Street Kings News

Director David Ayer recently sat down with ComingSoon.net to discuss his latest crime thrilled, Street Kings. Here are a couple excerpts from the interview:

CS: Did you see Keanu Reeves' character as a bad cop or someone who did bad things because that's what he had to do in order to get the job done?
Ayer: The whole concept of good cop/bad cop really depends on how you see it. To Internal Affairs or a senior police administrator, a bad cop is anyone who doesn't follow the regulations. To his brother officers, a hard-charging, possibly violent cop who gets the job done no matter what is seen as a asset. It's seen as a positive. So it's really sort of the management street cop divide in LAPD.

It really depends what side of that you're on. Policing requires a certain flexibility because you're given obviously laws and books and regulations that you have to follow, but you're dealing with real people in real situations so there's always room for interpretation.

CS: You've come back to criminals and Los Angeles a number of times now. What keeps bringing you back to the street level of crime theme?
Ayer: It was exciting to do this particular project. One thing you have to realize is that when you're in a career in Hollywood it's not like you're walking into Hometown Buffet and you pick from a variety of projects lying out before you. When this project came along, I really wanted to get back on set.

I had a great experience directing Harsh Times and a brutal distribution experience, but that aside. Here comes Keanu Reeves with a script that's pretty close to camera ready in an arena I'm really familiar with. You've got to keep in mind this is my first studio movie as a director so I'm not going to get hired to do a romantic comedy [and] I'm not going to get hired to do a summer tentpole.

That's just the reality of the business. So here's a wonderful opportunity in a city I know, in a world I know with characters I know and it afforded me the opportunity as a director to not have to focus on the world, but to focus on developing performance.

Read the complete interview with Ayer now.

Street Kings stars Keanu Reeves, The Game and Hugh Laurie. It'll be difficult for any movie to top that sort of eclectic.

How do these different stars mesh together on screen? That's what we wanted to know. So we spoke to a number of film critics and received the following takes on Street Kings...

- A disappointingly routine policier, a genre item in which the only new element is the degree of corruption and cynicism, building on the tradition of Ayer's script of Training Day and Ellroy's L.A. Confidential, both superior works as dramas and movies. -- Emanuel Levy

- A combination of implausible plot-points, and the miscasting of television's Hugh Laurie as Internal Affairs chief Captain Biggs, hampers a convoluted crime thriller that is nonetheless entertaining for its grotesque action sequences. -- Cole Smithey

- Pic is conflicted, glamorizing gunslinging while crying foul over unnecessary force. -- Variety

- While 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. -- NewsBlaze

We know it doesn't come out for a week, but we were able to get you some movie stills from the upcoming Street Kings starring Keanu Reeves.

The movie is about a Los Angeles cop (Reeves), who just lost his wife and is being framed for murdering a fellow officer.

Check out the screens and get excited for April 11.

Also, we already have some Street Kings quotes on our site and will add more as they become available!

Street Kings starring Keanu Reeves comes out on April 11th and we got a trailer for you.

Keanu Reeves plays a cop who recently lost his wife and is falsely accused of murdering a cop.  It's from the guys that made Training Day and looks fantastic.

As soon as this movie comes out we'll be sure to bring you more Street Kings quotes, pictures, and reviews.