Suicide Squad and Bright now withstanding, you largely know what you’re going to get when you see David Ayer’s name attached to a project. Nine times out of ten, there’s going to be corrupt cops and street-level criminals, plenty of bloody violence and a hard-edged noir style, and those tropes have served the filmmaker very well for 20 years.
Training Day, Dark Blue, S.W.A.T., Harsh Times, End of Watch, Sabotage and The Tax Collector all tick at least a couple of the aforementioned boxes, but it’s arguably his underrated effort that’s been finding a new lease of life on streaming.
As per FlixPatrol, 2008’s Street Kings has rocketed up the viewership charts to crack the Top 10, and it’s fully deserving of finding a much bigger audience than it did first time out, when it only managed to earn $66 million at the box office. Keanu Reeves headlines as Tom Ludlow, an LAPD veteran who finds himself implicated in the death of a fellow officer, drawing him into a citywide conspiracy.
The stacked ensemble also features Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, Terry Crews, Common and many more, and it’s well worth a watch for fans of the crime genre, especially those who like their protagonists to be complex and painted in at least a couple of shades of grey.