Hideous! Hideous! Hideous!
I’ve been having a good movie week, starting with L’Avventura (I understood it!! You know how in some relationships it feels like you’re not there? She literally is not there), then Le Mepris (I had to watch it twice, but I think I got it!), then Jules and Jim (I love it!). Then the DVD of Bob Le Flambeur died on me, which was the sign that the anvil was about to drop on my lucky streak (It’s a movie about a gambler). Instead of waiting for the streak-ender, I decided to go looking for it, and Street Kings was the likeliest candidate.
It was an excellent choice! For starters it’s a Keanu Reeves movie, and while I adore Keanu, I don’t watch him for the acting. The first ten minutes of the movie were singularly unpromising, but as I gathered up my things to leave the theatre, Forest Whitaker appeared onscreen. Must give this movie a chance, I thought as I sat back down, and the movie just got worse. Just as I was about to leave, Hugh Laurie turned up, and I said, Blast, I have to stay in case it gets better. Maybe the awfulness IS the style. Maybe the idiotic dialogue is meant to, um, mirror the idiocy of the system? As for the acting, I must point out that Keanu is NOT the worst actor in this movie. By this time the movie was giving off the distinctive stench of a putrefying corpse, and I was really going to make my exit when Chris Evans showed up. What the hell, I thought, it’s hot outside and it’s cold inside this empty movie theatre.
The movie is about corrupt cops, which got me thinking about good movies involving corrupt cops. Like L.A. Confidential, which showed us an entirely different side to beloved Farmer Hoggett (I actually shrieked when Kevin Spacey was shot). And Chinatown with that ending! So Street Kings clunks to its conclusion, and I was not prepared for the big shocker in the credits: the story is by James Ellroy! Ellroy is brilliant (Don’t even pick up My Dark Places: ‘dark’ doesn’t quite describe it. And it’s a memoir.) , but L.A. Confidential is the only adaptation that gets him. The others can’t deal with the strange rhythms of Ellroy’s 50s argot (Have you a valediction, boyo?).
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
April 23rd, 2008 at 17:39
Hah! James Ellroy! While most of my friends liked L.A. Confidential, I always thought it was film noir lite. (or maybe i should say film noir léger?)
April 23rd, 2008 at 21:02
OMG! those were the exact same thoughts i had while watching that movie. down to the ellroy shocker. keanu, whitaker, house, the human torch. i just sat back and enjoyed the view.