Street Kings

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Alcoholic cop Tom Ludlow (Reeves) is an 'end justifies the means' detective who is the hero of his LA Police Department, despite his borderline racist attitude, and failure to follow basic procedure. When his ex-partner is killed by two masked gunmen just as he's about to go to Internal Affairs, Ludlow sets about uncovering the different shades of grey in a hugely crooked division - finding a redemption of-sorts for his past wrongs. Co-scripted by James Ellroy, Street Kings is overtly derivative of almost everything else the celebrated crime writer has churned out recently - not least the 2002 underrated Kurt Russell starrer Dark Blue. Sure, this one is a smidge more action-orientated, with extra violent shootouts to go with its A-list stars' aesthetic coolness while holding a gun. But does that really a good movie make? Director Ayer has worked with Ellroy on several occasions, and even helped pen Dark Blue; here, he tries ineffectively to mould that script with his biggest hit to date, Training Day. The result is a mishmash of heavy-handed direction, and humorously cliched dialogue:" ("I've got Internal affairs up my ass"), with some performances that needed serious reigning-in (Whitaker channelling Denzel Washington), to completely miscast hard-nosed supporting players (Aidan from Sex and the City as a rugged law enforcer!?) and a protagonist that, like the movie itself, tries far too hard to be gritty. Sure, it has its moments - the opening fifteen minutes or so manages to engross, with little dialogue and a well-handled shootout; but it then unfolds so predictably that you'll be calling out entire scenes way before they take place on screen. Originality is hardly a must in the cop movie genre, but innovative execution and solid performances really do help (see Narc). A mostly disappointing second directorial effort from Ayer - watch The Wire, The Shield or rent any of the other aforementioned films instead of paying to see this. They'll be infinitely more enjoyable.