16 Blocks

source: 16 Blocks

33 years ago in the land of SERPICO and FUZZ, corrupt NY cops and world weary city antics were sort of interesting. Even FORT APACHE THE BRONX in 1980 had something going for it. Today a film like 16 BLOCKS is a waste of time and effort, making it and seeing it. Really, who cares if Bruce Willis is channeling Willy Loman from DEATH OF A SALESMAN (or Gil, the loser salesman from The Simpsons) in some really contrived idea in Copland. What is the market for this? Multiplexes? Teens? Fellers? Beer drinkers? Who? I just thought this dull grimy drivel was dull grimy drivel. Bruce Willis with a gun. Yawn. Corrupt cops he battles against with a jive talking black criminal. Mega yawn. If 16 BLOCKS did not exist I do not believe for a minute anyone would think of it otherwise. It was one dinosaur cliché from grubby cop films after another. I was happiest when I left the theatre.

The film concerns an experienced but tiring cop named Jack (Bruce Willis) about his retirement . The aging detective is assigned the last mission , transporting sixteen blocks away a foul-mouthed delinquent , from the precinct until the court . He is aware that the African-American young named Eddie Buken (Mos Def) is allegedly to testify against NYPD agents . He made a covenant with the D.A. office for identifying corrupt detectives at courthouse . Meantime , along the way , they're attacked by vicious gunfighters and pursued by all N.Y.C policemen and they find themselves under siege into a bus and surrounded by the SWAT . Then , they team up to flee , trying to get out towards the trial building . The movie displays suspense , action ,thriller and is very entertaining . The film's writer, Richard Wenk, has reported that he originally conceived of the project with himself as writer and director and, before shopping it around to anyone else, first approached Richard Donner because they had a struck up a good relationship when Donner really liked his rewrite of a script for Lethal weapon 4 (1998) , even though that script was not used . It's a special buddy movie between a dreary , boozy cop magnificently played by Bruce Willis and a fast-talking prisoner well acted by Mos Def , detaching an agreeable chemistry . Although the film is principally interpreted by two main actors also contains exceptional performances by its entire secondary cast , especially by David Morse and Jenna Stern . Living musical score adjusted appropriately to the action by Klaus Badelt and adequate cinematography by Glen McPherson . The movie produced by Milennium (Trevor Short ,Boaz Davidson , Danny Lerner) usually producers of low-medium budget but here was lavishly filmed . The motion picture was professionally directed by the veteran Richard Donner . He's an action cinema specialist with numerous titles (Assassin , Conspiracy theory , Timeline , Lethal Weapon I..). Rating : Better than average . It's a must see for Bruce Willis fans in spite of his characterization as an old man .

I think one of the few actors who continually improves his acting with every movie is Bruce Willis. In this movie, he is a NYPD detective entrusted with bringing a witness to the courthouse, who is in jail only 16 blocks from the courthouse. His superior promises Bruce overtime. So, Bruce, who is half drunk from drinking a bottle in his last assignment and who has stayed up all night, reluctantly agrees to pick up the witness. I will not spoil the fascinating plot that ends up with Bruce shooting two policemen and being almost executed by his fellow cops. But, police corruption has always been a danger, in all societies. For example, the film Serpico concerns such corruption in the same setting of New York City. It is truly hard to be a policeman in an urban center, and my heart and prayers go out to the NYPD dedicated public safety workers. But, there is always that temptation for some to abuse their power and position and go to the "dark side." And, surely the temptation to eliminate an inconvenient witness to a crime by policemen, for example, is only too real. Bruce is utterly believable in his role and comfortable in his borrowed skin. If Bruce doesn't win an Academy Award for this role, Bruce will never win one. The black supporting actor, Mos Def, who talks like Mike Tyson, is remarkable, too. The photography is brilliant, with many superb closeups and action sequences including a sequence with a New York City bus that brings back memories of Keanu Reeves in Speed. This is truly a stunning, thrilling, and touching film, that should be required viewing for those interested in a career in Criminal Justice.

This is a remake - revised, updated and relocated - of "The Gauntlet", a mid-'70s action film starring, and directed by, Clint Eastwood, about a burnt-out cop who dedicates himself to preserving the life of a witness to police corruption. Eastwood's film was really not much more than a "B-movie', but it was well made, and Eastwood used the film as one of his earliest efforts to work through the problem of a character development - how it is that people stuck in a rut somehow manage to redefine themselves in response to unexpected crisis. In "16 Blocks), that noble theme is reduced to mere slogan - 'people do change'. And this slogan is the only real gesture the film makes towards any sort of real character development. In fact the characters are all the same at the end as they were at the beginning; and I don't believe for a moment the arbitrarily tacked on ending that supposedly reassures us that - hey, 'people do change'. Thank you, slogan; roll credits. Don't blame the actors, they're actually doing their best; they're just not given anything to work with. The dialog (lacking in any real spark of interest) is partly to blame; but the real fault of this impoverishment of drama is director Donner's. It's clear from the get-go that he doesn't care a flying squirrel for this picture - his comments on the DVD added material almost state this outright. So he just comes in, tinkers with some machine, and heads home for dinner - who cares what the result is? - where's the paycheck! But that doesn't simply abuse the production company getting the money together for this project, it abuses the audience that has come to expect some degree of professionalism from Donner - but here, he let's us down. Lesson to be learned: Only make films when you think you can bring something interesting to the project. Skip this, see "The Gauntlet" instead.

