STREET KINGS (2008)

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"Konnichiwa. Konnichiwa. It means what's up. So what the fuck's up?"

What's up, indeed...

Street Kings is a straight-down-the-middle ghetto vice cop drama that delivers action, a few twists and decent enough action.

The problem is that it is too easy and predictable. I wanted this thing to grab me and take me on a ride. I guess, to an extent, it did... But the twists are easy to see coming and the characters are right out of every simlar cop drama.

Reeves plays the go-go ghetto gunfighter vice-star and Whitaker is his keeper. Mohr, Nolasco and Corbett are the other vice guys and, together, they form a formidable crime fighting team willing to do whatever it takes to put the bad guys in the ground.

*** SPOILER ***

We come to find out that the vice squad is mostly (all except for Reeves, somehow, and most unbelievably) on the take and, as a result, under investigation by Laurie's IA squad.

As the story unwinds, Reeves watches his former partner die and tries, with the help of Evans, to unravel the tale. As the pair pull the threads, the story unfolds and they'll be forced to confront the very darkest of truths.

*** END SPOLER ***

In the end, Street Kings is a great and entertaining film that delivers great cop action and decent character drama. The cast is great, with the exception of Whitaker, who gave (to me) a strange Denzel-rip-off performance. I mean, I love Whitaker in his full range of films. But in this one, I kept seeing little 'ticks' and 'twitches' that were EERILY reminiscent of how Whitaker would perform if he were trying to lampoon Denzel. Maybe Denzel got too close to Fallen and had really inhabited Whitaker's body on this film. Watch it and see if you don't totally agree. BIZARRE!