The star-studded action thriller Street Kings came and went in theaters in 2008 and has since largely been forgotten. Nearly two decades later, it’s made a sudden return with a rise in streaming viewership.
Currently, Street Kings is available to watch on Starz. As of now, the movie is ranked at No. 5 on the list of movies streaming on the platform in the United States (via FlixPatrol). It’s good news for the movie 19 years after its original release in theaters, where it went on to gross over $66 million at the box office, albeit with mixed reviews and a 37% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Keanu Reeves Leads the Cast of Street Kings
Street Kings was directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, The Beekeeper), and written by the team of James Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer, and Jamie Moss. The thriller boasted several big names in its cast, including Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Chris Evans (Avengers: Doomsday), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Hugh Laurie (House), Common (Hell on Wheels), The Game (Waist Deep), Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Naomie Harris (No Time to Die), and Cedric the Entertainer (The Neighborhood).
In the film, Reeves plays LAPD detective Tom Ludlow, a widowed cop who’s grieving the death of his wife. When the rule-breaking cop’s former partner is murdered with evidence starting to implicate him, Ludlow embarks on a mission to find the killers while clearing his name. He uncovers a larger conspiracy involving the police department’s corruption, coming to realize that some of the people he trusts most may be manipulating him.
Reeves’ Tom Ludlow Went Off the Rails
“I mean, he plays a guy who’s grieving over the loss of his wife and that’s a character shading that carries through,” Ayer previously told Collider about Reeves’ role. “We always talked about the fact that at one point he was a very idealistic person, a very idealistic cop. We had a whole biography for this guy, that his dad worked at the Camero plant in Van Nuys and got laid off in the ’80s, and he was kind of a sports guy and wrestled in high school and then got out and had a really sort of cheesy string of jobs and then the LAPD was hiring.”
Ayer continued, “He sort of got into that and suddenly became somebody and found that he had an aptitude and identity and people liked him and he was valued. Then he sort of went off the rails from there as he’s manipulated. No one ever starts out as a bad guy.”
The movie was able to get its alone standalone sequel. Chris Fisher’s Street Kings 2: Motor City was released directly to DVD in 2011, though Clifton Powell (Ray) was the only actor to return. Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) and Shawn Hatosy (The Pitt) also starred. The sequel moved the action from Los Angeles over to Detroit and deals with similar themes of police corruption.
Street Kings is streaming on Starz.