With its crime pedigree of cowriter James Ellroy (best known for his novels L.A. Confidential and American Tabloid) and director David Ayer (screenwriter of Training Day), you’d hope, maybe even expect, that Street Kings would hit a high-mark for the genre. Instead, it turns out to be a bland procedural spiked with moments of unnecessarily heavy violence—an un-thinking man’s cop movie, complete with a laughably dense protagonist.

Keanu Reeves is Tom Ludlow, officer with LAPD’s notorious Vice Special squad, whose strong-arm tactics, eagerness to kill, and general disregard for all things Miranda have attracted the watchful eye of Internal Affairs. Protecting Ludlow is his captain Jack Wander (a straining Forest Whitaker), who has enough juice with the city to keep Vice Special operating despite the slew of investigations. But when Ludlow’s former partner—who may or may not have been talking to Internal Affairs—winds up on the wrong end of a barrage of gunfire, the noose tightens, evidence is buried, and Ludlow is forced to take matters into his own hands to find the killers. Then the bullets really start to fly.

For its first two acts, Street Kings lumbers along, coughing up an assault of cop movie clichés—everything from “He bleeds blue!”, to doomed partners, to that old chestnut of flinching as shots ring out during a 21-gun salute. And while it’s all solidly constructed (Ayer proves a capable director, even if he over-uses aerial shots of downtown Los Angeles for transitions), it’s also fairly unimaginative—a re-hashing of L.A. Confidential updated and with more empty clips. Worse, it takes Ludlow painfully long to figure things out—and even then it has to be spelled out for him. A certain amount of dimness is to be expected from a blunt character, but when the audience spots the big reveal well before the movie’s hero, you have a flaw too glaring to ignore.

STREET KINGS DIR. DAVID AYER | RATED R | OPENS FRI EVERYWHERE

Tags: Film, keanu reeves, lapd, street kings