Street Kings - Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker

Posted on 2008 under Crime, Drama, Thrillers

Street Kings is the story of a rogue crew of LAPD cops that managed to find a way to have free range of the city of Las Angeles. Having free range means that they could practice questionable police tactics without having fear of recourse or fear that they themselves will ever go to jail.
Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is a veteran LAPD cop who finds life difficult to navigate after the death of his wife. He plays a LAPD detective that has made a career of staying above the law. That entails framing suspects, beating up informants, or even killing people that have gotten in his way that deserved it. For a long time this method of police work seemed to not have an issue with him. Until he finds out that his ex partner was going to rat him out over past police dirt that he had.
This pisses him off, but he gets pissed off even more after a two man crew of thugs decide to kill is ex partner right in front of him. In the maly he is unable to defend off the thugs and save his partner. Afterwards, the department just chalks it up to a loss and attempts to bury the case in paperwork without finding the people that perpetrated the crime. With this crime lingering on his mind and revenge on his heart he starts to find similarities in the crime that start to lead him to question the loyalties of everyone around him, from the captain to the Lieutenant to the next in line officer in his unit. Ultimately, he finds that everyone does have his back until he starts to mess with the status quo that has been built over the past 8 or more years. Soon the hunter becomes the hunted and all hell breaks loose.
I am not a great Keanu Reeves supporter but I have to say that I enjoyed Mr. Reeves in this movie. His personality is not brutal but when force is needed he has what it takes to take care of business. Although, I felt that he was a evil character in the beginning he turned out to be a stand up guy that just needed to know the truth about his ex partner. And in the end it changes his focus to the job of being a police detective and ultimately changes him back to a cop that will fight for what is right. Not, what pays the most.
This movie is not for the weak at heart. So, I would not expect to have children or young adults take a look at this movie. There is a lot of gun fighting and death shots. But it is what it is, a great chiller cop movie with a lot of twists along the way.