“Street Kings 2: Detroit” Blu-ray Review
Catch Ray Liotta and Shawn Hatosy in the action packed thriller, STREET KINGS 2: MOTOR CITY. Your heart will be racing as this compelling story about the ultimate struggle for justice comes to Blu-ray and DVD April 19 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Synopsis
Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) delivers an intense, electrifying performance in this explosive follow-up to the gritty urban crime thriller Street Kings. Liotta plays Detroit detective Marty Kingston, the leader of an undercover narcotics team, whose members are being systematically murdered one by one. To solve the brutal killings, Kingston joins forces with a cocky, young homicide detective (Hatosy). But neither of them is prepared for the shocking corruption their investigation will uncover — stunning secrets that will set both men on a violent collision course with betrayal and vengeance. Shot on location in Detroit, renowned director Chris Fisher brings the story to life in a way that is sure to have audiences raving. STREET KINGS 2: MOTOR CITY also stars Clifton Powell (“Army Wives,” Preacher’s Kid, Street Kings), and Zuliekha Robinson (“Lost,” The Namesake). STREET KINGS 2: MOTOR CITY will be available as a 1-disc DVD, 2-disc Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD) or Street Kings Blu-ray 2 pack (Street Kings BD + Street Kings 2 BD).
The original Street Kings was a stupid, but fun, dirty cop drama simply because of the actors involved. The story was pretty mundane and the acting was questionable, but having Keanu Reeves and Hugh Laurie in the same movie just seemed awesome for some reason. For some reason someone decided that a sequel would be a good idea, though it definitely wasn’t a film that deserved one. But whatever, the film got made and was assigned director Chris Fisher, aka the brilliant mind behind S. Darko. “Ah,” I hear you saying, “that film really blew!” Yes it did. But Fisher’s direct-to-DVD films seem to have a common thread: they incorporate at least one of the actors from the original to…I don’t know what. Help make it seem like it exists for a reason? Who knows, but so far his career has sucked and the fact I’ve had to review both of his films for Fox as of late is a real disservice to me considering I enjoyed the original films he’s sequel-izing.
But I digress. This one is pretty obviously bad from the outset just because Ray Liotta is in it. He doesn’t seem to even care about the roles anymore so much as the paycheck and that is sadly quite evident here considering he phones in just about every scene he is in. The film opens with a huge shoot out which is probably the moment you should shut it off as it just steamrolls downhill from there. From there we progress three years into the future and find Liotta’s character, having been wounded in the shootout, playing an anti-drug dog at a local school. I guess we’re supposed to feel for the man, but I don’t because I know he’s an ass—Liotta’s character is always an ass. So I pretended that he wasn’t for a few seconds before the movie told me otherwise and that he was really the big killer of the whole film. Dirty cop!
And yeah it was really as simple as that. The film let go of this juicy plot point about halfway through the film, so that was perhaps the only relieving element of it—it just put us out of our misery super-fast. Of course it then dragged on another hour or so despite this “shocking” turn of events and I proceeded to hate myself for having to finish it. It’s supposed to be a game of cat and mouse for the last half of the film, but it really isn’t so much that as a game of mouse trap. You spend an hour setting the damn thing up and then the result is a fleeting twenty seconds of watching stuff knock other stuff down.
So basically what I’m saying is…this film is a giant waste of time and should be Skipped. It’s not even a guilty pleasure because it’s not a “so bad it’s good” type movie…it’s just bad. Period. There are no redeeming qualities and even the films occasionally atrocious dialogue isn’t enough to laugh at because it’s delivered so poorly and stupidly. Overall Liotta participated in another bomb of a film and the director of S. Darko continues a stupid streak. Shocking!
The Blu-ray
Street Kings 2: Detroit finds a home in a standard two disc Elite Blu-ray case—and that’s it, really. Just the two discs (Blu-ray, DVD) and insert.
Moving onto the AVC encoded 1080p 1.78:1 transfer we get the usual flawless presentation out of the Blu-ray format you expect. The majority of the film oozes detail out of all of the frames, boasting plenty of detail in the myriad of sequences that range from early morning shots to some very grainy and very blown out sequences…at least the sequel mimicked the looks of the original (that’s about all it did right though). On top of that we have plenty of detail on character faces and the like. The audio matches the visual presentation with decent flair, as the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix thuds and booms at every turn, spreading the love around to all of the surrounds and making full use of the LFE output during the shootout sequences and whatnot.
Extras include:
• Murder Scene Deconstructions
• Creating a Convincing Cop Story
• Motor City Setting
• An Explosive Opening
• Interactive Weapons Check (Blu-ray exclusive)
• Deleted Scenes
The extras are as worthwhile as the film. We get about a half hours’ worth of stuff here and none of it something I recommend. It all sucks, just like the movie. (Was that too harsh?)
Overall you can Avoid this release without worry.
Street Kings 2: Detroit is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.