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Movies Forum Index » Movie Reviews Forum » Review: Street Kings (2008)
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| Steve Rhodes |
 Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:20 am |
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STREET KINGS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
It's hard to know where to begin in discussing this mess of a movie. Ranging
from pretty preposterous to laughably bad, STREET KINGS is a silly and sappy
melodrama that plays like an unintentional parody of old crime shows.
Since it's all bad, let's arbitrarily start with the film's ugly visuals.
Shot with excessive use of extreme close-ups and fast editing, the movie
gives you the nauseating feeling of sitting in the first row, no matter
where you are in the theater. The effect is that all of the action --
whenever there is action, since this is a remarkably action-free action
picture -- becomes a blur. It's frequently unclear who is shooting at whom
and with what weapons. The cinematography is dark with the colors washed
out, making it appear rather like a print of an old movie that has been
sitting on the shelf for years.
STREET KINGS is the second film directed by David Ayer. Like most people,
you probably missed his first one, HARSH TIMES. It was just as much of a
disaster as this one, both of which feature lots of pseudo-real crime drama.
There isn't a single one of the heavily clichéd characters in either film
who is the least bit believable. Your audience, like mine, is likely to be
laughing at -- not with -- STREET KINGS.
The central character is Detective Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves). A hard
drinking one-man police force, Tom drops by his local liquor store before
starting his night's work of killing bad guys and planting guns in crime
scenes. He needs his usual stash of little bottles of vodka, so he can down
them throughout his tour of duty.
In this canonical crime caper, in which almost every cop is dirty and in
which every crime is some elaborate frame job, Tom and his career are
protected by his boss, Captain Jack Wander. Academy Award winner Forest
Whitaker (THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) overacts with a vengeance as the
duplicitous captain.
Captain Jack's main sparring partner is Hugh Laurie, playing House. Okay, so
as Internal Affairs Captain James Biggs, Laurie isn't exactly playing the
very popular television character which is his claim to fame, but you'll get
the idea. The problem is that Laurie's James is a lame, third-rate knockoff
of his deliciously irritating television character. Viewers can see the real
thing for free on TV, so why would they want to pay good money to see a bad
imitation?
Ah, and then there is the dialog, which is as wooden as any forest you've
ever walked through. "Do the department a favor," Jack tells James in what
the script thinks is a searing retort. "Wash your mouth out with buckshot."
The rest of the dialog -- the film is based on a James Ellroy story -- is
just as stiff and stupid.
Graeme Revell's moody and dramatic music keeps suggesting that a much better
movie is in progress. As the movie lumbers along, never coming close to
finding any rhythm, I took a short bathroom break. The Oscar winning song
from ONCE was playing in the restroom. When they sang, "You have suffered
enough," I felt like they were talking directly to me. But, like a trooper,
I went back and suffered through the rest of this abysmal film, so that you
wouldn't have to.
STREET KINGS runs a long 1:49. It is rated R for "strong violence and
pervasive language" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, April 11, 2008. In
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
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