Now I know ya'll know I'm a thug nigga frum da streets homey, so we I talk about my boys in dis here movie, Street Kings, I know what I'm talking about. Aight? So if any of ya'll punk-ass bitches wanna fight me, well I guess we can take dis out back.

Wow, I feel so...fake after typing that line. Either way, here's my review of Street Kings for all of you movie lovers.

Street Kings
Director: David Ayer

Writers:
Kurt Wimmer(Ultraviolet, Equilibrium, The Recruit)
James Ellroy(nothing worth mentioning)

Runtime: 109 min
Rated R for strong violent and pervasive language(where's my obligatory titty shot?)

Here's the IMDB page where you can check out the great cast that was in this movie.

First of all let me give you a synopsis. Keanu Reeves, that's Neo, is Tom Ludlow, a badass, stereotyical, run-and-gun type of cop who is using alcohol and law enforcement to replace his dead wife. After he discovers his ex-partner, Terrence Washington, played by Terry Crews, is ratting him out for some things he did in his past, Ludlow decides to take matters into his own hands and follows Washington to a convenience store. Unfortunately for Tom, Washington is the victim of a gang hit and is killed. Ludlow is implicated in the murder and now must clear his name by going against the entire LA PD and his own Vice Special unit, commanded by Forest Whitaker. He recruits the help of Detective Paul Diskant, a Internal Affairs investigator that wants to get out of his office and onto the streets. Hugh Laurie plays Captain James Biggs, a cop that hunts down dirty cops and throughout the story, and is on Ludlow's ass the entire time.

So here's my story-in-a-nutshell version. Badass cop hates ex-partner but then spends the next hour of my life trying to cover his own ass from getting tossed into the slammer only to have it come full circle on him and be betrayed.

Since it is a dirty cop movie, along the same lines as Training Day and Assault on Precinct 13, the plot is twisted enough that I can't reveal too much without revealing the fun stuff.

Keanue Reeves turns in a classic Reeves movie. He's shallow, unemotional, dry, and all-around average performance. He plays the same character in every movie, but fortunately, like The Matrix, his acting fits the character he is playing. The bad part is, that he just doesn't pull off the bad-ass cop with the surfer accent. It's like watching Bill & Ted with guns. Dialogue in the movie is good, but just not his.

Forest Whitaker is, once again, showing why he is not only a leading African-American actor, but one of the best actors in all of hollywood. I swear if this man was in every movie I see this year I wouldn't complain. His facial expressions and voice, while sometimes over the top, are such a contrast to Reeves' lack of those very qualities.

The person I was impressed the most with, however, was Cedric the Entertainer. He plays a drug dealer and actually pulls it off quite well. It was nice seeing Cedric do something, ANYTHING, different than what he normally does. Seeing him rollin' down the street in his caddy was hilarious.

The movie didn't disappoint me, but it still felt like there was something missing to it. Oh yeah, now I remember, quality characters. Street Kings never made me care about the characters themselves. The only one I did come to like was, of course, Hugh Laurie and Chris Evans' characters. What happened to Reeves and Whitaker, not so much. I'm a huge fan of Training Day, which I feel is the pinnacle of dirty cop movies, and so I judge all other dirty cop movies by that standard.

Street Kings doesn't live up to Training Day, in fact it comes no where close. But, it is a good cop movie in it's own rights. If you like dirty cop movies and can stomach Reeves' android-like acting, then you will enjoy Street Kings.

I give it a 7/10. If I had gotten a booby shot, that could have been bumped up to an 8. Oh well. I suggest seeing it at the matinee, it's definitely not a prime time, night film.


Trailer for Street Kings