STREET KINGS

By
Jacqueline Monahan

Jacqueline Monahan is an English tutor for the GEAR UP program at UNLV. She is also a consultant for Columbia College Chicago in Adjunct Faculty Affairs.
jaxn8r@msn.com

The title even sounds like crime, with violence and corruption, thugs and seamy underworlds, sexual slavery, drugs, and unsavory characters in a very dismal Los Angeles setting. Well, maybe not all that just from two words, but there is surely no glamour here, just grit enough for even the most optimistic to get wary.

From the first time Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) reaches for his alarm clock, fully clothed, there is a foreboding feeling that something is not only lurking, but it is fully armed and waiting to strike. This LAPD detective takes his gun to the bathroom with him while he brushes his teeth. No ordinary badass, he recognizes the need for good oral hygiene, given the plethora or profanity he will spew on the mean streets.

You won’t know whose side the beefy Ludlow represents until some time passes, so shady are his dealings. Mini vodka bottles are his constant companions; he empties them from the driver’s seat of his car while on the way to drug busts and ambushes. His supervisor, Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker) is a fast-talking Captain who treats his men like sons, both favorite and prodigal. He’s taken a special interest in the maverick Ludlow, even though the latter’s methods are questionable, barely legal, or downright criminal at times. Everyone equivocates in this tale, and rationalizations fly like planes out of LAX.

After Ludlow is celebrated for rescuing 14-year old twin girls from a sexual slavery ring, his disgruntled former partner, Washington (Terry Crews) torments him with accusations of unprofessional behavior, bribe-taking, ass-kissing and just about any other vile, underhanded action unbecoming to a detective. The once-close pair is at odds and seemingly on the opposite sides of the force. Is Washington corrupt? Before anyone can investigate, he’s mowed down in a convenience store robbery, where Ludlow just happens to be at the same time. The two thugs flee but are caught on tape. Ludlow is under suspicion, but a cover-up is proposed on his behalf. The Captain likes him, he’s a hero, and Washington was a rat. What’s the problem?

The problem is Ludlow’s pesky conscience. The Internal Affairs head, Captain James Biggs (Hugh Laurie) is keeping an eye on him. Detective Paul Diskant (Chris Evans) is snooping into Washington’s activities and trying to clean up Ludlow’s mess, finally teaming up with Ludlow to answer questions about Washington’s murder and track down the real killers despite several false starts. An informant, Scribble, (Cedric the Entertainer) provides the most recent information, and the plot thickens as tentacles of corruption penetrate hilltop homes, police headquarters and dry-walled hiding places.

There are undercover cover-ups galore. Anyone who can be trusted at all is quickly dispatched and the corrupt are left to rule the streets like kings – hey, that must be…Obvious, isn’t it? Not really, the film will take a lot of turns before putting you back down. I appreciated that, even though some of the outcomes were showing throughout the run, like a long slip worn with a short dress.

There’s a love interest for Ludlow in the person of Nurse Grace Garcia (Maria Higareda) who is especially good at patching up her constantly injured and shot main squeeze. Another female, Washington’s widow Linda, (Naomie Harris) serves to fill in missing information for Ludlow so he can finish the ugly picture his puzzle pieces create and then act accordingly.

With this role Keanu Reeves leaves behind a lingering legacy of the skinny surfer-dude which emerged in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Point Break. This is a bulked-up Reeves, fuller in the face, broader in the shoulders, ready to be taken more seriously as an alcoholic rogue lawman with a chip on his shoulder, a dead wife, a bitter snitch of a former partner and a vigilante sensibility.

Forest Whitaker’s body of work features him more often than not as a sympathetic character, which can work against him when his role calls for ruthlessness or deceit. It’s to his credit that he can still pull off such a dichotomy between his off-screen persona and on-screen character perception – quite impressive.

Hugh Laurie has played disgruntled Americans for so long, you can forget he was one of the petty thieves that purloined pooches in the live-action film 101 Dalmatians. There he was allowed to use his native British-accented speech – very surreal when you think of what he’s become known for. He’s perfect here as the guy you can’t trust, but should, or shouldn’t trust, but can. Laurie gets the nuances just right, as usual.

Cedric the Entertainer‘s small role showcases the comedian as a competent dramatic actor, believable and committed to an unfiltered street portrayal. Jay Mohr, as Sgt. Mike Clady can also turn his funny side off when needed and does so admirably as the nagging bureaucrat obsessed with the appearance of propriety if only in theory.

Chris Evans, the “hot” one from The Fantastic Four franchise is one of the only sympathetic characters in the film. See what that, and a mention of a fiancée, gets him.

Director David Ayer (Harsh Times) revels in the sins of both good and bad guys, and manages to make L.A. look ugly and uninviting while doing it.

Screenwriters James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, Training Day) and Kurt Wimmer (The Thomas Crown Affair) have crafted a script that can be clever and clichéd all at once. Action propels this drama, but you do have to follow a somewhat convoluted plot to understand most of the violence.

You’ll be glad to see these kings get crowned.