by Karyn L. Beach

Street Kings is being billed as a ‘gritty crime drama’, directed by the writer of Training Day. Starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker, I walked in expecting a truly good time. I walked out sorely disappointed.

Reeves is Tom Ludlow, an alcoholic loose cannon of a detective, who does what he has to do to take down the bad guys. We see this first-hand when he kills a bunch of Asian drug dealers/kiddie porn peddlers. When Police Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker) shows up, you expect the standard “Look at this mess! You’re a renegade cop! I could have your badge for this!” speech; however, Wander is Ludlow’s biggest fan and actually praises what was truly an execution. It turns out that Ludlow is one of Wander’s elite Special Vice team. However, Ludlow’s ex-partner Detective Washington (Terry Crews) isn’t welcome into their little clique. After all, Washington has spoken with Internal Affairs, represented by Chief Jack Biggs (Hugh Laurie) and according to Wander, Washington has told IAD some rather unpleasant things about our boy Ludlow.

So upset is Ludlow by this betrayal that he follows Washington looking for a chance to confront him. When Washington pulls into a liquor store, Ludlow seizes the opportunity. Talk about wrong place at the wrong time. Ludlow and Washington end up in the store just as it’s being robbed. The ruthless gunmen unload on the cashier and Washington (while Ludlow hides to avoid the machine gun fire). The problem is that Tom isn’t just a witness; he also becomes a suspect when he’s framed for his ex-partner’s murder.
Without knowing who to trust, Ludlow ends up working with the relatively new detective assigned to his case, played by Fantastic Four’s Chris Evans. Together, they try to clear his name and find the persons behind his ex-partner’s murder.

Although Reeves isn’t known for intensity as an actor, he was passable here. Whitaker was good as well, but they had to overcome some truly clichéd dialogue that, at times, had me rolling my eyes. There are cameos by a colorful Cedric the Entertainer and of course, a couple of rappers, to provide some ‘menace’ in the form of The Game and Common.

Yet, I was never fully engaged in Street Kings. Even in crime-action dramas, a lot depends on the ability to really pull for the protagonist, but I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters on that level. Ludlow was a widowed alcoholic who was innocent of the crime of which he was accused. So there were plenty of reasons why I should have felt something for him but I just didn’t.
I also had a lot of questions about Ludlow as this ‘ace detective.’ I’d tell you my specific questions but I feel it would give too much of the plot away (and I don’t do spoilers).

Granted, there were some solid shoot-outs and credible action sequences but for a film with this kind of pedigree, I needed more than that to recommend it.