Prime Time: Street Kings (2008)

Street Kings is a gritty cop thriller directed by David Ayer AND based on a story by James Ellroy so, basically, if you go into it expecting any of the main characters to be unselfishly trying to do good in a bad world then you've never experienced any previous stories from either man. But, just in case there was any doubt, the whole thing helps to let viewers know what they are in for when the main character gets beaten up by some criminals and has his car stolen, which we then discover is all part of a plan to allow him to find where the crooks are holed up, with young female kidnap victims being kept there until they can be moved/sold on, and he then gets to barge in, shooting to kill. It's a good deed, in the grand scheme of things, but it's also symptomatic of the way this character acts. He'd also had a couple of drinks beforehand. He wasn't interested in any due process. He is someone being watched with interest by those who investigate such individuals in the force.

All of this is just a taster to the rest of the film, of course, which follows Detective Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) as he tries to keep doing the job the way he prefers to do it while keeping himself protected from the prying eyes of those who want him stopped. He's helped in this regard by his captain (Forest Whitaker). One of the people wanting him stopped is his ex-partner, Detective Terrence Washington (Terry Crews), and things start to look even stickier for Ludlow when he and Washington are caught in a seemingly random shoot-out. Washington is killed, and Ludlow wants to find those who did it. But those who know Ludlow's behaviour think it would be best for all concerned if the case was dropped and the shooters left to get themselves arrested or killed on some other occasion.

Although there are plenty of beats here that are very familiar to fans of Ayer's work, Street Kings does turn into something slightly different once it gets beyond the opening third act. It's still not a million miles away from anything else the director has done, but the more interesting developments stop it from feeling like nothing more than a tired rehash. You can feel the Ellroy heart beating through most of the runtime, once that opening act is out of the way, and the screenplay put together by Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer, and Jamie Moss is solid in terms of the plotting, pacing, and character development. That's not to say that it's always believable, not at all, but there's enough done to distract you from/let you forgive the less believable moments.

Reeves is very good in the lead role. He's not on top form, it's always a bit harder to believe him as someone with such a murky moral code, but he does well enough. Whitaker gives one of his standard turns, and is good enough, and Crews does enough to show himself as a viable threat to his ex-partner before the shooting takes him out of the film. The rest of the cast is full of great performers, although they are not all used as well as they could be. Chris Evans is the highlight, playing the detective in charge of the shooting investigation who ends up allowing Reeves to help him, and you also get Hugh Laurie with an American accent again, and Jay Mohr, John Corbett, and Amaury Nolasco playing the main colleagues who accept that getting the job done often means breaking some rules. Naomie Harris and Martha Higareda try their best, despite being given the usual short shrift that women tend to get in Ayer movies, and there are good little moments for Cedric The Entertainer, Common, and The Game.

Far from essential viewing, this remains a film I would highly recommend to those who like this particular subgenre. The various elements are well put together, it feels like something a bit different for Reeves, and the ending is surprisingly satisfying when everything eventually pays off.

7/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

Noir November: L.A. Confidential (1997)

L.A. Confidential is, to me, a perfect film. Sometimes I just want to start off with a statement that clarifies all the nonsense I'll be about to write. In this case, I'd like to beg your forgiveness in advance for a shameless torrent of effusive praise. I really can't think of anything bad to say about this, a movie that I class as a modern classic and easily the best neo-noir of the past twenty years.

Dense and rich, this is a film that benefits from superior source material (by James Ellroy). It's adapted into gripping cinema by Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson, with the latter also taking on the directorial duties. It's not exactly hard to follow, as hard as that may be to believe, but it's a film that assumes that viewers will give it their full attention. It certainly deserves it.

Now, let me try to cover the plot and main characters without taking up too much space here. Guy Pearce plays Ed Exley, a young policeman who is ambitious, but also unwilling to use any eans necessary when it comes to catching the baddies. Russell Crowe is Bud White, a brutal policeman who doesn't mind bending/breaking the rules. The two men don't get along. When a local crime boss is jailed, Los Angeles suddenly looks like a very appealing pitch to a number of criminals who want to move in and set themselves up. This keeps the police department, led by Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), very busy. But when a shooting occurs that results in the death of a fellow officer, and when the end result starts to throw up some minor details that hint at a much bigger problem, Exley and White realise that they may need to work together to get to the bottom of things.

There are other characters who play quite an important part in the proceedings described above, with the main ones worth mentioning being a newspaper reporter (Sid Hudgens, played by Danny DeVito), a beautiful woman named Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), a cop who advises on a top TV show and loves the celebrity life as much as his job (Jack Vincennes, played by Kevin Spacey), and a man who makes a living through not entirely legal means (Pierce Patchett, played by David Strathairn).

