Street KingsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Street Kings (originally titled The Night Watchman) is a 2008 action-crime film, directed by David Ayer, and starring Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie and Forest Whitaker. It was released in theaters on April 11, 2008. The initial screenplay drafts were written by James Ellroy in the late 1990s under the title The Nightwatchman.
Plot:
Tom Ludlow is a veteran LAPD cop who finds life difficult to navigate after the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.
Cast:
* Keanu Reeves as Detective Tom Ludlow
* Forest Whitaker as Captain Jack Wander
* Hugh Laurie as Captain James Biggs
* Chris Evans as Detective Paul Diskant
* Cedric the Entertainer (as Cedric 'The Entertainer' Kyles) as Scribble
* Jay Mohr as Sgt. Mike Clady
* Terry Crews as Detective Terrence Washington
* Naomie Harris as Linda Washington
* The Game as Grill
* Martha Higareda as Grace Garcia
* John Corbett as Detective Dante Demille
* Amaury Nolasco as Detective Cosmo Santos
* Cle Shaheed Sloan (as Cle Sloan) as Fremont
* Noel Gugliemi (as Noel G.) as Quicks
* Michael Monks as Pathologist
* Daryl Gates (as Daryl F. Gates) as The Chief
* Clifton Powell as Sergeant Green
* Angela Sun as Julie Fukashima
* Kenneth Choi as Boss Kim
* Walter Wong as Thug Kim
Critical reception:
Street Kings received mixed reviews from critics. As of May 6, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes scored the movie at 34% (Rotten), based on 126 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 28 reviews. However, a lot of the general viewers disagreed with the critics. As of September 5, 2008, the voters at imdb.com has given the movie an average of 7.1/10 with 20163 votes.
Box office performance:
In its opening weekend, the film grossed an estimated $12 million in 2,467 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking 2 at the box office. The movie as of August 1, 2008 has made $26,418,667 domesically and $35,347,445 in foreign box offices totaling $62,973,667 in total worldwide sales, making it a financial success.
DVD release:
The DVD was released on August 19, 2008 in a single disc with director commentary and special-edition 2 disc set with numerous documentaries, interviews and digital copy of the film.
Street KingsDirected by David Ayer
Average customer review:
Product Description
Gripping performances by Keanu Reeves Academy Award® 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.System Requirements:Running Time: 100 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/CRIME Rating: R UPC: 024543526094 Manufacturer No: 2252609
- Amazon Sales Rank: #233 in DVD
- Brand: STREET KINGS (DVD MOVIE)
- Released on: 2008-08-19
- Rating: R (Restricted)
- Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
- Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Original language: English, Turkish
- Subtitled in: English, Spanish
- Dubbed in: French, Spanish
- Number of discs: 1
- Dimensions: .20 pounds
- Running time: 109 minutes
Amazon.com
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
Customer Reviews
Ran out of toe tags...
Wow! $20 bucks for another pointless bloodbath. Reeves is better with a bit of humour in the charachter...he never seemed to get behind the eyes of this guy. I tried to count the scenes where no one was shot...there were very few. Predictable and boring - bad cops and worse cops. Someone taking a personal shot at the LAPD? Sorry, I just don't get it. Save your money.
Street Kings
Kids said it is a must to build a DVD library. went to the movies to see when first came out. good gangster movie excellent cast.
Great transaction; fast delivery and dvd arrived in good condition.
Street Kings
Street Kings [Blu-ray]
Street Kings
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