“Street Kings”
Keanu Reeves’s Tom Ludlow is a gunslinging undercover detective driven but also dulled by grief. When he becomes a suspect in the killing of a good cop (his one-time partner), he plunges into the murk of this volatile yet bland neo-noir about corruption and compromised honor in the LAPD. Watching David Ayer’s police thriller (co-written by James Ellroy of “L.A. Confidential” fame), one suspects there’s little need for villians with LAPD’s vice squad, headed by Capt. Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), roaming the streets. Hugh Laurie plays Internal Affairs Capt. Biggs. Chris Evans also stars. And Cedric the Entertainer makes an amusing cameo in a orange Eldorado. R. 1 hour, 47 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
“The Promotion”
The modern job site captured here is a slave galley set on a sea of uncertainty, where you struggle to keep your sea legs as you “manage” lazy and incompetent bosses, dodge harassment claims and try to make plans for “the future” in an economy where you can’t plan anything. “The Promotion” tries to wring laughs out of awkward pauses that follow inappropriate remarks, tiny but thwarted ambitions, the backstabbing, petty, emasculating indignities and unspoken pressure to succeed from family and friends. It stings more often than it tickles. R. 1 hour, 25 minutes. Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
“Redbelt”
In “Redbelt,” acclaimed playwright/filmmaker David Mamet attempts a thinking-man’s martial-arts movie. If that sounds like a contradiction — well, it is. British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike, is the operator of a Los Angeles jiujitsu academy. “Redbelt” is well-acted, particularly by Ejiofor, who makes Mike’s Yoda-like pronouncements seem almost deep, and Mamet veteran Joe Mantegna, who is borderline reptilian as a sleazy movie producer. The movie paints a devastating portrait of Hollywood perfidy and is clearly less interested in the actual fighting than in the philosophy and lifestyle that supports it. Even so, this is still a martial-arts movie. R. 1 hour, 39 minutes. Robert W. Butler, McClatchy Newspapers
