Street Kings

Once we realized our local theater only had one showing of Street Kings each day late at night, our eyebrows raised. Was it hiding from us or simply stuck with a shitty showtime because of its lackluster box office numbers? Whatever the case, we were treading on egg shells with this one because a) it might suck and b) we didn't really want to get mugged walking back home from the theater. But come on, we had a laundry list of reasons to not avoid this one:

1. It's fucking Keanu.
2. Dirty cops in L.A. a la Training Day are always good for sweet shootouts.
3. Forest Whitaker scored an Oscar for Best Actor in The Last King Of Scotland.


What we quickly learned is that there's a lot more hiding under the surface. This doesn't necessarily make it a better film, but most definitely kept us glued to the screen. Street Kings doesn't try to pretend like it's not a dark, gritty exploration of the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. In fact, it goes the route of Training Day, but quickly abandons the good cop/bad cop binary for a more plot driven alternative. Keanu's character, Detective Ludlow, is a good cop who lies and kills in order to put dangerous thugs behind bars - or more often they end up dead. Too bad for them. Conflict builds up when Ludlow's ex-partner starts ratting his fellow officers out and Keanu finds himself in some serious shit. The action and plot ramp up and before you know it you're watching Keanu throw chairs at Mexicans on rooftops, convenience store clerks get mowed down by automatic weapons, and fucking House, M.D. shows up. In a hospital. To boot. But he isn't a doctor. This is pretty indicative of the confusion we felt during the first half hour, but Street Kings does a good job of explaining its porous dialogue and the more complicated plot points that just went over our heads. No matter, the story unravels fairly smoothly and the ending wasn't as disappointing as Ethan Hawke busting a cap in Denzel's ass and just driving home.

Street Kings doesn't tell us anything new about gang violence in Los Angeles or the vigilante cops pulling some Dirty Harry "interrogation," which is, of course, code for killing the poor bastards. The movie does a good job of throwing in multiple plot twists that keep you guessing until the end, almost as good as The Departed when Marky Mark offs Matt Damon in his little booties. We enjoyed this movie, which makes us think about how this flick was marketed. The only way you were probably going to see a trailer for Street Kings was if you frequent movie blogs or check Apple's trailer page religiously. Maybe if these few cop movies were given a little more limelight on TV and attached to bigger budget releases, we could see a return to greater stories about law enforcement. [Although this is not our endorsement for another Lethal Weapon or Rush Hour.] And with that...


Things we learned from Street Kings:

Don't hide your drugs in mustard containers.
If you get shot at on a regular basis, have a hot nurse sugar mama who can stitch you up.
Don't forget to change out your ammo if you're going on a house bust.
Drinking little bottles of vodka is pretty manly.