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List Price: $34.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 80508
Released: August 19, 2008 |
| Our Price: $13.31 |
| Used Price: $2.46 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Gripping performances by Keanu Reeves, Academy AwardÂ(r) Winner Forest Whitaker* and an all-star supporting cast power this action-packed crime thriller, in which a veteran cop finds himself ensnared in a deadly web of conspiracy and betrayal. Reeves stars as Tom Ludlow, a hard-nosed detective with a talent for delivering brutal street justice. When evidence implicates him in the murder of a fellow officer, the violence around Ludlow explodes as he realizes his own life is in danger and he can trust no one.
Description of Street Kings (Special Edition + Digital Copy):
Street Kings is a pungent bouquet of corruption, violence, multi-ethnic mayhem, macho glee laced with macho angst, and fluorescently obscene dialogue from the mind of James Ellroy. Its hero, though he'd scarcely consent to be called one, is L.A. police detective Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves), for whom life is a wound that won't heal and dealing out retribution to scumbags is the ongoing treatment. Ludlow's the star player--"the tip of the [expletive] spear"--on a team of detectives headed by Capt. Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker). Coach Wander relies on his boys to keep breaking lurid cases, usually through deeply darkside underground work, and raising his profile with the media and the department. In pursuit of these goals, nothing is forbidden except failure, and the truth is what you make it look like. This is familiar Ellroy territory, most effectively translated to the screen in L.A. Confidential (which should have won the 1997 Oscar, and would have if Titanic hadn't launched that year). If you know Ellroy's ground game, you can pretty much guess where Street Kings is going, and where it's been. Still, the twists and torques of its urban road-rage course maintain the centrifugal force needed to hold us in our seats (a tactical highlight: refrigerator adapted as rolling barricade), and the movie keeps bopping us with oddball casting coups: comic Jay Mohr and Northern Exposure/Sex and the City veteran John Corbett as two members of Coach Warden's gonzo detective squad; Cedric the Entertainer doing a nicely nuanced turn as a street creature; Hugh Laurie doing a less-hyper version of House, if House worked Internal Affairs.
The problem is that director David Ayer keeps everything intense. Dialogues are shot too close-up, line readings are too strident, the action is too nonstop slam. Recall Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential and the mind's eye summons up a whole spectrum of existence, mood, place, historical period, emotional investment; there's an amplitude to the picture and the sensibility bringing it to us, something besides the whodunit and the endless rap sheet of nasty what-they-done. Everything in Street Kings is one-note, and with Keanu Reeves playing it implosive and Forest Whitaker locked in crazier-than-an-outhouse-rat mode, that's no way to stay the course. --Richard T. Jameson
Beyond Steet Kings on DVD
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Stills from Street Kings (Click for larger image) Street Kings (Special Edition + Digital Copy) Reviews:
Not Extraordinary 
2009-10-30 - 'Street Kings' is a typical story of Cops using alternate methods to fight the crime. Result... some of the schemes does not look ethical. We are introduced to our main cast Tom Ludlow (played by Keanu Reeves) an old hand LAPD, who is haunted by his past, is questioned when one of his mate Washington (enacted by Terry Crews) gets massacred which seems to be a regular shoot out case. Circumstantial evidences leads Ludlow as the suspect. Though initially this case looked usual, further inquiry takes us deep into the world of corruption and manipulation of evidences to hide some grimy truth. This movie portrays how Ludlow questions his loyalty towards his unit who seemed to be behind the murder of his friend & how he ultimately deals with it.
Reeves' role as Ludlow was believable but not great. Though the movie initially starts with a pace, in between it seemed a little bit exhausted. I will not grumble that I got jaded with the movie but on the other hand this movie could have been more exhilarating, if we had the chance to see some character development. None of the characters were well explored. This is no 'L.A. Confidential' which had if truth be told had given us a hell of ride.
'Street Kings' is stand alone in its own way, but fails to give an everlasting impact.
Terrific Popcorn Action Thriller. Perfect For A Suspense/Action-Packed Movie Marathon. Plot Twists Abound. 
2009-09-24 - Not a movie I would buy, but the plot twists in this sleek action/suspense thriller abound. Keanu Reeves, Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans & Hugh Laurie star in this tense drama. Plenty of action, suspense & twists to keep you entertained.
5 for production values; 2 for plot
2009-08-15 - Street Kings is a slick, well designed movie with a compact, tightly woven script. Sets, lighting, acting, props, join together to make a brilliant visual mosaic but it's a perfectly designed story that's been told dozens of times: the lone troubled individual who--in seeking the roots of corruption--finds that the entire world he has been living in is a facade of propriety and is actually rotten from the core. It's a thrilling ride as you see Keanu Reeves seek out the source of police corruption with lots of seat of your pants action, shootouts, killings, near killings, revenge, turncoats, corruption and all the rest of the paraphernalia, but a roller coaster or a circus act can be beautifully wrought and executed as well. It might be a great ride, but it's only a ride.
Street Kings
2009-07-03 - Have been looking forward to this movie since learning Hugh Laurie
was in it. Was very pleased to see Hugh do something so different from
his comedy from England & House TV Show. He was great, as usual. Was
very pleased to receive this in such a timely fashion & in such excellent
condition. Look forward to using this source in the future for more purchases.
street kings 
2009-06-24 - I'M NOT A HUGE KEANU REEVES FAN, HE HAS BEEN IN A COUPLE MOVIES I LIKE, FOR INSTANCE " THE MATRIX ". BUT I HAVE TO SAY THAT I THINK THIS IS ONE OF HIS BEST PERFORMANCES IN ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES HE HAS BEEN IN. THE MOVIE ALSO HAS A REAL STRONG SUPORTING CAST AND A GREAT SCRIPT. YOU ADD GOOD DIRECTING AND IT WAS ONE OF 2008'S BEST 100 MOVIES. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, YOU WON'T REGRET IT, SEE THIS MOVIE.
