Following the loose trilogy of L.A. Confidential, Dark Blue and Training Day it was hard not to get excited about David Ayer and James Ellroy’s involvement in another muscular film about the cops that prowl the streets of Los Angeles, especially when that film contains Forest Whitaker.
Unfortunately, this excitement was misplaced as Street Kings proves to be an utterly predictable trudge through what has come before, which is a shame because the individual parts are of a very high quality. The dialogue is as lean as you could hope for and even Keanu Reeves is competent enough (although in fairness he is out played by Whitaker, Chris Evans, Hugh Laurie and just about everyone else that walks past the camera). The issue here is the plot. Within five minutes you know exactly what is going on and are then subjected to another 100 minutes of Reeves’ (like, erm, totally) bad-ass cop playing catch up. The tedium is just plain… erm… well… tedious and there really is nothing else to say about it…
4/10
