Kings successfully formulaic

April 14, 2008 —

Many overwrought film genres have developed formulas - teen horror, romantic comedy, gangster, dirty-cop, etc. As I noted last week with my review of The Ruins, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, the film that plays it safe and follows a well-developed formula can prove to be something worthwhile. Street Kings, which falls under the dirty-cop genre, succeeds in this way until its conclusion.

The film focuses on veteran LAPD detective Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves), who has been doing the dirty work of Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker) for a long time. After his old partner is brutally executed, Ludlow recruits a young detective (Chris Evans) to help him find the murderers, leading him down a path far more dangerous than he bargained for. Think Training Day twenty years later - if Ethan Hawke's character had given in to Washington's Alonzo.

The film was directed by David Ayer (director of Harsh Times and writer of Training Day) and written by James Ellroy (Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential), Kurt Wimmer (The Recruit and Equilibrium) and Jamie Moss (her first screenplay). So, it has a lot working for it as far as the genre is concerned. The main problem seems to be Ellroy's script being overhauled by Wimmer and Moss, and the more experienced with the genre is the former. This makes me wonder what was wrong with Ellroy's script because the first 30 minutes of the film were very strong.

Unfortunately, the script slowly loses its momentum as the plot's momentum slows, and then very abruptly, reaches its climax. Furthermore, the racist cracks and stylized-cop-banter also loses its momentum as the film progresses. There were moments of it here and there throughout, but I suspect those were the parts not changed from Ellroy's original version, which adds further contrast to the film.

Script issues aside, the majority of the film still works pretty well, and the acting helps it out a great deal. I'm not a huge fan of Reeves, as he doesn't have a ton of range, but he doesn't need a lot of range to play Ludlow. In fact, his stoic persona works perfectly here because the lack of emotion emanates truth in a character so harrowed by his life.

The rest of the cast gives solid performances in moderately well-drawn to fairly-cliche characters. Evans's youth and growing cynicism is a nice foil against Reeves's age and deep pessimism. Hugh Laurie plays a decent Internal Affairs Captain and makes for a potentially annoying, but mostly amusing laugh early on in the film. Jay Mohr and Cedric the Entertainer also have small parts that remotely surprise and somewhat amuse.

The only real casting issue I had was Whitaker, who I normally like a lot. He doesn't do a poor job as Wander, and much of the problem concerns the issues within the script. Still, I felt he was a bit miscast in two ways. One, he's too good of an actor for the rather simple role. Two, he either seemed to give too much or not enough throughout the film. I wish he could have found a way to better balance the characterization.

Still, I wouldn't have really been bothered by this if Kings had ended even remotely as strong as it started. It just felt like the film got to the hour and a half mark and felt the necessity to wrap everything up within 15 minutes, which simply didn't work because there was a fair amount of plot still left to be unraveled and concluded in that time.

Luckily, the acting maintains its strength despite this weakness, and Reeves manages to carry the very rough and awkward ending by staying true to Ludlow at one of his most crucial moments in the film.