Street Kings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Street Kings | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster |
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| Directed by | David Ayer |
| Produced by | Lucas Foster Alexandra Milchan Erwin Stoff |
| Written by | James Ellroy Kurt Wimmer Jamie Moss |
| Starring | Keanu Reeves Forest Whitaker Hugh Laurie Chris Evans Common Naomie Harris Terry Crews Jay Mohr The Game |
| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures (USA) |
| Release date(s) | April 11, 2008 |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Street Kings (originally titled The Night Watchman) is a 2008 film, directed by David Ayer. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie and Forest Whitaker. It was released in theaters on April 11, 2008.
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[edit] Production
In 2004, it was announced that Spike Lee would be directing the film for a 2005 release.[1] In 2005, it was announced that Oliver Stone was in talks to direct the film.[2] However, Stone later denied this.[3] Training Day writer David Ayer took over the project.
On February 5, 2008, it was announced that Fox Searchlight Pictures changed the film's title from The Night Watchman to Street Kings.[4]
[edit] Plot
Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is a corrupt, disillusioned L.A. Police Officer haunted by the death of his wife. All of the cops in Ludlow's unit, including their captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), bend and break the rules of conduct on a regular basis. Their intention is often to deal with crime in a manner that they perceive to be more efficient, which leads them to routinely lie, falsify reports and manipulate evidence to cover up for their wrong-doings.
Ludlow's former partner Terrence Washington (Terry Crews) no longer approves of the corruption and has gone straight, reporting the corruption to Internal Affairs Captain Biggs (Hugh Laurie), who starts an investigation against Ludlow. Upset at Washington for "snitching", Ludlow follows him to a convenience store to confront him. However, Washington is executed in the store in an orchestrated hit, with Ludlow present. Though Ludlow is innocent, the circumstances heavily implicate him in the murder. DNA of two criminals known as Fremont & Coates is found at the scene, as well as drugs in Washington's car. It is assumed that Washington himself was still corrupt, despite his seemingly changed attitude, and that he was stealing drugs from the department's evidence room and selling them to Fremont & Coates, who killed him over a bad deal. Ludlow convinces Officer Disco (Chris Evans) who has been assigned to the case to pursue Fremont & Coates. Their search for the two involves some tough interrogation of other known criminals, which eventually leads them to a house in the hills where they discover the bodies of Fremont & Coates buried in a shallow grave. The decomposition of the bodies is so severe that it becomes apparent that they were killed a long time before Washington's murder.
Ludlow and Disco posing as corrupt cops who are willing to take over Washington's activity of stealing and selling drugs, are able to get a meeting set up with the two criminals masquerading as Fremont & Coats. The meeting goes bad when they recognize Ludlow from the convenience store and then realise he and Disco are off-duty and seeking revenge. One of the imposters, Coates (Common), shoots and kills Disco by a shot from his pistol to the throat when he realizes their connection. Ludlow kills Fremont & Coates and escapes back to his girlfriend's house where a news report reveals the criminals were undercover Sheriff's Deputies.
Shortly afterward Ludlow is captured at his girlfriends house by Santos (Amaury Nolasco) and Demille (John Corbett), two fellow officers from his unit who admit that they planted Fremont & Coates DNA and the drugs in Washington's car at the scene of his murder, to prevent him from testifying against them in Biggs's investigation. The two cops take Ludlow out to the house where the two bodies were found earlier, for execution. However, Ludlow manages to escape and kills both of them, then heads to Washington's house to take care of Clady (Jay Mohr), whom he later kills. Ludlow is also piecing together the puzzle as he goes. He eventually learns that he has been a pawn in a plan masterminded by Captain Wander. Ludlow shows up at Wander's house in order to kill him, when Wander reveals that he has incriminating evidence on just about everybody in the department as well as judges and politicians. With so many people in Wander's pocket he has been able to quickly move up the department ranks as well as bury his unit's corruptions. Wander tries to convince Ludlow that he is his friend and best officer, and bribes him with a large amount of stolen money and incriminating documents hidden in a wall of his home. However, Ludlow kills Wander anyway.
Internal Affairs Officer Biggs, who was "investigating" Ludlow, arrives to the scene and reveals that he too is a corrupt officer who was actually ordered by powerful people within the department and city to get rid of Wander and his henchmen because he was becoming too powerful and knew some of the city's most powerful officials' secrets. Biggs tells Ludlow that he used him to bring down Wander by opening Ludlow's eyes to the real corruption going on within his unit.
[edit] Cast
- Keanu Reeves as Detective Tom Ludlow
- Forest Whitaker as Captain Jack Wander
- Hugh Laurie as Captain Biggs
- Chris Evans as Paul "Disco" Diskant
- Terry Crews as Terrence Washington
- Naomie Harris as Linda Washington
- Cedric the Entertainer as Scribble
- Amaury Nolasco as Cosmo Santos
- Cle Shaheed Sloan as Fremont
- Common as Coates
- Jay Mohr as Mike Clady
- Martha Higareda as Grace Garcia
- The Game as Grill
- John Corbett as Demille
- Noel Gugliemi as Quicks
[edit] Critical reception
Street Kings received widespread criticism and poor reviews from critics. As of May 6, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes scored the movie at 34% (Rotten), based on 126 reviews.[5] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 28 reviews.[6] However it did obtain a more than respectable 7.2/10 on imdb.com, based on more than 9,500 user votes.
[edit] Box office performance
In its opening weekend, the film grossed an estimated $12 million in 2,467 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking 2 at the box office. The movie as of May 29, 2008 has made $55,833,436 in total worldwide sales.[7]
List indicator(s)
- A dark grey cell indicates figures are not yet available.
| Film | Release date | Box office revenue | Box office ranking | Reference | |||
| United States | Foreign | Worldwide | All time domestic | All time worldwide | |||
| Street Kings | April 11, 2008 | $26,152,900 | $29,680,536 | $55,833,436 | #1,876 | ||
[edit] DVD Release
According to videoeta.com, the DVD is expected to be released August 2008.
[edit] References
- ^ The Night Watchman Movie - Keanu Reeves to Star in The Night Watchman (Street Kings)
- ^ The Night Watchman Movie - Oliver Stone May Direct The Night Watchman (Street Kings)
- ^ IGN: Stone Denies Night Watchman
- ^ The Night Watchman Retitled to Street Kings - ComingSoon.net
- ^ Street Kings Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
- ^ Street Kings (2008): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
- ^ Street Kings (2008) - Weekend Box Office Results. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
