A pair of newly minted police partners risking their own lives to determine whether a fellow officer was murdered in this gritty crime drama set in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The official report says the officer died during the chaos of the storm, one of the most violent natural disasters the nation's ever seen but the evidence doesn't seem to add up.

Streets of Blood is an Independent, low-budget film much like other crime thrillers that have come before it like "Training Day" and "Street Kings", but this one falls a little short compared to those two in story. The film takes place in New Orleans after the Katrina, the partner of Detective Andy Devereaux (Val Kilmer) is found dead and he teams up with Stan Green (50 Cent) that becomes his new partner. During the investigations, a undercover DEA agent is murdered by two dirty police officers, and the psychologist Nina Ferraro (Sharon Stone) has successive interviews with Andy, Stan and the two detectives. Meanwhile, the FBI also investigate the corruption in the police force leaded by Agent Brown. The film grabs your attention right from the opening frames when real footage of the disaster are shown but what I meant by it falling short on story is it seems the Director had way too much going on. There is just too many characters to follow and after awhile your not sure who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. That is the film's weakness but in a lot of ways the cast makes up for it, Val Kilmer was fantastic here, I have always been a fan of his but he has been in a lot of very low budget fare the last several years that were not that good but I think this was by far his best performance in years. Sharon Stone did a fine job here as well and 50 Cent was able to hold his own considering a big role he had here, you can see his acting is still some what weak but I certainly have seen worse acting before. The camera work and the on location filming on the streets gave the film a much more realistic feel than other thrillers like it and the film does have plenty of action and some good drama to go along a long with it. The story does manage to create a nice amount of suspense too, if the story could of been re-worked a little this could of been a crime thriller that ranked among the best but it is still a good Police story that keeps your attention and it has a very good ending as well. Streets of Blood is an above average flick considering it is a direct to video film and one that will appeal to a large audience with its mixed themes. I recommend giving this a go if you like the crime genre, the cast alone makes this a film that should do well on DVD. Released by Anchor Bay Home Entertainment. *** 1/2 Out Of *****