Ill-Informed Gadfly

“Street Kings” offers up a pudgier and pastier Keanu Reeves than you might remember. It’s a good look for him. I won’t say the famously stolid thespian is suddenly disappearing inside his roles, but now that he’s less handsome, he’s more credible as a regular guy. He can even be charming in a gruff sort of way. And that’s one reason “Street Kings” manages to hold your attention despite its excesses and absurdities. Reeves plays Tom Ludlow, an alcoholic Los Angeles vice detective who does the department’s dirty work with its tacit blessing. He’ll think nothing of shooting first in a gunfight with lowlife kidnappers, then tampering with the scene to make it look like he acted in self-defense. But he’s unschooled in the finer points of corruption. When his turncoat former partner is gunned down, it’s obvious who’s responsible, but not to Tom. As a storytelling tactic, this should be disastrous, and director David Ayer, best known for writing “Training Day,” brings little finesse to the search for truth. But then neither does Tom, and his brutish investigative methods make for solid gutter entertainment. Chris Evans projects sly intelligence as a young homicide detective who’s alternately appalled and awed by his loose-cannon colleague. Sadly, Forest Whitaker goes over the top and back again as the arrogant vice-squad captain who holds Tom’s leash. He and Reeves are forced to act a ludicrous climax that elicits unintentional guffaws. But you’ll only be disappointed if you were taking “Street Kings” seriously, and that’s hard to do.

LISTEN: Street Kings