This movie is terribly, wretchedly, god-awfully horrible. In fact, I can't recall the last time I saw a movie that was so bad. Please, for the love of god, don't watch this movie! The worst part is that I had a vested interest in liking this movie. Let me explain. The bulk of this stinker was filmed in Toronto, and some of it was even filmed in my apartment building. The scene where Mos and Bruce get chased into the Chinese dude's apartment, and the elevator scene - those were filmed in my building. It was definitely interesting to see how Hollywood works "up close" (example: painting over our ancient stairwell, only to re-paint it with fake "handprints" and grime - like the original wasn't grimy enough). I even got to briefly meet Bruce Willis, which was a cheap thrill, although there was no eye contact - his gaze was downcast the entire time. I guess he was getting into character... I also found it interesting that a 10 minute sequence in a movie would inconvenience our entire building for several weeks - no elevator, cables and equipment strewn everywhere, etc. In any event, I was pretty pumped about getting to see my humble abode on the big screen. Unfortunately, that's the only enjoyment I got out of this terrible, terrible movie. It almost doesn't bear discussing, it's simply that bad. The plot is clichéd as all-friggin-hell. Everything reeks of paint-by-numbers script-writing and characterization. Trust me, this is nothing you haven't seen fifty million times before. There's absolutely no suspense, drama, or interest. I just wanted it to be over as quickly as possible. And Mos Def is simply maddeningly annoying and deserves to have his Screen Actor's Guild membership revoked. This movie is beyond bad. In fact, it surpasses bad and achieves the status of disturbingly bad. What can you say about an "action" movie where the most exciting scene consists of a bus speeding down an alley destroying air conditioning units? Avoid this tripe at all costs.

This is a truly terrible movie. In most suspense films one is asked to"suspend disbelief" at some moment in order for the film to continue to entertain and keep you involved. In "16 Blocks" you are asked to suspend disbelief in the first 10 minutes of the film, regarding the basic premise of the movie. I found the premise and the execution of the plot of the film to be an imposition upon me, my time, and my money. It is poor movie of the week TV fare. Bruce Willis is so obviously an alcoholic mess from the start that I shudder at the thought that the "blue wall" of police solidarity would close around him even for a moment. It is a shame that David Morse, an admirable actor in so many ways, is stuck in this mess. Why don't movies come with a money back guarantee. This one certainly should.

In New York, the alcoholic and decadent detective Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is assigned to deliver a prisoner to the court sixteen blocks far from his precinct in 118 minutes. Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) made a deal with the D.A. office and will identify and testify against a dirty detective. While driving to the tribunal, Jack is attacked by a group of corrupt cops and protects Eddie. In spite of being a flawed movie, "16 Blocks" is a good entertainment with lots of action and an optimistic, hopeful and commercial message in the end that people can change, with the redemption of Eddie and Jack. Mos Def irritates with his accent, and Bruce Willis is totally different from his usual shape, inclusive with a "tire" on his belly. It is funny to see all the damage caused by the bus in Manhattan and no press and no interventions of Ada MacDonald (Brenda Pressley), who was interested in the case. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "16 Quadras" ("16 Blocks")

Where do I start? Bruce Willis should not be allowed to grow a mustache. But no, that's not my main complaint. The main story in the movie is that he (Bruce) has roughly 2 hrs to transport a prisoner from the cell block to the court house, yet the cops are trying to stop him. OK, good idea. I'd watch the movie based on that. The movie is slow from start to finish. I don't mind slow movies with a purpose. King Kong, for example, is slow in the beginning, yet I love it. 2001: A Space Odessy and The Birds are very slow, yet I find them good movies. This movie was slow because of poor writing. If you want to see some well done writing that is done in real time (1 hr video is 1 hr of story), watch 24. But it goes down hill rapidly. Bruce Willis plays a depressed detective that really doesn't give a rip about his job. He's always tired. He's old and run down. He doesn't "snap out of it" enough to make his character interesting. The prisoner, Mos Def. What the crap? Does he have mental problems? Is he a little eccentric? Is he just annoying? It's not clear. And what is up with his voice? The story was not written well. There were a lot of continuity errors. Like Bruce calls for some help, yet not only do they never show up, but they're never mentioned again. It's like it never happened. Then there were times where they acted like they had 5 minutes to get to the court house, times where they acted like they had 5 hours, and time where they acted like they'd given up on making it, or the time had already passed. Far too many times, the bad guys were able to guess exactly where Bruce was going, yet it seems way to perfect. Almost like, he's a white male, aged 40, I bet he went to his old friend from college that works at K-mart for advice. That's not what happened, but it was way to precise of a guess to be written off as smart bad guys. O, and the ending was predictable. There was a slight twist that I didn't see coming, but nothing huge. In the end, Bruce's character is still his old tired self, except he now likes his birthday. The only movies I've seen that are worse are, Bulletproof Monk and Sphere. Bruce, I hope you get back to some real movies soon, like Sin City, Six Sense and Pulp Fiction.

I haven't seen a movie in years that would be able to touch me as deep as this movie did. Here you won't see piteous freaks or ill children. Just two adults: one elderly white cop and one young black guy (even not really a criminal). But I'd never believe how touching one action-packed day of their lives can be! There are dozens of a-cop-and-a-criminal movies like this but they are all not nearly like this! They are stupid and I never liked that kind of flicks. This movie is splendid. It really should be something to make such a fantasy/sci-fi fan like me to like a criminal drama (not really a drama, read further). Maybe the very idea of the film is plain, maybe the plot has somewhat unrealistic turns (who proved that real life hasn't?) but the characters and their behavior is so real, full of senses and inside thoughts that their acting touches the very soul! And the thing I really loved: unlike many "high art" movies this one ends realistically WELL because, maybe I am too naive, God is kind and life is not a movie. Such a movie ends well: it was really a kind surprise for me! My bow to the director, he's genius. The actors as well. Someone is still able to shoot truly remarkable movies.