homecoming8 "Street Kings" (2008)was a surprise hit and an excellent cop thriller with great action. Keanu Reeves and Forrest Whitaker were awesome. Because of it's success we have a so-called sequel. "Street Kings 2: Motor City" is a sequel in name only: it has absolutely nothing to do with the first one. But even if it was just named "Motor City", it would still be a very bad one. It lacks an interesting story, decent action (yes, that was CGI blood)and thrills. It's boring from start to finish and at times doesn't even make any sense at all. Not only the title is a joke but "Motor City" also shows that you can call anything "Unrated" these days. Why is Ray Liotta in it ?? Was the rent due ? Did he have some bad investments and really needed the money this bad ? Remember him in "Unlawful Entry, CopLand, Unforgettable" ? Liotta's an excellent actor but here he looks tired like he knows what mess he stepped into. Avoid at all costs, you'll only want your 90 minutes back after this.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Following the killing of his partner outside a nightclub and a spate of recent cop killings, Detective Marty Kingston (Ray Liotta) takes it upon himself to find and bring down who is responsible. But he is taken aback at being saddled with cocky rookie cop Detective Jimmy Rogan (Kevin Chapman) whose dedication and commitment to tracking down the guilty party matches his...and sets in chain a motion of events that will expose a terrifying case of police corruption.So we have Ray Liotta in a straight to DVD sequel to a film originally starring Keanu Reeves that went to theatres??? Something's not quite right when an actor of Liotta's quality accepts roles in straight to DVD films that were originally occupied by an actor the, well, quality of Reeves in films that went to theatres. Anyway, so we have Liotta in the lead role, showing his age a little now, with more than the odd grey hair, a significant weight gain and a performance that just doesn't have the manic intensity that's always been his speciality (which may explain why he's appearing in straight to DVD sequels these days.) Being a sequel to a film that only managed to be of average quality in itself, it's unfair to expect too much of this lesser profile offering, which, to be fair, has a fairly engaging detective story to it. If only it didn't feel quite so by the numbers and hazy, not quite as intelligent as it thinks it is and gradually more formulaic as it goes on. Oh well, at least it's short. **

Johnny_Hing Sure, this story's been told before. Old wine, new bottle. Corrupt cops, veteran cop partnered with first-year cop, Internal Affairs on their tails, and so on and so forth. Nothing original there. Come to think of it, is anything actually "original" anymore these days?? What was refreshing, at least for me, was the setting. Detroit... Motown, Motor City, 2011. Great, great shots of the city from a wide array of angles, including from across the river in Windsor. Just superb. If you've ever lived in Detroit, or even just visited, then you'll see what I mean, especially compared to the mid-70's, when I lived there. And even if you've never been there, what a pleasant treat to watch an action cop flick that wasn't filmed in the same ol same ol: NY, Chicago, or L.A.The score was excellent as well, and really set the mood. The acting was solid, and Ray Liotta fans won't be disappointed.If you've got HD and a decent sound system, allow yourself to sit back and be mesmerized, and never mind the hackneyed plot and predictable storyline.If you're more into witty dialog, memorable one-liners, suspense, surprise twists, and all that, then by all means, take a pass.

moviexclusive Cop thrillers are a dime-and-dozen- probably because it doesn't cost too much to make one, and the fact that we can't help but be intrigued by our men-in-blue. The latter is probably also the reason why most cop thrillers inevitably revolve around the theme of corruption, since the very nature of dirty cops goes against our very intuition of the kind of people we want enforcing law and order on our streets.David Ayer's 'Street Kings' was no different- it packed the grittiness that has become a prerequisite for the modern-day cop thriller, and it had a compelling plot courtesy of star writers James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen, Salt). This direct- to-video in-name only sequel however tries very hard to be gritty, but the lack of a gripping plot- written by newbies Ed Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft- means that it comes apart pretty quickly.Once again, this sequel pairs a clean-cut rookie (Keanu Reeves in the former; Shawn Hatosy in this movie) with a veteran cop (Forest Whitaker in the former; Ray Liotta in this movie), with the veteran teaching the rookie the ways by which cops on the beat go about their business- even if it means taking a little on the side, or turning a blind eye. Here, Hatosy's rookie is a certain Dan Sullivan who is assigned to work with Liotta's Marty Kingston after a Narcotics cop is gunned down in cold blood.The case intensifies after two other cops, both Narcotics officers and former partners of Kingston, also turn up dead. If you're guessing if the killer is a cop or a thug, don't bother- Gonzalez and Haft seem to have so little confidence in their story that they reveal who the killer is just half an hour into the movie. Of course, it really isn't much of a surprise too- but the revelation still deflates much of the suspense that should accompany a movie like this.Indeed, once we know the killer's identity, it's only a matter of time before Sullivan puts the pieces together and tracks him down. Director Chris Fisher tries to make this about the dilemma Sullivan faces taking down one of his own, but the attempt at injecting complexity into the mostly perfunctory proceedings is hardly engaging enough. And since the characters aren't fleshed out properly, even the ending- which retains the original's irony- comes across limp and uninspired.The performances here are mostly just mediocre- Liotta has been in so many such genre stuff that he seems content to just sleepwalk through the role; while Hatosy is passable as the rookie forced to learn the ropes the tough way. And besides them, the rest of the supporting cast including Clifton Powell and Kevin Chapman as Kingston's former partners are mostly wasted.While 'Street Kings' was a sufficiently gripping cop thriller, this sequel is no more than a run-of-the-mill addition to the genre that will quickly be forgotten- after all, you will probably get the same and more in an episode of 'Law and Order' or 'The Shield' on TV. Even with lowered expectations for direct-to-video sequels, this is still a disappointing attempt at trying to replicate the success of its modestly successful predecessor.www.moviexclusive.com