Street Kings 2: Motor City

Marty Kingston never disappoints when it comes to LOW BUDGET MOVIES😡

Don't put your hopes too high, regarding the title, you might be missled in thinking: "this could be something worth watching"... well nothing further away from truth. Almost naive in how predictable can be, every 10 minutes a cliché. From time to time You can feel and see the effort of those involved in making the movie of trying to make it look like a serious action movie by inserting plot twists, but no one buy it, and by the second half even they are getting bored. Just in case you have a boring Sunday afternoon and you wanna see it I won't spoil it, all i can say it's that at the end i had the impression that a 14 year old fan of action movies was in the director's chair. I give it a 5 just because of Ray Liotta, even that it's not his best performance.

I'm going to keep this short. I don't ever review movies on here I just check the site for reviews and usually if 90% of the people who write bad reviews on a flick then I watch it and 90% of the time enjoy it. I haven't seen a well written review in months. This is a great cop flick. Yes it's a good cop / corrupt cop flick but it didn't steal any ideas and had a solid cast. The kid from Southland (tv) was very good and believable and Liotta while not in his Goodfellas best of parts was still very believable. The plot was OK not great and maybe you could guess something but heck you can guess a lot of things now in flicks they all steal the same cliché's. There were some cool moments in this movie. The ending was solid too. The 1st movie was just as expectable in certain parts too. I loved the Keanu one too but I didn't watch this 2nd one expecting him to make an appearance. This isn't Beverly Hills Cop. To many people expect to much out of small budget direct to DVD flicks. You're asking for to much. If I saw this in the $5 box at Walmart I'd buy it. If you like Southland, The Shield, Law and Order or other cop shows check this out it's worth the watch. And stop comparing it to the Keanu Reeves version. It wasn't supposed to be a conclusion or part of trilogy it was just the same name in a different city. I wish people would criticize crap like Fast and Furious 5 for being predictable or having the same name but nope... Check this out it's a good flick.

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. **

Street Kings was quite a surprise hit with stellar cast, somewhat intriguing story and very good direction. Motor City on the other hand is just mess. Not that it doesn't give any entertainment. It does. Specially if you are admirer of cheesy B-movies or those direct to DVD thrillers. Motor City is prime example how to exploit far superior hit film's success, when only thing that relates those two movies are just the title. It amazes me how they got Ray Liotta on board? Did they kidnap his daughter? Or just blackmailed him? Incoherent plot, bad dialog, cliché ridden plot twists that were all written by ten year old. Ray Liotta was the strongest part of the whole movie, but he seemed totally uninterested and thus uninteresting to watch. Shawn Hatosy isn't half that bad actor than he looks in Motor City. Probably it has to do something with inconsistent character development. Oh, there's another connection between two films - Clifton Powell is in both of them. But he plays different characters.

The only interest in watching this film when it showed recently on cable was the presence of Shawn Hatosy and Ray Liotta in it. Not knowing anything about the film, since it obviously went to video, we thought it might have been a sequel to the much better "Street Kings". In spite of all the bad comments it garnered in this forum, the film is not horrible, as we were led to believe. It is predictable and it is another rehash of a decent cop working against a corrupt group of his peers. Dan Sullivan pays dearly for wanting to be honest and do a good job. Directed by Chris Fisher, who works mainly on television, and written by Ed Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft, the narrative cannot compare with the original screenplay written for "Street Kings" by James Ellroy, who knows a thing, or two, about the police drama genre. The best thing in the film is the work of cinematographer Marvin Rush who takes us for a ride through a city that has seen better days. Shawn Hatosy gives a good performance as Dan Sullivan, the good cop. Ray Liotta is not as effective as one expected.

'STREET KINGS 2: MOTOR CITY': Three Stars (Out of Five) Sequel to the 2008 dirty cop film 'STREET KINGS', which was directed by David Ayer (who wrote the similar themed films 'TRAINING DAY', 'DARK BLUE' and 'HARSH TIMES'). This one is directed by Chris Fisher (who also directed the crooked cop film 'DIRTY' and another direct to video loose sequel 'S. DARKO') and it's written by Ed Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft. It stars Ray Liotta and Shawn Hatosy and the only returning cast member from the original is Clifton Powell as Sergeant Greene. The film once again deals with police corruption and an investigation into multiple police murders. It's set in Detroit rather than L.A. and is really just a sequel in name only. As far as direct to video sequels go of this nature it's surprisingly entertaining and at least somewhat well made. Ray Liotta plays veteran police detective Marty Kingston and Shawn Hatosy plays rookie detective Dan Sullivan. When Marty's partner is murdered he's put on assignment to head up the investigation with Sullivan. A series of clues lead to the possibility that the murder was an inside job and a police detective is the culprit. Dan is expecting a child with his young wife and he soon finds his family in danger as well as his faith in the job. The movie is pretty routine and predictable and there's definitely no big surprises. There's of course nothing groundbreaking or too memorable about the film but it is well made none the less. Hatosy and Liotta are good like always and their characters are relatable and mostly believable. The action scenes are decent and somewhat thrilling and if you like the genre you'll definitely be interested and involved in how it all works out. Nothing great or outstanding but it is an enjoyable and well made cop thriller all the same. Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU_O9yN8W_E

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

How far should you dig on an investigation. After a series of police murders, Detectives Marty (Liotta) and Dan (Hatosy) and picked to head the investigation. After following some clues, Dan finds a trail of corruption that shakes him and his faith in the system. It's been awhile since I've seen the first "Street Kings" but I remember it being a little slow and not liking it that much. This one I thought was much faster paced, had more action, and to me was a better movie. Not much in the way of originality here, but a very enjoyable movie and much, much better then I was expecting. Going into too much depth will give away the movie, (it is a little predictable, but still...) but I will say this movie will not disappoint you. Weather you like the original or not, this is a good time. I think this one of the few sequels that is better then the original. I give it a B+. Would I watch again? - I think I would

Very B category movie, don't waste your time with it, don't expect too much, this movie belongs to trash bin. Lots of people will watch it because they think it has anything to with the Keanu's Street King. Nothing to compare. Storyline has been told a thousand times before. Bad cop, good cop, revenge, nothing new is really added to it. Characters are one dimensional and you don't really care about them. Acting? You wont see that in this movie. Ray's only good movie was the Good Fellas, since then he showed us nothing but bad. The best thing about this movie is the ending, because its over. Too bad, you cant get refund for it.