Street Kings

Street Kings Film 4. Screenplay by James Elroy and I’m taking it is based on a book by James Elroy. Keanu Reaves is the maverick cop, among a like minded group, for whom the rules of policing are what others use to avoid getting the job done. The pace is non-stop. In the first scene Keanu gets badly beaten trying to sell a machine gun to some Asians. They steal his car and the merchandise, but leave him with his life. Keanu doesn’t let that bother him. He tracks them and kills four or five of them in their gangland home. He’s not one to bear a grudge. They’d been holding two sisters hostage and it was them he’d come to rescue. They’d walked right into his trap. There first mistake was there last- thinking Keanu could be shot or hurt. It’s only then that we find out he’s a bad-ass cop.

It all gets a bit complicated after that. The one thing that remains consistent is Keanu beats, shoots, or hurts people, but, apart from a few hospital scenes, remains unhurt. Keanu follows a trail of corruption that loops and snakes back towards the men he’d most trusted, the men that he’d worked with in his department and in particular to his boss and mentor Forrest Whitaker. Hugh Laurie plays the internal affairs’ s guy that needs Keanu to do the department’s dirty work, but early on tells Keanu he’ s out of his depth and in a Cassandra like warning suggests that he’d need to work with him. Street Kings is a multi-layered narrative with action in every scene. Easy to watch and easy to forget.