Best Movie Bet: Street Kings

Street Kings
Like every right-thinking person, I’m a huge fan of The Shield, FX’s brilliant cop show that revolves around rebel LAPD officer Vic Mackey (the awesome Michael Chiklis), who heads up a special anti-gang squad in one of Los Angeles’ most crime-ridden ‘hoods. In its five-season run (the sixth and final season will air this fall), the show has spun some incredible yarns about police corruption, gang wars and harsh moral compromises. Where a show like The Wire prides itself on its realism, The Shield is deliberately melodramatic, taking its characters to places no real-life cops would go. But the performances are so rich and the writing so good, you forgive the storytelling excesses for the overall impact. I’m raving about The Shield, because the new movie Street Kings is clearly trying to be a big-screen version of that series. Directed by Training Day screenwriter David Ayer and written by a three-person team that includes crime novelist James Ellroy, film director Kurt Wimmer and newcomer Jamie Moss, Street Kings follows Mackey-like cop Tom Ludlow (played by Keanu Reeves of all people) as he unwittingly gets caught up in a huge inter-departmental conspiracy that involves his boss and close friend Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker, who, funnily enough, had a memorable season-long stint on The Shield a few years back). Following his latest high-profile bust, Ludlow is informed that his ex-partner Terrence Washington (Terry Crews) is ratting him out to dogged Internal Affairs officer (Hugh Laurie). Following Washington into a local bodega with the intention of “just talking” (i.e. kicking his ass), he instead watches as two armed gunman burst in and pump the poor guy full of bullets. Vowing to bring the assassins to justice, he launches his own private investigation that brings him into contact with all manner of street thugs, including a local gangsta (played by Cedric the Entertainer…that’s right, Cedric the Entertainer!) and two shadowy killers (The Game and Common). But the more he picks at this case, the more dirt he turns up on the guys in his own unit, which means it’s only a matter of time until he becomes a target. Ayer does a solid job creating a street-level vision of Los Angeles and the actors handle their roles well enough, considering that the script doesn’t give them a lot to work with. I expect to read all of the usual complaints about Keanu in other reviews, but I’m going to stick up for my boy, who has always been a better actor than he’s given credit for. While Ludlow isn’t a perfect fit for his strengths as an actor, the role does allow him to shake off the sci-fi messiah persona left over from The Matrix movies and get back to more real-world concerns. There’s a ferocious side to his performance here that we don’t commonly see from the reserved Reeves and it gives Street Kings what little spark it has. At the end of the day though, it’s impossible to escape the feeling that we’ve seen this story told before, both on The Shield and in any number of other, better cop movies.

Also In Theaters
Prom Night
The 1980 horror chestnut is given the 21st century remake treatment courtesy of director Nelson McCormick (making his feature film debut after a lengthy career as a television director, helming episodes of such shows as The Closer and ER) and screenwriter J.S. Cardone, who previously penned such classics as The Covenant and Alien Hunter. As in the original, a group of good-looking high school seniors are menaced by a crazed killer on the night of their prom. The cast of victims includes Hairspray’s Brittany Snow, Heroes‘ Dana Davis, and Friday Night Lights‘ Scott Porter. McCormick’s next flick? A remake of the 1987 fright flick, The Stepfather, starring a pre-Lost Terry O’Quinn. What’s next, new versions of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street? Oh, wait a minute…

The Dhamma Brothers
As the nation’s prison population continues to climb, everyone from presidential candidates to local law enforcers are talking about how to fix the system so that the prisoners that have done their time don’t wind up back behind bars in another few months. Deep in the heart of the Bible Belt, one jail took a chance on a new program that would introduce inmates to a demanding form of silent meditation called Vipassana. Against the odds, the 36 initial participants flourished under these teachings…until certain prominent conservative Christians used their influence to shut the program down. (Apparently, they confused meditation with paganism–yet another reason I’m glad I’m a New Yorker.) This well-meaning, but overlong documentary recounts the prison’s bold experiment and interviews the teachers and inmates that went through the program. The Dhamma Brothers would probably have been more successful as a short doc–the story is neatly summarized in the first half-hour, after which the film grows repetitious and slightly dull. But it’s always nice to see there are folks out there genuinely committed to change things instead of reinforcing the status quo.