Street Kings (David Ayer)

David Ayer wrote 'Training Day' and the excellent 'Harsh Times', so getting him to direct his first big movie must have seemed like a good idea. I guess it must have seemed like that to the impressive 'A' list cast that includes Forest Whittaker, Keanu Reeves and Amaury Nolasco (Sucre in Prison Break to the initiated). And hey, isn't that House (sorry, I mean Hugh Laurie) popping up there as a tough Internal Investigations cop? This has the potential to be a classy dark cop thriller about the underbelly of the LA police force.

Except it isn't. You can buy the best ingredients from the classiest markets, but if the recipe is wrong, it's still going to leave a bad taste in the mouth. 'Street Kings' somehow manages to completely fail to engage. The final twists aren't twists at all, they've been signposted in neon for the past hour and a half. The action seems to focus on attaching a camera to the wheel of a sports car and driving it up and down Sunset Boulevard at 3am in the morning. The story is apparently about a cop "questioning the loyalties of everyone around him" but the only loyalty being questioned was my liking of films like 'Harsh Times'. This film is too convoluted to please anyone who just wants action and too mixed up to catch the attention of anyone who wants to revel in a plot. What a shame.