Street Kings 2: Motor City (2011)

Sadly Over-hyped

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Blistering performances.

Cop thrillers are a dime-and-dozen- probably because it doesn't cost too much to make one, and the fact that we can't help but be intrigued by our men-in-blue. The latter is probably also the reason why most cop thrillers inevitably revolve around the theme of corruption, since the very nature of dirty cops goes against our very intuition of the kind of people we want enforcing law and order on our streets.David Ayer's 'Street Kings' was no different- it packed the grittiness that has become a prerequisite for the modern-day cop thriller, and it had a compelling plot courtesy of star writers James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen, Salt). This direct- to-video in-name only sequel however tries very hard to be gritty, but the lack of a gripping plot- written by newbies Ed Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft- means that it comes apart pretty quickly.Once again, this sequel pairs a clean-cut rookie (Keanu Reeves in the former; Shawn Hatosy in this movie) with a veteran cop (Forest Whitaker in the former; Ray Liotta in this movie), with the veteran teaching the rookie the ways by which cops on the beat go about their business- even if it means taking a little on the side, or turning a blind eye. Here, Hatosy's rookie is a certain Dan Sullivan who is assigned to work with Liotta's Marty Kingston after a Narcotics cop is gunned down in cold blood.The case intensifies after two other cops, both Narcotics officers and former partners of Kingston, also turn up dead. If you're guessing if the killer is a cop or a thug, don't bother- Gonzalez and Haft seem to have so little confidence in their story that they reveal who the killer is just half an hour into the movie. Of course, it really isn't much of a surprise too- but the revelation still deflates much of the suspense that should accompany a movie like this.Indeed, once we know the killer's identity, it's only a matter of time before Sullivan puts the pieces together and tracks him down. Director Chris Fisher tries to make this about the dilemma Sullivan faces taking down one of his own, but the attempt at injecting complexity into the mostly perfunctory proceedings is hardly engaging enough. And since the characters aren't fleshed out properly, even the ending- which retains the original's irony- comes across limp and uninspired.The performances here are mostly just mediocre- Liotta has been in so many such genre stuff that he seems content to just sleepwalk through the role; while Hatosy is passable as the rookie forced to learn the ropes the tough way. And besides them, the rest of the supporting cast including Clifton Powell and Kevin Chapman as Kingston's former partners are mostly wasted.While 'Street Kings' was a sufficiently gripping cop thriller, this sequel is no more than a run-of-the-mill addition to the genre that will quickly be forgotten- after all, you will probably get the same and more in an episode of 'Law and Order' or 'The Shield' on TV. Even with lowered expectations for direct-to-video sequels, this is still a disappointing attempt at trying to replicate the success of its modestly successful predecessor.www.moviexclusive.com

I'm going to keep this short. I don't ever review movies on here I just check the site for reviews and usually if 90% of the people who write bad reviews on a flick then I watch it and 90% of the time enjoy it. I haven't seen a well written review in months.This is a great cop flick. Yes it's a good cop / corrupt cop flick but it didn't steal any ideas and had a solid cast. The kid from Southland (tv) was very good and believable and Liotta while not in his Goodfellas best of parts was still very believable.The plot was OK not great and maybe you could guess something but heck you can guess a lot of things now in flicks they all steal the same cliché's. There were some cool moments in this movie. The ending was solid too. The 1st movie was just as expectable in certain parts too. I loved the Keanu one too but I didn't watch this 2nd one expecting him to make an appearance. This isn't Beverly Hills Cop.To many people expect to much out of small budget direct to DVD flicks. You're asking for to much. If I saw this in the $5 box at Walmart I'd buy it. If you like Southland, The Shield, Law and Order or other cop shows check this out it's worth the watch.And stop comparing it to the Keanu Reeves version. It wasn't supposed to be a conclusion or part of trilogy it was just the same name in a different city. I wish people would criticize crap like Fast and Furious 5 for being predictable or having the same name but nope...Check this out it's a good flick.

Very B category movie, don't waste your time with it, don't expect too much, this movie belongs to trash bin. Lots of people will watch it because they think it has anything to with the Keanu's Street King. Nothing to compare. Storyline has been told a thousand times before. Bad cop, good cop, revenge, nothing new is really added to it. Characters are one dimensional and you don't really care about them. Acting? You wont see that in this movie. Ray's only good movie was the Good Fellas, since then he showed us nothing but bad. The best thing about this movie is the ending, because its over. Too bad, you cant get refund for it.

Don't put your hopes too high, regarding the title, you might be missled in thinking: "this could be something worth watching"... well nothing further away from truth. Almost naive in how predictable can be, every 10 minutes a cliché. From time to time You can feel and see the effort of those involved in making the movie of trying to make it look like a serious action movie by inserting plot twists, but no one buy it, and by the second half even they are getting bored.Just in case you have a boring Sunday afternoon and you wanna see it I won't spoil it, all i can say it's that at the end i had the impression that a 14 year old fan of action movies was in the director's chair. I give it a 5 just because of Ray Liotta, even that it's not his best performance.