STREET KINGS

"Stay with me partner"

When the criminal element of Los Angeles seedy underbelly needed to be dealt the kind of justice that was above the law, Capt. Jack Wander (Whittaker) turned to Detective Tom Ludlow (Reeves) to get the job done. This was bound to get him noticed and when Internal Affairs Captain James Biggs (Laurie) opens an investigation, Wander and his vice team close ranks around Ludlow. Biggs has an ace up his sleeve however with the testimony of Ludlow's old partner Detective Terrence Washington (Crews) but when Ludlow goes to confront him, Washington is gunned down in a convenience store hold and the blame is pointed squarely at Ludlow.

The Los Angeles Police Force has probably had the most screen time of any of the Forces in the US but can another story of Police corruption grab the attention of the cinema going public?

Being a member of the LAPD can mean you are a hero or a villain when it comes to Hollywood movies. The trend since the 'Rodney King' incident has seen Los Angeles been turned into a war zone, controlled by street crime, gangs and racist, corrupt police officers. Of course the corrupt officers are pursued the lowest of the low, Internal Affairs, those with the task of policing the police who are universally hated by all officers because, according to Hollywood, all corrupt or even good police officers have to operate above the law to get things done. This is the plotline used again in 'Street Kings'.

LAPD's vice squad has an arrest record second to none and its captain, Jack Wander is on his way up, eyeing the position of commissioner and even mayor. This squad and especially Detective Tom Ludlow get the job done by any means necessary and if that means taking down the bad guys without probable cause and rigging the scene to look like they fired first, making lethal force justified. This has worked numerous times but when Tom Ludlow rescues two missing Korean girls but kills everyone involved, Internal Affairs Officer Captain James Biggs starts to take notice. While this plot might draw you into the story unfortunately for 'Street Kings' this is nothing we haven't seen before.

Written by James Ellroy, the highly regarded novelist who's books 'L.A. Confidential' and 'The Black Dahlia' have already been adapted for the screen and Kurt Wimmer, best known for writing 'The Thomas Crown Affair' and 'The Recruit' and for directing 'Equilibrium' and 'Ultraviolet', you might have been expecting a movie filled with twists and turns and plenty action but you will be disappointed. When you realise that the film was directed by the writer of 'Training Day' and the man behind the excellent 'Harsh Times, David Ayer you will be even more disappointed at how stereotypical and reminiscent of so many movies that we have seen before.

The reputation of the writers and the director has gathered together to an excellent ensemble however. Oscar winner Forest Whitaker brings some power to Captain Jack Wander but is a little over the top in parts. Chris Evans proves he can play drama as rookie Detective Paul Diskant. Hugh Laurie is seriously underused as Captain James Biggs and Terry Crews, Jay Mohr, Cedric the Entertainer and John Corbett have small but influential parts. Keanu Reeves as the corrupt cop who gets most of the screen time however but you can't really take him seriously as a cop who thinks he is above the law but wants to go straight.

'Street Kings' is another LAPD movie that tries to make out that Los Angeles is a war zone where the law has to be ignored to make a difference. The problem is that the TV show 'The Shield' does this with far better writing and more believeable characters, making movies like this redundant.

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Harsh Times

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2008