I liked it.
I have a thing for these cop movies. Like Training Day.

Just put it on my iPod. I'm sure I'll get to it this week....

Saw this a few months ago, found a torrent of a DVD rip somehow a good ways before the thing actually hit the street. Was pleasantly surprised, it's a very good and involving LA cop mystery drama in the way of Training Day and LA Confidential. I mean, don't get me wrong, okay LA Confidential was like Oscar nom worthy, this isn't exactly that, but it's a damn good way to spend 2 hours. And I think Keannu does a perfectly adequate job (I make a point of saying that because obviously he takes a lotta shit).

I thought it was pretty awful. I actually laughed at some of the exchanges.....and it wasn't a comedy.

i wrote this review a lil while ago for a newspaper. im not an entertainment writer so this was a foray into a new field, but THIS was the shit they sent me to.

The name alone should set off some kind of acerbic recoil: Street Kings. And as you'll quickly find, nothing about this movie lives up to its lofty title.

The most troubling bit about Street Kings isn't that it falls short as a work of artistic merit. The most disappointing thing is that it doesn't even live up to its name as an entertaining action flick that allows viewers to simply shut off their brains for two hours and enjoy a good romp of a story. Sadly, the story is anything but good, and several so-so performances will doom this movie to the bargain racks for years to come.

The movie follows Tom Ludlow, a brash Los Angeles cop with a heart of gold, played by the much-maligned Keanu Reeves. It's not surprising to see Reeves cast as a troubled officer, but his uninspiring performance might catch fans of his role in The Matrix off-guard. Ludlow harbors a drinking problem, among other nefarious vices, and his off-center antics have him on the lamb from what he thinks is a conspiracy to have him kicked off the force and into a courtroom. But as the movie progresses, viewers are treated to a seemingly endless string of monotonous plot twists involving Reeves' boss, played by the terrific Forest Whitaker, and Ludlow's own partners.

Ludlow gets caught up in all kinds of hijinks along the way, including a predictable tryst with a lovely brunette, lots of window smashing and some mindless action scenes. In one unintentionally comical scene -- in what one can only assume is meant to show Reeves' complete disregard for the "rules" and his overriding desire to "get the bad guys" -- he's shown streaking down an L.A. thoroughfare at breakneck speed in his loud muscle-car, narrowly missing an elderly woman on a motorized scooter and a few pedestrians.

Now that's a cop I'd like to have protecting and serving my city. Reeves' inhumanity and lack of polished acting skills make several scenes laughably robotic. As his running mate Paul Diskant, played by the solid but unremarkable Chris Evans, dies in his arms in one of the movie's final scenes, the camera thoughtfully closes in on Reeves' expressionless face. This is supposed to be a moment of weakness and pain for Reeves, and yet we're treated to an emotionless blob as the music explodes into its crescendo. It was a fitting microcosm for the rest of the movie's issues with blandness and general predictability.

The audience was sure to voice its silent disapproval as well. Upset, stupefied or just plain bored patrons trickled out of the theater by the handfuls throughout the screening.

The movie wasn't all bad. Whitaker was nothing short of brilliant, and some entertaining action scenes provided a brief respite from the monotony. But even a soaring performance from Whitaker couldn't save this movie from the depths of mediocrity. Whitaker was cast perfectly as the cop with a murky disposition toward the rules, and he plays his part with tact and an understated brilliance.

The same, however, cannot be said for Reeves. During a predictable final scene where Reeves confronts the demons of the LAPD, the awkward exchange between he and Whitaker actually produced scattered laughter from an audience clearly unsure of what it was watching. The scene was dealing with unmitigated corruption in arguably the country's most mercurial police department. So the fact that an unassuming audience found it laugh-worthy is telling for all the wrong reasons. Hugh Laurie, famous for his role on Fox's House, also helped anchor an impressive cast that failed to save Street Kings from its own script.

Even if you don't have the ticket stub emblazoned with this movie's name, you've seen this film before. Only then it was titled Training Day or The Departed or any number of movies along those lines. Those films took real shots at police corruption, not veiled attempts that meagerly paw at a trite, overdone concept. And that's clearly what we have with Street Kings.

Grade: C-