I've always liked Keanu Reeves in what I call his "Real Roles". Roles like he had in Speed, Dracula, The Devil's Advocate, A Scanner Darkly and so on. Not the ones he's mostly known for, his cartoony characters such as Ted from "Bill and Ted" or Neo from the two Matrix sequels. The Matrix itself was really good but the others, not so good.

Anyway, I really like him in the movies where he gets to actually act and portray a type of character he isn't famous for. Street Kings is one of those movies and is easily one of my favorites of his films.

Keanu plays Tom Ludlow, a LA detective that is most definately not one to follow the rules. If you haven't seen previews of the movie you may not realize at first he is a cop. We start with him purposely getting beat up during a gun deal so that his car would be stolen. A phone call later gets him the location of the car. He goes to the house, kicks in the door and proceeds to shoot everyone in the place. He gets shot himself in his vest but he manages to kill the three guys there. He then proceeds to plant evidence that he was shot at first.

So, now we get our indication he is in fact a dirty cop. But we do have to consider the outcome of his actions against the illegality of what he did. It turns out the three thugs that Tom just shot up actually run a kid porno ring and have twin girls locked up in a cage in the closet. The police apparently had been looking for the girls for some time and were unable to find them following procedure. Tom does not follow procedure, makes sure the three thugs do not have a chance to get off from their horrible crime and executed some street justice for the sake of those poor girls.

Is Tom really a dirty cop? Or is he fed up with the system that doesn't work? The answer is not fully given but we do get a glimpse into what makes this character tick.

Like I said, I like Keanu in this role. I'm not sure how a LA cop in this character's shoes would actually behave but Keanu played him rather well. Tom is a guy who has his ideas of what's right and wrong and he will stick to that despite the consequences. Consequences that turn out to be quite potentially fatal for him.

We learn that he was married but his wife died while having an affair. He does not find out who the other man was that left his wife to die. This eats at him personally and emotionally, giving him little to care about in terms of his life or career. This fact is taken advantage of by his boss, Captain Jack Wander played by Forest Whitaker. Forest is also another favorite actor of mine so having him in this movie is just gravy. Jack runs a unit of dirty cops of which Tom is a part of.

An old member of the unit, Washington played by Terry Crews, has decided to admit his past crimes against suspects with his old partner Tom. Captain Jack warns Tom to leave Washington alone. Tom disobeys and moves in on Washington to rough him up but in fact accidentally becomes involved in his murder.

This is where Tom as a character gets interesting. Washington was a cop, no matter how Tom felt about him as a person and his murder cannot go unanswered. This starts Tom's adventure to discover who the killers are. Not to bring them to justice but to end their time on this planet. It is a revenge plot typical of the genre but entertaining nontheless.

Quick note, Hugh Laurie of TV's House fame has a small part in the film as a cop in Internal Affairs that is investigating Captain Jack and his unit. It is not a huge part but is significant to the plot. He's the reason for a nice little twist at the end since all movies must have a twist at some point these days. I only mention this because I'm a huge House fan, watch it this Fall. I mean it, watch it.

One thing that I like about the movie is there's not much lazy writing. Tom is portrayed at the beginning of the movie as not the brightest detective on the force. He is more of a blunt weapon to be used or, as he's referred to in the movie, he is the tip of the spear of the police force. He does things that normal cops cannot or will not do. This characterization is consistent through the movie. He does not have sudden insight into the case, he does not figure out things with little evidence and in fact needs help from another detective to find the answers he needs. As soon as Washington is murdered I knew why and by who but Tom is unable to fathom such a possibility. He isn't even really sure of it until almost the end of the film.

During all this his perceptions of what is right and wrong, who his friends are and who are his enemies are tested. In some cases they are tested to rather extreme conditions. In the end, the hero (might he be anti-hero?) wins the day but at a cost he did not expect, to the point of wondering if it really was a victory at all.

I really enjoyed this movie and if you like this genre then I highly recommend it.