Okay, I probably took up too much space, but I'm still happy with that summary. L.A. Confidential is a film brimming over with detail and character nuance in every scene. Although it runs at just over two hours in length, there isn't a scene that feels superfluous to requirements. Some viewers may not appreciate everything on the first viewing, but return to it and you'll notice new touches of brilliance. Little touches that will ensure you return to it again and again.

The script is pretty perfect, as far as I'm concerned, with the use of narration by reporter Sid Hudgens a great way to both set up the context of events, and also skim through one or two montage moments. The direction is smooth and precise. There's a coolness in the setting and characters, but there's also a beating heart within every main character, something that becomes more apparent as the movie progresses and events allow them to show their true nature and intent.

Pearce and Crowe may have slight wobbles here and there when it comes to the accents, but they overcome that minor hiccup by delivering performances that I'd tentatively call star-making (despite both having already done some great work before this). Cromwell, Spacey,DeVito and Strathairn are also excellent, and Basinger gives one of her best performances (one that resulted in her winning an Academy Award). Ron Rifkin, Matt McCoy, Graham Beckel, Simon Baker, and everyone else onscreen for more than a few seconds, all do equally great work. In fact, even people onscreen for a few seconds seem fine. Admittedly, they don't have much time to screw things up, so that's probably just a given in most movie productions. My point is that everyone feels perfect in every role they're given.

The soundtrack from Jerry Goldsmith moves nicely in between some classic tracks from the era, the clothes and makeup are all as gorgeous as they should be, and there are plenty of enjoyable twists and turns that never feel forced while the whole tale unfolds.

Not just one to watch, this is one to own, cherish and rewatch on many occasions.

10/10

http://www.amazon.com/L-Confidential-Blu-ray-Kevin-Spacey/dp/B000Q8QH0I/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1417030620&sr=1-2&keywords=la+confidential

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Dark Blue (2002)

It's April 1992. A turbulent time for Los Angeles, with all eyes watching the trial of the police officers accused in the beating of Rodney King. If those men are acquitted, the whole city might just burn. Kurt Russell stars as Eldon Perry, a policeman who was brought up by gunslingers and sees himself as a man who does a lot of things wrong to get the right results. His superior (Brendan Gleeson) agrees, he knows that whenever he wants ANY mess cleaned up he can ask Perry to get it done. Unfortunately, many other people view Perry as a monster including his wife (Lolita Davidovich), his young partner (Scott Speedman) and an officer (Ving Rhames) intent on uncovering the truth about a recent shooting incident and, in turn, corruption within the LAPD. In fact, as the movie unfolds, Perry starts to think about his own actions and how others view him. He starts to suspect that they may be right.

Written by James Ellroy and David Ayer, this is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from the writers of L.A. Confidential and Training Day, respectively. Eldon Perry is a larger than life character, a bit of a bully and a braggart even to those he loves, and his moral compass has been thrown so far out of whack that it's unsure whether or not he can find his direction again. Ron Shelton does a great job in the director's chair, allowing for the actors to do their best with the material while he makes sure that all of the threads are winding together to complete the big finale.

Russell excels in the lead role, it's arguably his best performance from his 21st century filmography. He IS a bit of a monster and a horrible person, overall, but he's also a fully fleshed-out character with moments that show that he does have a heart (one scene with him being yelled at by Gleeson really starts to make him slightly sympathetic, while another involving Davidovich reading out a letter to him turns into something unexpectedly affecting). Speedman is okay in his role, he's young and acts naive enough and that's what's needed of him. Gleeson is superb, but Gleeson is always superb. In this movie, however, he's even more superb than usual, his performance sharpened by the gradual development of his true character. Ving Rhames, ahhhh Ving Rhames, he gives a subdued, sweet performance that reminds you of the actor who once seemed so great. Why did he ever start to take roles in every other Straight To Disc (or STD, if you will) piece of nonsense? I'll never know. Thankfully, there will always be performances like this one to look back on. Lolita Davidovich and Jonathan Banks have their supporting roles that allow them one or two moments to shine. And shine they do. Michael Michele may have the most thankless role, but she does okay with it.

Putting these characters together and seeing how things unfold makes for a solid drama. Setting everything on the brink of those 1992 L.A. riots makes for something much more. It's tense, it's incendiary and it's an unflinching reminder of just how easily corruption can insidiously filter through even the most well-meaning of people.

8/10

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