
LAPD detective Tom Ludlow is a ruthlessly efficient, unorthodox undercover cop. Captain Jack Wander always covers for Ludlow, as do even his somewhat jealous colleagues. After technically excessive violence against a vicious Korean gang during the liberation of kidnapped child sex slaves, Ludlow becomes the target of hotshot Internal Affairs captain James Biggs, who feels passed over after Wander's promotion to chief. Ludlow's ex-patrol partner, Terrence Washington, sides wit... (Full plot summary below)
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LAPD detective Tom Ludlow is a ruthlessly efficient, unorthodox undercover cop. Captain Jack Wander always covers for Ludlow, as do even his somewhat jealous colleagues. After technically excessive violence against a vicious Korean gang during the liberation of kidnapped child sex slaves, Ludlow becomes the target of hotshot Internal Affairs captain James Biggs, who feels passed over after Wander's promotion to chief. Ludlow's ex-patrol partner, Terrence Washington, sides with IA but is killed during a shop robbery in Ludlow's presence. Ludlow works his way through the twisted rungs of the police and the deadly streets of Los Angeles for answers that lead to more and more questions.
Leave your thoughts about Street Kings.
| Lessons of DarknessNick SchagerAyers' second straight overwrought and unfulfilling tale concerning a loco white boy knee-deep in the City of Angels' criminal scene. |
| Flipside Movie EmporiumRob VauxAyers makes the trip worthwhile largely through his excellent eye for asphalt level L.A. and his careful attention to Ludlow's moral dilemma. |
| The Cinema SourceMichael DanceThe movie boils down to a lot of tough-talking men trying to out-tough-talk each other. It's well-staged action stitched together by nonstop pissing-match dialogue. |
| WJFK-FM (CBS Radio)Kevin McCarthyThe movie has a million flaws, but if you can look past them and enjoy a fun, gritty, violent, racist and entertaining dirty cop film, then you will have fun with it. |
| San Francisco ExaminerRossiter DrakeIf you can forgive its stale dialogue, which at times seems so egregiously leaden that it might have been better suited to a Mad magazine parody, 'Street Kings' is a tense, aggressively absurd thriller. |
| Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)Greg MakiNow that he is entering middle age and has packed on a few extra pounds ... I can buy Keanu Reeves as a haggard, broken down LAPD veteran ... |
| Reeling ReviewsLaura Clifford...risible dialogue, obvious 'twists' and a bad Forrest Whitaker performance. |
| I.E. WeeklyAmy NicholsonBy the gripping finale, it's clear that Street Kings is implausible in its practicalities, if not in its grand concept |
| The DeadboltBrian TallericoThere's something to be said for being entertained for two hours (even if it's a guilty pleasure), something not a lot of 2008 movies have been able to pull off. |
| NewsBlazePrairie MillerWhile military man turned director Ayer implicates our culture steeped in violence and the damaging effects of trained killing, whether by police or in war, he's assembled such a deplorable LAPD rogues gallery, it's hard to tell which one is the worst. |