion. But one can play pretty much the same character over and over again as long as you do it well. For all his detractors, Keanu does know how to make the action hero work. Tom is a very flawed character but still stays in the milieu of what Keanu can perform as a actor. To sum up Street Kings—it is not a good film but a good movie. It is a trifling bit of entertainment meant to get people in the seats not to reflect on the human condition.
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