film reviews:
Street Kings
Directed by David Ayer
Script by James Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer
and Jamie Moss
Story by James Ellroy
I really wanted to like this film more than I did. It's got Ellroy somewhere in the background providing the darkness in the story, David Ayers the writer of the great Training Day directing and Keanu looking heavy, scarred and tough. And it's got Ellroy, but I mentioned that already.
What you get is a bit of a mess but lets get the most important thing out of the way first: Reeves does a very credible job playing Tom Ludlow, the central character. I don't know if it's just me, but I always find myself in the following position when watching Reeves act, of over analysing eveything he does because I have this little fear that he is actually a terrible actor. At the same time, I kind of want him to do well, like he is some kind of thespian charity case and somehow needing our support - and this is the guy who created one of the great indelible images in film with his portrayal of Neo in the overrated but still generally great Matrix film!
Anyway Reeves is very good here but the script and the direction lets him down time and again. I'm not sure that happened here, but there are three scriptwriters listed, which I find is usually a bad sign. Then there is the Ellroy problem: even at his most bashful, Ellroy is a very over the top tabloid-in-your-face writer and his best novels contain an unrelenting perversity that is part of their sometimes flinch-inducing charm. The reason that LA Confidential is so successful is that Curtis Hanson and writer Brain Helgeland filter Ellroy's excesses in a manner that makes the whole thing palatable while still retaining the savage bite that is so much a part of his writing style and success. The perversity is still there, gently pushed to the background, a shadow in the burnished LA sun.
quote:
Biggs: So we're just going to kill him?
Ludlow: No, I'm gonna ask him some questions...then I'm gonna kill him.
Ayers and the two other scriptwriters seem to have no idea how exactly to handle Ellroy and what we get is a muddle. Some scenes are full of bravado, others seem like they are from a different movie and we return again and again to Revees looking blank and confused. He is a difficult character to care about and the plot, such as it is, is of no real interest - you either figure it out by the end of the first act or you don't really care to even try. What you get over and over, is Revees looking like he is not sure why he is there and in the end, the viewer may have the same question. The ending is predictable but also somehow insulting; the final shot a meaningless a shot as one could ask for but without any bite. This movie is not a complete waste of time - it's seldom dull, generally fun to watch, and quite gritty in places- but it certainly is a waste of something.
other views:
news:
My review of Street Kings
is up; next I will be writing a review of the decidedly non-criminal The Ruins.
film reviews :
I will be posting links as I find them. If you have a particular crime/mystery site you like, please email me and I will list and link the best ones!
Upcoming Reviews
I am in the process of reading Jack O'Connell's excellent (so far) Box Nine. Next up is Martyn Waites' Bone Machine and local author Kay Stewart and Chris Bullock's A Deadly Little List. When I get around to it, I may write an essay on the
work of Don Winslow.
