16 Blocks
I honestly thought that this movie was going to be a sort of anti-buddy movie, two guys who hate each other just trying to survive some kind of incident. However, it was actually pretty darn entertaining all around. Bruce Willis plays his patented (but never bested) World Weary Cop - yeah, we’ve seen him do it before, but this guy has a great reason for being this way, and he really does it better than anyone. Mos Def is his annoyingly voiced prisoner who he has to transport a mere 16 blocks through Manhattan for his court appearance. One things leads to another, and we have a serious situation on our hands.
Sixteen Blocks makes Manhattan look like the dirtiest place on earth: dirty streets, dirty crimes, dirty cops, dirty everything. The mood and grime and schmutz gets under your skin until you feel dirty just watching - which is surprisingly effective. It’s not often a simple throwaway cop/crook thriller can convey its sensibility so effectively. Director Richard Donner (all 4 Lethal Weapons, the 2 good Superman movies, the Omen, for starters) knows something about the value of mood on a scene. His touch made Timeline watchable, made Scrooged work. He’s a guy who can take a script which might be, well, less than perfect, and make you believe it by shooting it.
Willis’ character has a complex motivation, and it’s hard to follow him, hard to trust him, but what can you do? Def is hilarious in his sincere ignorance of what a pain in the butt he is, but also his performance has an extra non-verbal component that makes it sing. The plot device is pretty weak - get Def to the court to testify or the jury will go home (uh huh) and protect him from retaliation from whoever it is he is testifying against. Of course, it’s not some crime lord, it’s someone much closer to home, and it’s all pretty implausible, but it’s still very exciting, thrilling, and much better than I expected it to be. It’s still just OK. Casting David Morse helps any movie, and it’s great casting here. Again, not much we haven’t seen from him, but you use what you have well, it doesn’t matter.
The regular citizens who Willis and Def encounter in their adventures in these sixteen blocks seem to be of a different world from either of them; thankfully, they serve as mini deis ex machina for them as they worm their way through the grimy niches and grungy holes of the city. Considering the technical difficulty of any urban assault on an unlocated target, their pursuers have an easier time of it than you might think, but our heroes are wily and despite everything (of course) work together toward their common goal. Or is it? Willis’ motivation is unclear throughout, and when we finally see what’s under his stubbly, tired mask, it’s not really all that satisfying. However, if you need some air conditioning and V for Vendetta is sold out (as it should be), you could do much worse than this movie for a little fun.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 3/3/06
Time in minutes 105
Director Richard Donner
Studio Warner Brothers
