Sunday, November 9, 2008

Movie Review - Street Kings

Movie Title
Street Kings
Year
2008
Category (Current/Recent/ Blast from the Past)
Recent
Genre
Police Action

Story
An above average police flick with ample bits of LA realism thrown in for good measure (read: expletives and gun violence). However, there are elements here and there that are a little predictable.

Keanu Reeves plays Detective Tom Ludlow, part of a police team that takes out the city scum as judge, jury and executioner. He, however, usually does these activities alone. Backed by his boss, Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), who condones these activities as a necessary evil to protect the city. There are others in the force who disagrees with their methods. One particular case resulted in Captain James Biggs (Hugh Laurie) of Internal Affairs investigating Ludlow for one of the cases that resulted in the death of Ludlow’s ex-partner, incriminating Ludlow in the process.

Detective Paul Diskant (Chris Evans) ends up helping Ludlow with the case (ie: getting some payback to the KILLERS) and there are a few twists that keep the viewers guessing till the end.

Acting
Credible acting from the cast. Altho’ it felt a little odd seeing Keanu in the first few minutes of the movie because for me, when ever I see him, it always reminds me of the Matrix Trilogy (which by the way is the best Sci-Fi trilogy in the past decade). He does a credible job portraying a redemption-seeking Detective Ludlow.

It was also refreshing to see Chris Evans play a serious role (‘cos I have only seen him clowning around in Fantastic 4 I & II. Let’s not even mention Sunshine.)

Overall
Good cop flick but if you’re queasy with violent scenes or the language, this may not be exactly for you. I have watched quite a few very good cop flicks (like LA Confidential and HEAT) and that’s the sole reason I’m not giving it a very high score.

Rating: 6/10

1 comment:

aflee said...

I might have scored it slightly better at 7. Agree fully with all your other comments.