.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

For any of us over the age of 30, Keanu Reeves will always be thought of as the Ted half of the duo Bill & Ted who had excellent adventures and bogus journey's back in the early 1990's. His surfer dude articulation of the English language has been fodder for sketch comedy shows and impressionists for almost 20 years. Even staring in the very successful Matrix Trilogy as Neo, the Chosen One that would fight to save mankind against the machines, did little to forge a new impression on anyone who remembers him uttering "Excellent" and "Dude" while playing air guitar.

Those memories were easily set aside when the first few scenes of the new crime thriller Street Kings flashed across the big screen. Reeves plays Detective Tom Ludlow, an LAPD cop who has more flaws than the IOC's decision to hold the Olympics in Beijing. Tom sleeps with his gun, drinks small bottles of vodka throughout his day and vomits at the sheer taste of toothpaste. In our first introduction, we watch as he quick tongues a barrage of disparaging racist remarks towards two Asian punks he is trying to sell a machine gun to. One scene later, he arrives at the home where he quickly puts lead into a handful of heavily armed men who are holding two young girls captive and plants evidence in his wake to assist with the investigation. This is definitely not Ted Logan.

Things take a turn for the worse for Logan when his fellow officers inform him that his former partner, Detective Terrence Washington has been taking to Internal Affairs about old Ludlow exploits. And it is during Ludlow's attempted confrontation with Washington that things go from bad to much much worse. In the blink of an eye while the two cops were in a local convenience store, two masked gunmen enter and mow down Washington in what can be considered one of the more overstated overkills in recent memory. Washington isn't as much killed as he is nearly cut in half and Ludlow becomes a prime suspect due to the circumstances surrounding his distaste for Washington's testimony.

With the background established, director David Ayer (Harsh Times) focuses on Ludlow's attempts to clear his name while seeking out revenge for the death of his former partner.

Street Kings is one of those movies where the first two thirds of the movie shine but the pieces that are forced together in the final third take so much away from your enjoyment of the film that you are left with a film that is borderline groan-worthy.

This is of no fault to Reeves who gives a particular fantastic performance as the morally tormented Ludlow. I was lost in his character and it wasn't until the end of the film that I even gave thought to it being the Keanu that I grew to mock years ago.

The rest of cast includes a bunch of "Hey, I know you"se. Forest Whitaker plays Ludlow's Captain Jack Wander. He is a strong not-to-be-messed-with character whose fate could be seen by any Are You Smarter Than A Five Grader panelist. He is joined by Hugh Laurie (House), Jay Mohr (Go), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four), Cedric the Entertainer and Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break). Each character is routinely effective in convoluting the truth that Ludlow is designed to uncover. Hugh Laurie in particular is interesting (if bland) and Captain James Biggs, an Internal Affairs Captain that hounds Ludlow to come clean about his (and the unit's) actions.

Street Kings held my attention for about 60 minutes and was riveting in parts. As the plot details begin to unravel predictable results, I bought in to the story written by James Ellroy who penned the glorious L.A. Confidential and the not so glorious The Black Dahlia. Where I began to lose all respect for the journey was when Ludlow is in the back of a car of the two corrupt cops who decide to reveal the entire conspiracy and events both leading up to the moment and forthcoming. This is exactly the kind of tactic that a cartoonish Bond villain would do. Mike Myers was smart enough to mock the 'Let me tell you how we did it' routine in his Austin Powers movies, but Ayer decides that the audience will just be too stupid to figure things out so he gives us the Plot Development for Dummies version.

Unfortunately, the moment takes so much wind out of the sails, that by the time the final confrontation occurs, you are mad and disgusted that an intelligent well developed film stooped to such depths. The ending is so predictable that I could have called it by the 20 minute mark and all the best acting in the world couldn't cover that hole.

Two thirds good and one third bad. Too bad the worst was left for the final third as it's that taste (well, that and stale popcorn) that I have memories of now that the lights have come back on.