PRINTTake Two: Street Kings
April 17, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Intentions are questionable and loyalties are scarce in the new, edgy cop drama, Street Kings. Members of the notorious LAPD find themselves lost in a web of plots, counter-plots, distrust and death — and discover some ambiguous moral ground.
Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is a credit to the Special Vice Squad Unit and especially his supervisor Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker) — not only for his mad cop skills but also for his willingness to take on undercover dirty work. The plot heats up when a fellow squad member is brutally murdered by two gang members. Reeves begins to suspect it maybe wasn’t an act by L.A. vice at all but rather the vice controllers. Reeves then finds it increasingly difficult to differentiate friend from foe.
Reeves again delivers a fairly strong performance as an action-movie frontman. Yet his gentle-giant soft-spokenness, at times, radiates some screen awkwardness (especially because at other times he demonstrates Matrix-like dexterity). Luckily, Hugh Laurie (House from the popular Fox series House M.D.) nicely contrasts Reeves’ awkwardness with his quirkiness as the internal affairs captain. Whitaker tries hard to embrace his character as the scandalous genius mastermind and in the end only appears to be doing just that — trying too hard. The bad guys, who include John Corbett (Sex & the City), Amaury Nolasco and Jay Mohr, are barely believable.
For audiences in search of a masculinity boost, Street Kings is sure to alleviate testosterone deficiencies with its elements of machismo, including drugs, egos, money, guns and women. But if you’re looking for some monumental award-winning acting, moviegoers might want to keep searching.
Vox Rating:
