Review of Streets of Blood (2009) by Tyson P — 06 Mar 2013

While calling "Streets of Blood" good might be a stretch there are some solid elements among the missteps and if you're a fan of Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson he stands out as a pretty good actor in the film. Most of the performances are actually pretty good and if characters aren't convincing in their parts it's mostly because the material they're given often reduces them to cartoonish characters. Many characters are really outlandish and aren't believable at all while other are just fine. "Stan" seems like a realistic person, someone who starts cutting corners and eventually can't help but succumb to temptation as his personal problems keep pilling up but Val Kilmer's character "Andy" is one of the most corrupt police officers you'll ever see... and he's supposed to be the good guy? Are we supposed to cheer for someone that goes around endangering himself and his fellow officers, making up stories and breaking into warehouses just so he can be judge, jury and executioner? It's made clear that he doesn't steal anything (drugs, weapons or money) from the crooks he takes down but he guns down so many people that the whole film you'll be expecting every other bad copy to drop what they're doing and rat him out except for the fact that the other bad cops we see carelessly go around executing whoever they please, discharging their firearms in mid-air in celebration (bet you that isn't suspicious, don't officers have to report to their superiors every time they pull the trigger?) while the enormously incompetent police chief sits around either oblivious or in denial.

There are at least two side plots that could have been dropped (The psychiatrist suspecting the corruption and the mysterious gang getting the upper hand on all of the others to name a couple) to help streamline the movie and clarify how we're supposed to feel about each character, how the city is changing them and where they're ultimately headed. As is, some plots go nowhere and there's at least one character who's simply dropped altogether towards the climax of the film. During the end credits we see shots of New Orleans and we get to witness the sorry state the people and the city is in but there's no clear message as to what needs to be done or how we should feel about it aside from the natural "wow, that's too bad that no help is coming" reaction you would get from a normal news report. If you're a really big fan of cop dramas "Streets of Blood" might be your thing but amid the things that work there are a too many messy scenes that don't. (Dvd, March 3, 2013).