"Street Kings" -- Keanu Reeves, Chris Evans, Forest Whitaker

Thick and hard to watch, but possibly better on a second viewing. The plot is thick and hard to follow unless you're paying very close attention, with lots of double-crosses, complicated characters and politics, and several false endings, some of them so asinine you half suspect they're screwing with you -- which they are, because here comes another ending. In fact, the whole movie paints such a bleak picture of humans in general and the LAPD in particular, that you think they must be screwing with you through the entire movie. There are enough twists, fakeouts, and deaths to break M. Night Shyamalan's brain.

The action itself is hard to watch, due to the crazed and frenetic style in which they're shot -- lots of shaky handheld cameras and louder-than-life gun blasts. It's actually somewhat poignant from an outside-looking-in view, true to what this kind of violence really is and should be portrayed as, but for entertainment value, the loud noises are annoying and the camerawork sacrifices neatness for style and just kinda makes you want to close your eyes.

Keanu Reeves and Hugh Laurie are brilliant, with Reeves turning in easily one of the best performances of his career. Laurie's part is small, but significant as the character pulling the strings for most of the movie, like a scruffy, cop-catching Tinkerbell. Forest Whitaker is king of the hill, as always, inhabiting his role as the one cop who seems to be clean among all the dirt, and climbing high because of it. The smaller roles, all the cops orbiting the main players, are all well-played, with each character bringing just enough of their flavor and skill to the role without stealing scenes (normally I approve of such a practice as scene-stealing, but in this film you need to pay close attention to the plot, and you don't have time to watch the pawns too closely). Chris Evans is great as Diskant, or "Disco," the slightly naive young cop from Internal Affairs who's trying to figure out what really happened in that convenience store that ends the first act -- if only so he can cover it up and help cover it up. Pretty much the only part of this movie's message that isn't dark is the brotherhood between cops, and it establishes well the sense of safety and camraderie among the police officers, who may fight like cats and dogs, but who mostly have each others' backs.

Not for the racially sensitive -- the movie begins with a comment about Koreans who "dress white, talk black, and drive Jew." Thick as the plot is, it's still full of holes and what seem to be ridiculous oversights on the part of the characters. Good for a few laughs, but if you're going to see it, hold out and buy the DVD -- you'll require multiple viewings to get the plot, and the big screen doesn't help the action, so much as makes it painful.

Acting: 8.5 of 10
Writing: 4 of 10
Direction: 4 of 10
SFX: 7.5 of 10
Overall: 6 of 10