Keanu Reeves is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but much of his work in the 21st century has been as part of two franchises: The Matrix and John Wick. After his breakout in The Matrix in 1999, he appeared in three more films in that franchise after 2000 and then took the role of John Wick for five movies between 2014 and 2025. However, this isn’t all that Reeves has been doing, although most of his other roles are overshadowed by his two big franchises. One of these movies that deserves a second look is the 2008 crime thriller Street Kings.
Street Kings hit theaters in 2008, and it gave Reeves a chance to work with one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest stars three years before he joined the MCU, in a movie directed by a future DC Extended Universe director, eight years before he directed Suicide Squad.
Keanu Reeves took on a role against type in David Ayer’s Street Kings in 2008. This movie is a crime thriller about an undercover police detective who is implicated in the murder of another officer, which then leads to a trail of corruption in the LAPD. Reeves plays Tom Ludlow, an alcoholic undercover detective in the LAPD Vice-Special unit. He is also someone who will break the law to make things right. This included the opening of the movie, where he finds a gang’s hideout, kills them all to rescue two teenage girls, and stages the scene to look like self-defense.
When a captain in internal affairs named Biggs (Hugh Laurie) approaches Tom about possible corruption, Tom believes his former partner, Terrence Washington (Terry Crews), reported their activities. Washington ends up dead during a shootout with two gang members. However, because Tom accidentally shot Washington as well during the shootout, he is implicated in the murder. This then leads to both an investigation into the shooting and Tom’s determination to find the actual killers.
Street Kings is based on a story created by author James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and a script that Ellroy wrote, with additional rewrites by Kurt Wimmer and Jamie Moss. This was Ayer’s second movie as a director, following the crime thriller Harsh Times (2005). The movie featured an impressive cast that included names like Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans, Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Mohr, Naomie Harris, and Common.
The movie ended up with mixed to negative reviews, sitting at 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score of 58% showed it has its fans. The critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes revealed that critics felt it was formulaic, but the script wasn’t smart. However, thanks to the solid acting of people like Reeves and future MCU star Chris Evans, there is a lot to like about the film as a whole.
Chris Evans was finding his place in Hollywood when he took the role in Street Kings. He had started to make his name in comic book movies by this time, so Street Kings was a rare crime thriller role for the emerging star. Evans hit it big thanks to the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, where he played the Human Torch, and he followed it up with the FF sequel, the TMNT reboot in 2007, and a sci-fi movie called Sunshine in 2007. After a comedy and animated voice role in 2007, he appeared next in Street Kings in a supporting role.
Evans played Paul Diskant, an investigator who was assigned after Tom was punished for his role in Washington’s shooting. He worked with Paul and witnessed the brutality of Paul’s style of police work before Paul ended up being killed as well in a gunfight, which led to Tom’s realization that crooked cops were actually to blame for Washington’s murder. It was a small but important role in the movie, and it showed Evans was ready for a bigger Hollywood future.
That happened just three years later. After taking on roles in three more comic book movies, Push (2009), The Losers (2010), and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Evans started his MCU journey in Captain America: The First Avenger. That heroic role is now what Evans is best known for, and he even returns to it in 2026 in Avengers: Doomsday. However, before he became the world’s most iconic superhero, he starred in a small role as an ill-fated investigator in Street Kings with Keanu Reeves.
