Street Kings

Peter Bradshaw
Friday April 18, 2008
The Guardian

David Ayer's sweaty and cynical Los Angeles thriller, co-written by LA Confidential's James Ellroy, is pretty similar to Harsh Times, a film Ayer directed, and to Training Day, a film he wrote and produced. Unlike those films, sadly, this doesn't have a star with the charisma of Denzel Washington or Christian Bale. We are back in the sulphurous world of deep-cover cops: Keanu Reeves plays Capt Jack Wander, a tough LAPD officer who prioritises shooting and asking questions in the traditional manner; Forest Whitaker is his fiercely loyal, and similarly tribalist chief. But Wander finds himself under scrutiny from an Internal Affairs cop, played by a scene-stealing Hugh Laurie. (Mischievously, Ayer shows us Laurie first in a hospital ward; for a second we think he's reprising his House schtick.) There's plenty of empty bravura, and Reeves is fundamentally blank and uninteresting.

 

blank - bez wyrazu

bravura – brawura, wirtuozeria

fiercely - zagorzale

fundamentally - zasadniczo

hospital ward – oddział szpitalny

mischievously – złośliwie, szkodliwie

prioritise – traktować priorytetowo

reprise - wznawiać

schtick – sztuczka, chwyt (artysty estradowego)

scrutiny – analiza, badawcze spojrzenie

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