Disappointment for a huge fan!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

"Dirty" director Chris Fisher's cynical police corruption melodrama "Street Kings 2: Motor City" shares some narrative threads with its superior theatrical predecessor--director David Ayer's "Street Kings." Meaning, this straight-to-video potboiler qualifies as an in-name-only sequel. None of the main characters reprise their roles. The setting has been shifted from Los Angeles to Detroit. "Grizzly Mountain" scenarist Jeremy Haft and freshman scribe Ed Gonzalez rely on Fritz Lang's 1953 crime thriller "The Big Heat" for the revenge part of their plot. Ray Liotta's presence as treacherous narcotics detective Marty Kingston, and the majestic urban setting of Detroit are the only two things that distinguish the predictable, often unsavory "Street Kings 2." Aside from Liotta and Shawn Hatosy, the cast makes little impression, and the hard-boiled dialogue is forgettable. Nobody says anything worth quoting. The shoot-outs generate neither suspense nor excitement. Fisher and his writers blow the killer's identity about 30 minutes into this half-baked whodunit, and murderer's identity is no revelation. Spotting the killer is rather easy since the filmmakers provide red herrings so obvious that you know they are distractions.This formulaic murder-mystery opens three years before a Detroit cop killing spree. Metro Narcs swap lead with angry drug dealers after they blow their cover. Marty Kingston (Ray Liotta of "Goodfellas") shoots a coked-up thug. Marty's slugs don't stop Mikey (Tim Holmes of "Asian Task Force") who disarms him and then shoots Marty in the right thigh before back-up arrives to blast Mikey. Marty and his crew confiscate $3 million dollars. This brief prologue serves to introduce most of the primary characters, namely the narcs. The contemporary story begins thereafter with the homicide of undercover narc Sal Quintana (Scott Norman of "The Art of Power") who Internal Affairs has had under close scrutiny for accepting bribes from strip clubs. After a drunken Quintana exits a strip joint, a hooded assailant in another car pulls up, shoots him in the neck, and later rams him with his car, shooting him two more times. We're told that Quintana was Marty's partner in narcotics for eight years. A pesky Internal Affairs cop approaches Marty after Quintana's funeral and asks him if Quintana was on the take. Marty defends Quintana as a good cop. Afterward, Detective Tyrone Fowler (Clifton Powell of "Norbit") and Detective Rogen (Kevin Chapman of "Unstoppable") approach Marty, and Fowler utters a snide comment about Marty's new friend, a reference to the Internal Affairs sergeant. Rookie detective Dan Sullivan (Shawn Hatosy of "Public Enemies") is assigned to the case. He wants nothing to do with Marty, but he is forced to work with him. Sullivan's back story is that an unknown assailant murdered his policeman father at a simple traffic stop. Eventually, Sullivan and Marty come to tolerate each other. Later, Sullivan questions Fowler and Rogen, but gets nothing out of them. At a secret rendezvous, Fowler rants at Marty about Sullivan. Marty approaches Sullivan about Fowler. It seems that Sullivan had discovered Fowler's connection with Quintana from Quintana's own landlady at the Lap of Luxury Apartments. Fowler and Quintana were friendly enough for Fowler to bounce a check for his rent. Anyhow, Marty learns to his surprise that Internal Affairs is poised to question them. Suddenly, Fowler dies outside a massage parlor after shooting it out with a hooded character inside. Later, Rogen breaks his neck at a wharf while fighting an assailant. Sullivan tells Marty. "Got three dead cops. All killed before they talked to I.A. Something bigger going on here."Police chief Captain Walker (Linda Boston of "Stone") wants the murderer apprehended at any cost. As far as she is concerned, all criminals can run free until the police arrest the cop killer. The authorities snag something of a break in the third narc's murder. Rogen dies as he is wrestling with the killer within the view of a surveillance camera. Naturally, the killer is bundled into a hoodie so his features don't stand out prominently enough for identification purposes. Haft and Gonzalez let the cat out of the bag early when the villain takes down another corrupt cop. As it turns out, our heroic villain used his share of 'dirty' money to pay for his wife's cancer treatments. Had Marty not taken his loved one to Mexico she would have died. Marty comes clean to Dan after he learns that Dan has found out about his wife's hospital visit in Mexico. This is the moment in act II and the first in act III. Ironically, Dan is about to relent until contrived plotting breaks and enters. "Street Kings 2: Motor City" gets a lot of visual mileage out of Detroit as a setting. The change of scenery from the usual Los Angeles or New York City locales imparts a spontaneity but nothing is refreshing about its conventional, unimaginative plot. Sadly, Fisher doesn't stage any complicated shoot-outs. He keeps everything pretty basic. Not surprisingly, this lackluster law & order saga takes itself very seriously, with only a modicum of humor. Ray Liotta dons a McGruff, Crime-Dog costume for an amusing scene at his son Casey's Detroit school. We catch him for a moment in church on his knees where he should be spending a lot of time. Marty believes that family comes first. Marty is a paranoid personality. Moreover, he believes that the ends justify the means. Once a threat emerges, he responds with short-sighted fervor. What Fisher cannot capture with stunning action set-pieces, he tries to compensate with using suspense and atmosphere. Thematically, he explores the morally murky terrain that the men-in-blue patrol and makes it a convincingly dangerous looking landscape. Marty and Dan amount to two-dimensional characters with everybody else just blending into the scenery. Believe me, "Street Kings 2: Motor City" is no better or worse than past standard-issue cop versus cop movies. The unrated version of this cop-killer epic boasts brief nudity, some violence and bloodshed, suspenseful situations, and profanity.

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.

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.