I didn't go into Street Kings expecting a masterpiece, and I didn't get one. What I did expect is what I got, more or less: a competently made corrupt cops drama that throws on some heap-loads of stereotypes (not just racially or ethnically but just movie stereotypes, which may possibly be true to form them),and even crazy hysterics. If there is any significant achievement it's in taking the cop movie into such depraved depths it's like looking at a very entertaining infected boil: you know it'll pop any minute, and the pus might just run out a little bit here and there till there's more to squeeze out. There's almost an underlying current of hopelessness that gives the movie some intellectual lift, but at the same time it's such a time-waster that unless you're hardcore fans of the actors it's just about worth a rental.

Keanu Reeves goes from wooden to soggy-bottom wood as a cop who has been doing some dirty tricks to catch the bad guys lately (like setting up two Koreans- who are bad dudes for sure- by having them jack his car and then catching up with them to pop caps in their behinds),and he might be ratted out by his former partner. But when his partner is killed in very conspicuous circumstances, he goes to investigate it further while on a quasi-probation for even being at the scene of the crime (the crime, by the way, has one of the cheesiest "don't die on me" moments I've ever seen, laughably bad in how it's executed, no pun intended). Now, the conclusion shouldn't be at ANY surprise to anyone in the audience who's at least seen ONE other work by James Ellroy, the film's co-writer.

What does give it just a bit of extra lift is the extreme quality of the conclusion, how things seem so ridiculous that in any other hands this would be total nonsense. David Ayer, the director (and writer of Training Day, the perennial new millennium corrupt-cop saga),does have a good handle on the material though, even with ham-bone performance; Forest Whitaker is one of them, sadly, as he basically retreads his persona from The Last King of Scotland as the "King" of the corrupt cops. There is some not too shabby work, like a nearly phoned-in-from-House performance from Hugh Laurie (not unappreciated if you are a House fan),but it's mostly from supporting players like Jay Mohr in odd mustache and Common, the rapper, as one of the 'thugs'. It all kind of blends together as a pulpy orange of a B movie, good for something to not ponder too long over, but not as horrible as you might expect for a genre piece. It's a flavor of the season.

Street Kings is another film from director/writer Don Ayer who brought us Training Day. Unlike Training Day the central protagonist of this film is the honest cop who's in a corrupt unit.

Corruption and the Los Angeles Police Department seem to go hand in hand in the real world and the cinema world. Street Kings is the latest in a line of films about LAPD corruption. Keanu Reeves is our honest cop here and his character is a whole lot like Russell Crowe's in LA Confidential. The guy who just goes in no questions asked, and not too squeamish about his methods. Miranda is just a Latino surname for him.

When another member of his unit is killed in a bodega holdup where he's also on the scene, rumors start flying that Keanu greased him to prevent the dead guy from dropping a dime on him with the Internal Affairs folks. Unit commander Forest Whitaker tries to protect Reeves, internal affairs officer Chris Evans works with him to find out the real story. When it's all sorted out it's quite a twisted tale.

I would have expected a bit more from the creator of Training Day which boasted the mesmerizing Academy Award winning performance of Denzel Washington. Street Kings hasn't any performances that good. It's a routine police action drama, none of the cast need be embarrassed by their participation though.

Corrupt cop films are ten a penny these days, but STREET KINGS quickly turns out to be the finest of its genre: a lean, tough-as-nails, straight-to-the-point thriller that screams grittiness throughout. Keanu Reeves stars as an amoral cop surrounded by his even more amoral colleagues and criminals, searching for a spark of humanity in amid all the dross of his life. Reeves is, let's face it, a forgettable actor these days (remember him in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL? Nope, didn't think so) but he gives his best performance to date here, a multi-faceted exploration of an inherently good guy on the edge. There's absolutely no faulting him.

The twisty-turny plot moves along at a cracking pace and fulfils the action quotient with plenty of decent shoot-outs and ambushes. The snappy dialogue is delivered by a cast populated with stand-out turns, whether it's Hugh Laurie's snarky internal affairs man or Forest Whitaker's friendly captain. Chris Evans, usually bland in superhero fare like FANTASTIC FOUR, delivers a sterling turn as the upstanding young cop and nobody feels out of place.

If the film has a flaw, it's that it initially feels a little afloat, searching for a decent plot to latch onto. As it progresses, the story grows clearer until, come the end, I was riveted by some of the best twists I've seen in a good while and a genuine sense of danger and a guy out of his depth. Forget DARK BLUE, forget NARC, STREET KINGS is where it's at!