Dir. Richard Donner, 2006, USA, 105 mins
Cast: Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse
Review by Matthew Rodgers
With a CV boasting the first instalment of the Superman franchise and all four Lethal Weapon films, director Richard Donner returns to the action genre with a surprisingly understated bang.
16 Blocks has a fantastic, albeit very slight, premise. Bruce Willis is aging cop Jack Moseley, who could easily be John McClane: The OAP years. He has a drink problem. Check. He has issues with absent spouses. Check. He is the forgotten man of his unit. Check. Tired and dishevelled at the end of another monotonous shift, he is given the unenviable task of escorting a key witness 16 blocks across the city to testify. Said witness is Eddie Bunker played by rapper turned actor Mos Def (Monsters Ball and The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy) who will be giving evidence against some of New York's finest boys in blue. A journey that would take a few minutes would be no fun at all, so 16 Blocks is thus turned into a low-grade B-movie actioner involving buses, bullets and bad guys.
Technically, this is a skewed buddy-movie that tries to jump on the bandwagon of the hugely popular television series 24 by moving the action along in (almost) real time in an attempt to succeed where films such as Nick of Time (remember that?) have failed.
Donner starts the film at a lethargic pace in the hope that, when the set pieces arrive, they are more effective. Sadly, this is not the case, as scenes such as the aforementioned bus chase have been done thousands of times before and infinitely better. This results in the tone of 16 Blocks being misjudged throughout the brief running time, as the director sets his stall out to punch above his weight, whilst only delivering a sporadically above average action movie.
A Hollywood genre movie that flashes its clichés as its main credentials in the way that this does must be judged on them. The action is low key and unspectacular, the direction bland and uninspired, but the main point of contention is in the complete lack of chemistry between our two leads, and for a buddy movie, this is problematic.
Individually, they are fine, with Willis delivering another solid performance in his highly underrated career, that includes recognition-free roles in Twelve Monkeys and Unbreakable. Mos Def's fledgling career has proved that he is more than the "rapper turned actor" that he will be forever packaged as. His Eddie Bunker is slightly annoying at first, but his success is that the audience will warm to his simple ways, and he also provides the only intriguing moment in the film when you question the character’s true motivations. Is he really the innocent caught up in this corruption? Sadly, like Willis's washed-up detective, the script never follows up this lead.
On this evidence (and its reasonably lacklustre performance at the US box office) I would be guessing that not many people would be rushing 16 blocks to catch this at their local multiplex, let alone queue that far.
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Warner Home Video have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of 16 Blocks for 21st August 2006 priced at £17.99.
Extras include:
- Alternate Ending – A significantly different shock ending from the theatrical release
- Deleted scenes with commentary by director Richard Donner and writer Richard Wenk
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