Street Kings trailer

Posted by Chris

February 12, 2008

The first trailer for the Keanu Reeves-starring police drama Street Kings has been released and it’s surprisingly good. If it looks similar in form and function to movies like Training Day there’s a good reason for that – the writer of that movie is directing this one and I’m guessing made a few contributions to the story’s direction.

Reeves plays a copy who, with the tacit or overt endorsement of superiors and others, decides that the only way to take down the criminals in the city is to fight at their level. So he adopts tactics of intimidation and killing, under the belief that the ends justify the means.

The trailer is certainly fast-paced, stopping only occasionally to let Reeves or a member of the (impressive) supporting cast, which includes Hugh Laurie and Forrest Whitaker, get in a brief line of exposition or mildly amusing quip. The spot is obviously meant to appeal on some level to the gangster type of crowd and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a soundtrack full of such music. And again it’s hard to watch it and not think you’re seeing a trailer for Training Day 2, but it’s not bad at selling the movie as mildly enjoyable if you’re a fan of either the “Tough Urban, Break the Rules Cop” genre or Reeves in general.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx7AJP-rWf8[/youtube]