Movie: Street Kings

Detective Tom Ludlow(Keanu Reeves) works for the LAPD Vice under Captain Jack Wander(Forest Whitaker). In addition to Ludlow, Wander also has three other cops working for him – Sgt. Mike Clady(Jay Mohr), Detective Dante Demille(John Corbett) and Detective Cosmos Santos(Amaury Nolasco). All these cops slightly bend the rules - by planting evidence and editing the reports - to get back at the criminals.

Ludlow kills a Korean gang and frees kidnapped twins. Wander and his cops arrive at the scene and plants evidence so that Ludlow is not charged for breaking a dozen laws. When the TV and the press go berserk with the latest heroics of Ludlow, Detective Terrence Washington(Terry Crews), Ludlow’s old partner, confronts him. Wander diffuses the situation and warns Ludlow to keep his distance from Washington. Wander knows Washington is talking to Internal Affairs about Ludlow.

Ludlow, then, leaves the crime scene and goes to a hospital to clean up his wounds. His girlfriend, Grace Garcia(Martha Higareda) works in the same hospital. But their brief interlude is interrupted by Captain James Biggs(Hugh Laurie). Biggs is in charge of the Internal Affairs and he warns Ludlow to think about the consequences.

Convinced about Washington’s snitching, Ludlow follows him the next day. Washington makes a stop at a convenience store. Before entering the convenience store, Ludlow finds two armed and masked men entering the store with guns. Ludlow and Washington tries to defend the store. But, Washington is brutally killed by the robbers. When Ludlow calls for help, Wander and his other cops arrives at the scene. While watching the recordings from the safety camera, Wander finds incriminating circumstantial evidence against Ludlow. So, Wander asks Ludlow to destroy the security recordings and agrees to help Ludlow get out of this situation.

Ludlow is temporarily transferred to Complaints department, a desk job, till the heat settles down. Meanwhile, Detective Paul Diskant(Chris Evans) is assigned to find Washington’s killers. Ludlow urges Diskant to find out the truth behind the killings. Soon, Ludlow and Diskant follows up every lead. What they find out is shocking and this forms the rest of the story.

David Ayer directs this thriller based on a screenplay by James Ellroy. James Ellroy specializes in telling stories about corruption in LAPD which is reflected here too. If you have seen other adaptation of James Ellroy books like LA Confidential, Dark Blue etc, there is no suspense in the movie as you will guess what is coming!

About performances, there isn’t nothing much to write about! But the movie has an ensemble star cast. The movie also features Cedric the Entertainer in a tiny role.

Watch this only if you have nothing else to do.

Language: English

Genre: Thriller

Rating: *

Picture Courtesy: Yahoo! Movies

Tags: Movies,Keanu Reeves,Forest Whitaker,Jay Mohr,John Corbett,Cedric the Entertainer,Terry Crews,Martha Higareda,Hugh Laurie,Chris Evans,David Ayer,James Ellroy,Thriller