Review: Street Kings

STREET KINGS

Written by: James Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer, Jamie Moss

Directed by:David Ayer

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans

What it's about: Tom Ludlow is a veteran LAPD cop who finds life difficult to navigate after the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him. (imdb.com)

Excuse me, are these the auditions for The Three Stooges remake?

Sometimes in business, a very big decision gets made and it turns out to be the wrong one. That's when the business will cut its losses and move on. They don't harp on how it could have worked or should have, they analyze the fallout and recover what they can and move on. Film studios probably know this best, yet some still tend to try and make trash into treasure.

The makers of Street Kings must have watched the final copy and realized this was such a product, but decided to pump up the PR any way. I know this happens sometimes, and it really annoys me but I always get over it and move on.

There were a lot of things wrong with Street Kings and I know for sure that if certain people weren't involved in this, it would probably have gone straight to DVD. The writing was so corny at times I thought I was watching a cop movie from the 40's only nastier. The choice of using people like Jay Mohr and John Corbett as tough guy cops was optimistic but totally wrong. I was laughing when I shouldn't have until the last half an hour when something actually started happening.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by great action movies like Die Hard or brilliant crime dramas about crooked cops like The Departed, but the fact is, Street Kings straight up sucked. It should have been called Street Jesters and as fan of Keanu and others in the film, well, that just sucks even more.

Don't get me wrong, not all movies can be the best, but I don't think this film can even qualify as one of those decent simple mediocre films that you enjoy but don't really remember. Sadly I think I will remember Street Kings simply because it was such a disaster.

I give this film 1/5 limp stars. Way limp.

PS Some of the action/fighting scenes were decent.