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Movie Review by:
Jim "Good Old JR" Rutkowski
Directed by: Richard Donner
Written by: Richard Wenk
Starring: Bruce Willis, Dante 'Mos Def' Smith, David Morse
Running time: 101 minutes,
Released: 03/03/06.
Rated PG-13 for violence, intense sequences of action, and some strong
language. |
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 When
I think of director Richard Donner, my mind gravitates
toward titles like Superman and Lethal Weapon - high points
in the filmmaker's career. Recently, however, Donner's
output has been less impressive, and includes the bloated
excess of Assassins and the awfulness of Timeline. Sadly, 16
Blocks is not a film to recall the glory days. It's a
cobbled together mess of clichés that fails to surprise at
any of its turns. Despite occasional bursts of suspense, the
movie as a whole plays out as a long 95 minutes, with its
lack of inventiveness leading us more frequently into
tediousness than tension.
16 Blocks is a high concept movie: a broken-down cop (Bruce
Willis) is charged with taking a criminal/witness (Mos Def)
on a 16 block trip through New York City, from a police
lockup to a courthouse. Along the way, they become targets
of dirty cops (led by David Morse) who are anxious to
silence the witness. Plus, there's a time element. If the
testimony doesn't happen by 10:00 am, the Grand Jury will be
disbanded and the cops will be free. Once could see how this
premise could result in a white-knuckle thriller. Or a bore
of a retread. 16 Blocks comes closer to the latter.
Take the Bruce Willis character, for example. Jack Mosley is
an overweight, aging, alcoholic detective with a checkered
past. He appears to be on the verge of having a heart
attack. This guy's the oldest stereotype in the cop movie
book. Willis' performance is competent, but the character is
hackneyed. Mos Def plays Eddie Bunker like a typical
motormouth. This is another generic character - the criminal
with the heart of gold. All he really wants to do is move to
Seattle and run a cake bakery. Of course, over the 90
minutes (or thereabouts) they're together, they become
lifelong chums. That's the way it goes with movies like
this. In the Lethal Weapon series, Donner was able to
fashion a credible friendship between two mismatched
individuals. In trying to work something similar in 16
Blocks, he takes too many shortcuts.
The most interesting character in the film is David Morse's
Frank Nugent, perhaps because Morse puts more energy into
his portrayal than Willis and Def combined. Bad guys are
always more fun, but this is a case when you almost find
yourself rooting for them. Of course, the film does all it
can to turn them into caricatures except dress them in
black. At every opportunity, we're given another chance to
see that they are Not Nice Men. Shades of gray don't mean
much in simplistic movies like this.
I could remark about 16 Blocks' assault on the viewer's
credulity, but it has bigger problems. There's no chemistry
between Jack and Eddie (not surprising, since the characters
just met). The ending demands stupidity and a loud mouth by
Frank, and involves one of the most tired tricks in the
"open mouth, insert foot" book. If you don't see this
coming, you should be ashamed of yourself. It's as obvious
and telegraphed as most of the other plot points in this
movie.
To be fair, Donner manages to sneak in occasional scenes
that build some suspense. There's the initial showdown in
the bar which, in a more complex movie, might lead us to
believe it could go either way. The bus/hostage crisis also
works, although it had me remembering how much more exciting
things were in Speed. I guess that's the difference between
a vehicle careening around city streets at 55 mph and one
standing still.
It takes about 90 minutes to make this particular 16 block
trip. On some days in New York, that's par for the course.
Next time take the subway. |
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16 BLOCKS ©
2006 Warner Bros.
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2006 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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