Bayside resident Mark Metcalf is an actor who has worked in movies, TV and on the stage. He is best known for his work in "Animal House," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Seinfeld."

In addition to his work on screen, Metcalf is involved with the Milwaukee International Film Festival, First Stage Children's Theater and a number of other projects, including the comedy Web site, comicwonder.com.

He also finds time to write about movies for OnMilwaukee.com. After a lengthy flight to Africa, Mark considers "Street Kings," "Definitely, Maybe" and "10000 B.C."

I just got back from a two-week trip to Tanzania. The way we did it, it is about a 28-hour trip on an airplane and in airports. That is with a long layover in Amsterdam. On trans-oceanic flights these days, unless you are flying one of those airlines that is cutting back so much that you have to bring your own chair, you have a very large choice of entertainment --- movies, TV, news, sports, or you can watch the progress of the plane on an assortment of maps.

That gets interesting at around the "We are beginning our descent" time in the trip. On most flights, each seat gets it's own screen so you can watch anything you want and on KLM we had a choice, literally, of more 100 movies. Everything from movies that are still in theatres, like "Street Kings" to classics like "Holiday."

STREET KINGS (2008)

"Street Kings" stars Keanu Reeves and Forrest Whitaker. James Ellroy, who also wrote the novel that inspired the great film "L.A. Confidential," wrote it. Although, with "L.A. Confidential," he had the also great Curtis Hanson looking over his shoulder as director. " L.A Confidential" is about the different shapes and sizes that brutality and corruption come in when you begin to get involved with the Los Angeles police department.

"Street Kings" is just brutal. Everything about it is bad, obvious and clumsily stupid. It was apparently inspired by the O. J. Simpson crime and the trial that followed, so maybe they intended it to be "bad, obvious, and clumsily stupid" like that crime and trial.

That is not a good way to make entertainment.

Someone once complained to Tennessee Williams that "The Glass Menagerie" was "sentimental." Mr. Williams responded that "it was not sentimental, but it was a description of sentimentality." There is a huge difference and the difference is the distance and the intelligence, and the artistry, of the creator.

To reiterate: "Street Kings" is brutal. It bludgeons you with violence, and not very creative violence, just fists and gunfire, over and over and over again. The plot has something to do with a corrupt cop who gets set up by his corrupt cop friends and decides to take them on, rather, take them out using the aforementioned fists and gunfire technique. I had to read the Cliff's Notes version of the plotline on IMDB to get it though.

Keanu Reeves gives his usual attractive piece of wood performance. In this case, he is just a 2 x 4 that the director uses to continually smash you over the head. At least in "The Matrix," he was more like an elegantly carved ebony walking stick. The Wachowski Brothers still beat you over the head with him but the pain was deeper, more direct. In this, it is just blunt and numbing. Forrest Whitaker almost redeems himself with one scene near the end when he is caught and cornered, and reveals himself to be a scared, cowardly weasel. However, he is a very good actor, a very good actor will always find at least one moment when he can do good work, and it will always get through even the worst kind of director and the most obvious and clumsy plotting.

 Page 1 of 2 (view all on one page)

Next >>

Post a comment / write a review.