Street Kings

Street Kings

Directed by David Ayer (R)

An L.A. cop is framed for his partner’s murder.

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The cop drama Street Kings proves “an arresting ride,” said Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News. In this “enjoyably tough, blood-spattered” police drama, Keanu Reeves plays an officer framed for his partner’s murder. Rather than opt for a more conventional form of justice, Reeves follows his own amoral code and plans to finish off the perps himself. James Ellroy, the crime novelist behind L.A. Confidential, wrote this script. David Ayer, who wrote the propulsive Training Day, directs. Street Kings runs on the same “seething energy” as those movies but never equals their grip. It’s not just that the good-cop-turned-bad-cop premise is overdone, said Desson Thomson in The Washington Post. The filmmakers describe but never explore the crooked world of L.A. law enforcement. Ayer seems interested in “the thrill of violence more than its philosophical underpinnings,” said Wesley Morris in The Boston Globe. Street Kings is a movie that “likes its clichés, cheap melodrama, and guns,” in which mindlessness wins out over matter.