"A damn fine film with a good heart and some really excellent performances" finished atop the indie weekend box office charts. The quote is from our own Scott Weinberg's review of Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (Overture), and I agree wholeheartedly. The film earned $22,000 per-screen at four theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Richard Jenkins stars as a college professor who strikes up a friendship with an immigrant couple he finds living in his NYC apartment. It's even better -- and deeper -- than that description might sound.

An elderly chorus sings a repertoire of modern pop and rock songs in Stephen Walker's documentary Young @ Heart (Fox Searchlight); audiences responded to the tune of $13,075 per screen at four locations. Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote: "Even for all its flaws and failures it still succeeds in showing us friends who -- through song and art and community and, yes, love -- are doing their best to face it with everything that they've got."

David Ayer's Street Kings (Fox Searchlight) should be included, I suppose, because it's distributed by an studio specialty division known for its indie releases, though not much about the police drama screams "indie." By the per-screen numbers, it finished third, earning an average of $4,864 at each of 2,467 engagements. "As yet another tale of dirty criminals and even dirtier cops," Scott Weinberg opined, "Street Kings works well enough, albeit strictly in a 'been there, seen that' sort of way."

It's not very often that the "credits line" in a movie poster will cause you to look twice, but I was both curious and intrigued when I read that David Ayer, Kurt Wimmer and James Ellroy were collaborating on a movie called Street Kings. Ayer is a prolific screenwriter who digs cop stories (he wrote Dark Blue, Training Day, S.W.A.T., and The Fast and the Furious) and recently directed his debut effort: the seriously underrated Harsh Times. Kurt Wimmer, on the other end of the genre spectrum, is the writer / director of sci-fi flicks like Equilibrium and Ultraviolet. And James Ellroy? A very respected novelist making his screenwriting debut. (His works have spawned movies like L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia.) And weirdly enough, although Street Kings is very similiar in theme and content to Ayer's earlier works, he's not credited as a screenwriter. Just Ellroy and Wimmer.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty interesting, but that was before I spelled it all out in a large paragraph. Now I just realize it was a cheap way to kick off a review of a film I don't really have a whole lot to say about. As yet another tale of dirty criminals and even dirtier cops, Street Kings works well enough, albeit strictly in a "been there, seen that" sort of way. (Heck, if you've seen Training Day then you've already seen much of what this new film has to offer.) It's a well-constructed piece filled with colorful actors doing fine work -- but much of Street Kings offers that weird vibe that occurs when someone's in the middle of telling a joke you've already heard two or three times: The new presenter might be a fine joke-teller, but as a listener you're left with little response but to smile and nod politely.

What happens when men in blue, sworn to protect and to serve, fly out of control? If we're lucky, we get a good movie out of it. If we're really lucky, we get a larger than life character to cheer and to fear. Are you feeling lucky, punk?

Keanu Reaves, of all people, will follow in the steel-toed shoes of some of cinema's finest as a cop who goes on an avenging rampage in David Ayer's Street Kings, which opens tomorrow. That made me reflect on my favorite out of control cinematic cops, men in blue who break free from the laws of god and man. Let us know who we missed in the comments section. But be nice, or we'll track you down and crack you over the head with a night stick.

1. Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry

Clint is so cool as Harry Callahan that he can just glare at bad guys and they give themselves up. Dirty Harry never met a criminal he couldn't beat up, a sergeant he couldn't hate, or a partner he couldn't get killed. He can't help it: he married justice a long time ago and the blind old bat won't leave him alone until he takes out the garbage. Don't even think about getting in his way: he solved the Zodiac killings in 102 minutes! Dirty Harry paved the way for several sequels and countless gruff, lone wolf outlaw police detectives.

So while I seriously doubt that most people were actually going to confuse the crime drama, The Night Watchman with Zack Snyder's Watchmen at the box office, the similarity in titles probably wasn't helping much in the marketing department. It looks like someone at Fox Searchlight thought the same thing and Slashfilm is now reporting that the studio has decided it was time for a name change. The title of James Ellroy's The Night Watchman will now be known as Street Kings. Frankly, neither of these titles are 'rocking my world,' but at least now it's going to clear up a lot of confusion.

