DVD Review: Street Kings
Written by: Shayne at 11:31 pm
Movie Info:
Director: David Ayer
Writers: James Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer, Jamie Moss
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Mohr
Rating: R
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Info:
Theatrical Release: April 11, 2008
DVD Release Date: August 19, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $24.99
If you saw the movie Training Day and you liked it then you will probably feel a familiarity with Street Kings. While different, many of the same themes are explored. If you hold a magnifying glass to this movie and scrutinize every angle in comparison with Training Day you won’t like it. That is not to say this is a bad movie. It’s just not Training Day. Then again, I could name a million movies that it’s not. However, if you take it for what it’s worth, leaving everything else behind, it certainly isn’t that bad.
Fans of action movies set in gritty, gang infested neighborhoods will like this movie because that is exactly what you are offered. Street Kings was undertaken by David Ayer after a number of other directors declined the project or abandoned it altogether. While it was originally supposed to see the light of the theater in 2005 it did not get there in actuality until April of 2008.
The majority of the problem that I have with Kings is in the initial writing. The story manages to build all the tension that you could ever need in an action film. Despite that it never feels like it does anything more until it’s incredibly close to the ending. There is not a beginning, a climax, and an end. There is a roller coaster that leads to the climax and when it finally gets you to the top you tumble down to the end and that’s it. So if you play by action movie rules it’s not bad. If you’re looking for Oscar buzz, you won’t find it here.
The Street Kings Plot
The men in blue of the Los Angeles Police Department, affectionately known as the LAPD do not always play by the rules. Enter Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves), a jaded officer that has recently lost his wife and is not handling it well. He works in a unit under Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker). In order to ensure efficient police work, this unit falsifies documents and deals in shady police work, but hey, before you say anything, it’s all in the name of the law!
However, Ludlow’s former partner Terrence Washington (Terry Crews) has gone straight and feels that corruption by the police is wrong. So when he finds out that his old partner walked into the hideout of some Korean gangsters and wiped the place out he informs Internal Affairs. It then becomes the job of IA Captain James Biggs (Hugh Laurie) to investigate Ludlow and determine if he is on the straight and narrow.
Ludlow plans to confront Washington, but ends up looking even worse when his former partner is gunned down right before his eyes. The pieces don’t seem to add up when all of the evidence of the murder points to two street hoods and to Washington still being a corrupt cop. Ludlow works with Disco (Chris Evans), a fellow officer, to get to the bottom of things. As the investigation rolls on Ludlow will begin to put the pieces together and may even end up on the wanted list, as well.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing: 
Audio/Visual:
I do not feel truly comfortable offering up a review on the quality of the audio and visual that came with the 20th Century Fox screener that I was given. According to the specs the visual quality, which is handled with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio should be something very nice to look at. However, the screener copy had work to be done on it beyond the standard watermark that comes with the screeners. There was some dirt, specs, and moments of blur that really got in the way. Rather than grade on this quality, knowing that it will not be the quality on the final disc, I have decided to leave scoring out for these sections.
Audio certainly fared better on the screener, but whether it gets better or not from there I cannot say. The audio was presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and it sounded decent throughout. The dialogue was more than passable and the score was rich and well placed within the scope of the film. I didn’t have to play with the volume much, which is always a good sign. Overall, the audio was much better here in this screener, but as I originally stated it’s possible that any assessment here would not be accurate based on the final offering.
Bonus Features:
The Special Edition, which is what is being reviewed here, is actually available on two discs with the second disc offering a Digital Copy that works on portable media players, such as the Apple iPhone. The first disc, which actually has the feature film on it, also offers a slew of extras that will make any Street Kings fan happier than they can recall when it comes to DVD viewing. Chocked full of special features, you can tell that Ayer didn’t want movie viewers to leave empty handed. In fact, he wanted them to know every possible thing about Street Kings they could.
An involved and entertaining commentary with the director, David Ayer gets things moving. He is comfortable, relaxed, and informative. He works his way through some of the themes of the movie and also speaks about the formation of the project, as well. Next up are about twelve minutes of deleted scenes. As you might have guessed they were deleted because they didn’t make the grade. Still, they aren’t so bad that they are worth ignoring. Finally, there are a slew of special featurettes all listed below.
The longest of all of the featurettes comes in at close to 18 minutes. “Street Rules: Rolling with David Ayer & Jaime FitzSimons” takes you through the real streets of South Central. The script process is pored over in “LA Bete Noir: Writing Street Kings”, while “Street Cred” explores many of the secondary characters in the film.
A set of four mini-featurettes look at casting, stunts, and other behind the scenes hands-on preparation. These videos are “Crash Course”, “Heirs to the Throne”, “Inside Vice Special Unit”, and “Training Days.” Another set of four behind the scenes mini-sodes look at pretty much the same thing as the previous four. These ones are listed as “In Training”, “Car Rig”, “Squibs”, and “On Set.” The final offerings include the theatrical trailer and an “Inside Look” to the new Alexandre Aja movie, Mirrors.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
What can I say? It’s not Training Day. It’s not the best movie you will ever see. It certainly has some flaws, especially in the writing department. All that being said this is watchable and thanks to the acting it doesn’t come out half bad. It certainly could have been better, but for what it is, it’s not unworthy of watching. I recommend picking this one up at the movie rental store prior to making a decision on purchasing.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Street Kings, Fox Searchlight, David Ayer, Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Mohr, Action, Drama, Corrupt Police Officers, Training Day, LAPD
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Written by Shayne - Visit Website
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I am the proud Papa of a son, Dylan Michael Keller. Other than spending time with my son, I have two main obsessions in life; video games & movies. Often, the two accompany time spent with Dylan. I've been married to Andrea for 13 years this December. One thing I've learned about married life is to always expect the unexpected. After nearly eleven years with just the three of us, and our Golden Retriever, Braeden, I've just found out I'm going to be a dad again. In my professional life, I'm a bit of a cyber geek. I enjoy D&D, writing stories, role-playing, computer games, working on websites, and just hanging out. I work for a computer firm doing computer-tech type work and that's all I can really say about my job. In my fantasy life, I escape to the world of film. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've seen The Return of the King at least 37 times. I signed up to review movies, and you can guarantee I'll do the job right. I hope you enjoy my reviews and always remember kids...Make Love, Not Warcraft.
