Street Kings vs Training Day
I am in the process of transferring my VHS collection to DVD. Some I buy some and I “find” some in the Jimmy “Dyn-o-mite” way from broadband. I thought that a movie with Forrest Whitaker and Keanu Reeves would be worth my digital time. I am a cinema snob but I try not to knock an actor (especially actors of color) if they signing onto a big budget film because they have kids in college. Forrest Whitaker won the Best Actor award at Cannes for Bird when he 27 years old and won the Best Actor Oscar for a role that was written as for a supporting actor. I love his roles in one of the quintessential 80’s movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, along with Good Morning America, Bird, The Panic Room, The Last King of Scotland,The Great Debaters and the ninja, hip hop, mafia, existentialist indie Ghost Dawg.
I am also a fan of Keanu Reeves. I know, he is just eye candy that the camera loves, but when he gets a role that is tailored for him he can pull it off. He has shined in the independent films like The River’s Edge, My Own Private Idaho and A Scanner Darkly. But do not at anytime ask him do Shakespeare. It was easier to believe that Denzel Washington as Italian gentry than believe that Keanu was his vengeful brother in Much Ado About Nothing. Face it, can you you think of anyone else who could have been the clueless savior in The Matrix? So how does Neo and Ghost Dawg kick it in Street Kings? Badly, very badly.
The muddled plot is an an attempt at a narrative about crisis of conscience suffered by police officer, Tom Ludlow. Ludlow (Reeves) routinely crosses the line and slowly realizes that everyone he works with is completely corrupt. The film is based on a book by James Ellroy. A veteran of the hard boiled detective genre that has a few good books under his belt. Ellroy usually relies on cursing and stereotypes as his definition of gritty. Several plot points like the death of Tom Ludlow’s wife, his current relationship with a female doctor or a nurse, and whether or not his murdered former partner was corrupt are never fully explained. Any movie that has a main character explain major plot points while the action lulls, is no fun for me. This film also wastes the talent the twit British extraordinare/ American druggie doctor, Hugh Laurie and in my book that is a sin. The only saving grace of Street Kings is the climax with Forrest letting loose and Keanu holding on for dear life. So, if you want a good corrupt cop drama rent Training Day.
Training Day was the medicine that a shell shocked America needed the weekend after 9/11. Denzel made me believe that he was a badass cop. This century’s answer to Sidney Poitier helped finance his own trip to the dark side because no one else would. Alonzo Harris (Washington) channeled the spirits of Scarface (both Pacino and Cagney), and Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant, Richard Gere’s swaggering cop in Internal Affairs, with a dash of John Shaft (a la Richard Roundtree) on the side. Ethan Hawke ( Hamlet he is not) was able to keep up with Denzel as the naive rookie cop whose ambition and sliding morals almost get him killed. For a movie with such a low budget, the cinematography brings the sweltering streets of LA to life. Although the plot can have some viewers scratching their heads during the movie, the payoff is great. When Mr. Washington won the Best Actor Academy Award for Training Day on the same night that Halle Berry won for the worst (oops) best actress performance for Monsters Ball, many wondered why he had not won for The Hurricane, Malcolm X, or Cry Freedom. Why did it take Denzel’s criminal cop to win him his second statue? I loved his performance, but I must admit I did some of that questioning myself. But, as a media junky, I know the profits from Training Day helped fund Antoine Fisher, the Great Debaters and American Gangster and hopefully one day the possibility of a prequel that solves the riddle of how Alonzo Harris got to bigger than King Kong.
Leave a Reply