He's a cop who speaks in a monotone and throws the book away. His idea of due process is an empty clip. Miranda who? Though he's a maverick, he finds himself surrounded by crooked cops who make him look an ACLU lawyer.

Sound like Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry in "Magnum Force?" You bet. But this time the anti-hero is Keanu Reeves in "Street Kings." There are enough other similarities to the Dirty Harry franchise to make this gritty gunfest seem like an homage, which it well may be.

Whatever its intent, the result is a street-smart, hard-boiled cop movie with a story that doesn't bear close scrutiny. However, there's enough action, enough tough talk and enough treacherous plot turns to keep it rocking right on along.

Novelist James Ellroy, the crime writer who stakes out Los Angeles's most lurid terrain as his own, wrote the story and collaborated on the script. So the movie also has Ellroy's trademarks. They include betrayal, a dark pessimism about the integrity of L.A.'s law enforcement agencies and emotionally battered heroes who are not exactly good but better than everyone else. Director David Ayer takes this film noir approach and runs with it. He gives the action plenty of priority while providing the movie's underpinnings with vivid street characters and the obligatory sunwashed and seedy backdrop.

Reeves plays vice detective Tom Ludlow, who starts the movie by killing the members of a kidnapping ring that used its under-age victims for child pornography. Thus the audience is spared any sympathy for the cop's pond-scum victims. Tom does it all on his lonesome and his colleagues are resentful. However, his friend, mentor and boss is ecstatic. Jack Wander, played with a manic intensity by Forest Whitaker, discovered Jack and he's protected his protege during many of his questionable cases. For the boss cop, Tom is a heat-seeking missile who provides his ambitious buddy with plenty of good crime-solving publicity. Hugh Laurie, from TV's "House," plays Biggs, an internal affairs investigator dogging Tom's tracks.

Apparently, Biggs has been talking to Tom's ex-partner who has been suffering a crisis of conscience. He's telling tales out of school and is conveniently shot during an apparent robbery gone sideways. Though there's bad blood between Tom and his ex-partner, Tom can't let the case slide into the cover-up that his boss and colleagues want to happen. Enter Chris Evans who plays Tom's new, unofficial partner who has been told to aid the cover-up. He finally evolves into a bright spot of integrity in a soup of venality and viciousness.

Reeves, not known for brilliant performances, is entirely effective in the role. This may be his best effort. He handles the action with vigor and he brings a bull-headed determination to his mission. Not as smart as Dirty Harry, Tom doesn't wake up to his exploitation until late in the game. Reeves can do in-the-dark quite well.