Film talks all the talk; DVD

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Sept 12, 2008

STREET KINGS (Cert 15, 104 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Thriller/Action, also available to buy DVD pounds 19.99/Blu-ray pounds 28.99) Starring: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Martha Higareda, Chris Evans, Naomie Harris, John Corbett, Amaury Nolasco, Jay Mohr, Terry Crews.

VETERAN police detective Tom Ludlow (Reeves) is still reeling from the death of his wife, numbing the pain with regular swigs of vodka.

He rarely plays by the rules, making him a prime target for Captain James Biggs (Laurie) and his colleagues in Internal Affairs. Ludlow's fellow officers in the specialised Ad Vice unit begrudgingly cover for him because results make them all look good, to the delight of commanding officer Captain Jack Wander (Whitaker).

When Tom is implicated in the murder of former partner Detective Terrence Washington (Crews), who was poised to turn informant for Biggs, the gung-ho cop joins forces with idealistic homicide detective Paul Diskant (Evans) to clear his name.

The hard-boiled dialogue is suitably snappy but fails to draw blood in the hands of a cast whose imposing physical presence dwarfs any acting prowess.

DVD Extras include: Director commentary, extended widescreen version of the film, 15 deleted scenes, 10 alternative scenes, 10 vignettes, 'Street Rules: Rolling With David Ayer And Jaime FitzSimons' featurette, 'HBO First Look - City Of Fallen Angels: Making Street Kings' featurette; Blu-ray.