Street Kings

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Despite the bad reviews it was getting, I was still excited for Street Kings. I mean, look at the talent behind this one: we have an original story by crime fiction master James Ellroy (whose superb The Big Nowhere I recently read and loved), and it was directed and re-written by the writer of Training Day and Dark Blue, both of which are above average police procedurals. Then in the cast we have the awesome Forest Whittaker, charismatic up-and-comer Chris Evans, best man alive Hugh Laurie, small roles for Common and The Game, Jay Mohr not in a comedic role, and, most importantly, America's Most Underrated Actor Keanu Reeves in the lead role. I mean, come on, that's a pretty good combo.

Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of you don't think much of Keanu, and I wouldn't call him a great actor myself. But I would call him a good one, with a lot of good movies under his belt, and I think his low-key style of underplaying works well for the kind of cold, direct, stoic badass he plays here.

Anyway, fuck everyone else because I did like this flick quite a bit. I suppose I am sort of predisposed to this kind of crime drama/corrupt police procedural movie. The same way other folks have some intrinsic love of westerns and something stirs in side of them... that's how I feel seeing a couple of sleazy, tough-guy cops rolling up on some gang members in East L.A.

Now, there are problems, don't get me wrong. It's far from perfect. There's one part that got a big, unintentional laugh from the audience I saw it with, and that always hurts the overall product. The ending isn't very satisfying, and although I like its cynicism, it's a little too much to take.

Surprisingly, though, the worst part of the movie is Forest Whittaker. Now, I think Whittaker is normally a great actor; his work in Ghost Dog reaches the pinnacle of film acting as far as I'm concerned. But here, he starts out amusingly broad before overacting so hard that he actually becomes uncomfortable to watch and ruins some of the climactic scenes of the movie. I mean, damn, didn't anybody think to tell him to tone it down a little? (Maybe they were encouraging him to go bigger?) After Street Kings and Vantage Point, Whittaker is not having a good year.

So fine, it's not perfect, but what it does right it does great, especially if you're into this kind of macho, violent, corrupt LAPD type of story. The characters are well drawn (for tough guy stereotypes) and pull the requisite badass antics. The plot is entertainingly convoluted, there's some pretty snappy dialogue, and a handful of top notch, genuinely exciting action scenes. I especially dig the shootout in a very tiny apartment, and the fight Keanu has while he's handcuffed. That's good shit, and further proof of my theory that we are entering a new action movie renaissance. Oh, and even though it's an urban action movie, Ayer doesn't go overboard on the MTV editing, which should be a given but is becoming something of a special feat these days.

I found so much of this movie to be fun, badass, compelling and well-done that it's probably just a case of my own personal biases. Or that's what everyone else would say. But you're all assholes. I'm right, you're wrong, this is a pretty good movie.