Street Kings stars Keanu Reeves as Tom Ludlow; an LA cop who has recently lost his wife. With his life already in shambles, it gets even worse when he is framed for a murder and his abandoned by his fellow boys in blue. Ellroy wrote the script along with John Ridley (U Turn and Three Kings) and David Ayer (writer for Training Day) is at the helm. The cast also includes Forest Whitaker as Reeves' supervisor, Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) and TV's infamous Dr. House, better known as Hugh Laurie, will play another cop on the force.

Filming began back in July and we got our first look at Reeves in his 'blues' when Erik brought us over 20 photos of the actor hard at work on the set. The flick is now in post production, so I guess Fox figured that it was now or never if they were planning on a change -- and personally I think they made the right decision. Street Kings arrives in theaters this spring.

Okay, bear with me because this is going to get confusing. Keanu Reeves is starring in an upcoming thriller called Night Watch. Its title used to be The Night Watchman, but it was changed, likely to avoid getting mixed up with the upcoming Zack Snyder superhero flick Watchmen. Oh, and this Night Watch has nothing to do with the other Night Watch, the 2004 Russian film that was pretty popular in its own right, and spawned a sequel -- Day Watch -- out this summer. Oh, and it also has nothing to do with the 1997 Ewan McGregor morgue thriller Nightwatch. Which was a remake of a 1994 Danish film...called Nightwatch. So in conclusion, to avoid confusion, they've changed the title to one that will probably cause much, much more confusion. Everybody up to speed? Alright, then let's move on.

Casting news on the film has been dribbling out steadily. In February, Erik told you that Keanu Reeves would star in the film, as an alcoholic LA cop framed by his former mentor. Then Jessica added that the mentor would be played by the always-excellent Forest Whitaker. And now I am telling you that Naomie Harris has joined the cast. Harris is best known for playing Tia Dalma ("Voodoo Lady") in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. She tells mtv Night Watch is "really dark. It's a really great movie, though, and I'm really excited to be part of it." David Ayer will direct the film, which he co-wrote with Jamie Moss and master of LA corruption stories -- James Ellroy. Ayer certainly knows police dramas, having written one of the best recent examples -- Training Day. He made his directorial debut with last year's very effective Harsh Times. Rapper Common, Chris "Flame On!" Evans, and Dr. House himself -- Hugh Laurie -- will round out the cast. I'm not a big Reeves enthusiast, but any movie that puts Whitaker in his "Kavanaugh on The Shield" mode definitely has my interest.

Stepping into David Ayer's hotel room, for the first time in my life I felt as if I was shaking hands with a screenwriter who could literally snap me in half without even flinching. It's not that he's muscular, menacing or intimidating -- in fact, he's none of those things. However, as my eyes met his, I could tell the man had traveled (mentally and physically) to some dangerous places. And, although he managed to survive a tough childhood, going on to become one of the most sought-after screenwriters in Hollywood, his gritty past was written all over his face.

While I was a big fan of Ayer's script for Training Day (a film which saw Denzel Washington take home an Oscar for Best Actor), as well as interested in talking about his directorial debut Harsh Times (opening this Friday), I really wanted to know more about Ayer, and what attracted him to such dark, rough material. Here's a guy who grew up on the streets of South Central, Los Angeles, who somehow found a way to escape by joining the Navy and then wound up writing Hollywood screenplays. How does that happen? Well, I did my best to find out ...

Cinematical: What was it about the story and the idea behind Harsh Times that made you so determined to get this thing made? I know you took out a mortgage on your home to finance it yourself -- I mean, what was about it that spoke to you that way?

David Ayer: Well, I wanted to direct and I wrote it with the intention to direct. I know the world, I know the characters and I know how to do it right. And there's also a uniqueness to it because it's so personal and I knew I could really duplicate some of what I've seen in my experiences and thoughts. I couldn't hand it over to someone else, and it was just time for me to direct -- it was time for the career change. I believed in it. It was a Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab Script, and we ended up doing a table reading at the silent movie theater for like 350 people. People were crying at the end, and I'm like okay -- this is a movie. I have no doubt now, this thing could be a movie. So I was just determined to get it to the screen.

It was about 15 months ago when I sat down at a Toronto Film Festival screening and enjoyed the hell out of David Ayer's Harsh Times. It's a stark, dark and (yes) harsh piece of 70's-style hard-boiled character study, and one that features two fantastic performances: one from Freddy Rodriguez and the other from the mega-chameleon known as Christian Bale. It's the story of a frantic Gulf War veteran who desperately wants to earn a career in law enforcement -- despite the fact that the guy's maybe three whiskers short of Postal Mode. Anyway, it's a damn good flick, so I kept my eye out to see when the thing would hit the cinemas already.

(Harsh Times was obviously a labor of love for Ayer, who, after penning the screenplays for The Fast and the Furious, Dark Blue and Training Day (among others), decided it was time to re-finance his house and use the money to direct his first feature. And so he did.)

The New York Times just published a rather excellent article that details what went on after the upstart Bauer Martinez boys offered Mr. Ayer $4 million for his movie. Needless to say, bitterness and animosity bubble just beneath the surface: Ayer hasn't received his full paycheck, Martinez claims to have dropped $15 million on advertising, although that money most likely came from MGM. Oh yeah, apparently MGM will be doing the distributing for Bauer Martinez ... which is weird because Bauer Martinez was supposed to be, well, a distribution company.

Long story short: Harsh Times will (finally) hit about 800 screens come November 10th, although most of you movie fans will have to be content with catching it on DVD some time early next year. Bale's performance is pretty much a force of nature, but I doubt a flick this "low profile" will be yielding any Oscar nominations. And that's a shame, because Bale's long overdue for some award-time affection. Isn't he?

While this story might not mean much for those of you not living in New York City, let me tell ya -- this freaking real-life news item dominated the front page of every New York newspaper for quite some time. Basically, two retired NYPD cops (Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa) were busted in Las Vegas (where they were living) and brought back to New York to face a ton of charges that included murder, attempted murder, murder conspiracy, money laundering, obstruction of justice and drug distribution. Apparently, these crimes were committed while the two (police officers at the time) were on the Mafia's payroll. If there are two things New Yorkers love to obsess about it's corrupt cops and the mob, which meant this story was a winning lottery ticket for most NY papers.

And, of course, Hollywood was not far behind. Once these boys were found guilty, folks jumped on the story trying to decide how to go about bringing it to the big screen. Well now, David Ayer (best known for the gritty cop dramas Training Day, S.W.A.T. and Harsh Times) has signed on to rewrite and direct Mafia Cop for Universal. Ayer will take over for David Gordon, the guy originally tapped to pen the script. Currently, no one is attached to star, though I could see Al Pacino playing Caracappa. Who do you think would be good in these roles?

Successful screenwriter David Ayer got his first on-screen credit with Universal's war movie U-571, an ensemble submarine adventure that was (very) loosely based on actual events. With some slick direction by Jonathan Mostow and a cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey and David Keith, I thought the movie was a fairly fine piece of matinee-style entertainment.

But my buddies over in England were pretty damn pissed about the changes made between the world of reality and the realm of cinema. Basically, the movie states that American servicemen were the ones who acquired that mega-important "Enigma" code machine from the Nazis, while actual history dictates that it was British men who did the heroic deed. And those who respect British Naval History were seriously (not to mention justifiably) displeased with what they saw in U-571. (It'd be like someone making a biopic of Frenchman John Wayne.)

Anyway, it's six years later, and Mr. Ayer now has something to say regarding U-571, and that something comes in the form of a semi-apology. "It was a distortion... a mercenary decision to create this parallel history in order to drive the movie for an American audience," is what the filmmaker told the BBC recently, as if we didn't already know the scoop on the movie. Still, it's very cool to hear the guy own up to the misstep, even if it was only his very first project for Universal and he probably didn't have much say in the matter one way or the other.

For his part, David Ayer followed up U-571 with the goofy The Fast and the Furious, the intense Training Day, the underappreciated Dark Blue, and the guiltily pleasurable S.W.A.T. Also due very soon is Ayer's directorial debut: Harsh Times, starring Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez, is, in my opinion, the best work he's ever done. (And although I do consider myself a fan of Mr. Ayer's work, I must now throw down a large gauntlet of skepticism regarding his next project: an alleged remake of The Wild Bunch.)