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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Streets of Blood (2009)

Rating: 1 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Mean Orleans

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Streets of Blood on DVD

Sometimes straight-to-DVD releases can yield hidden treasures. And since Val Kilmer is one of our best, unheralded actors, I thought I'd give Streets of Blood a shot. No hidden treasures here; this movie is pretty awful. It's one of those things that opens up with news footage of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans, and then the movie's terrible, shaky-cam footage actually makes the news footage look artistic. Kilmer gets in some interesting moments as a cop whose partner was killed in the floods. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson plays his new partner and Sharon Stone plays a department shrink. When a DEA agent is killed, a turf war begins, and the FBI is involved somehow, though I'm not sure screenwriter Eugene Hess and director Charles Winkler understand the connection. The writing is painfully obvious and the direction rarely rises above junky. The film treats women abhorrently, only slightly worse than the collection of sneering, one-dimensional bad guys. The wonderful Barry Shabaka Henley appears as the police captain, but he's stuck with some of the film's worst dialogue. Anchor Bay released the 2009 DVD, with a trailer.

With: Val Kilmer, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Sharon Stone, Michael Biehn, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Brian Presley, Barry Shabaka Henley, Luis Rolon, Defecio Stoglin, Davi Jay, Pilar Sanders, Darcel White Moreno, Shirly Brener, Tze Yep, Marcus M. Mauldin
Written by: Eugene Hess, based on a story by Eugene Hess, Dennis Fanning
Directed by: Charles Winkler
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, sexuality, drug content and pervasive language
Running Time: 95 minutes
Date: July 29, 2009