Richard Donner gave us Lethal Weapon. Bruce Willis gave us Die Hard. Teaming up, the two give us 16 Blocks which is a more than a little reminiscent of both but is also fairly entertaining and a pleasant surprise for an early March release.
16 Blocks
3 Stars
An aging drunk loser cop is given the choice to do his job by turning on his friends to protect a con whose testimony will hurt the department or just walk away and let them kill him. Well if he chooses the second we don’t have a movie, do we? Bruce Willis and Mos Def try to stay alive and get to the courthouse in time for him to testify. Take a watch with you because the film unfolds in real time in a clever use of suspense and tension. Is it great? Nah. Is it good and worth a look? Yes.
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New York Detective John McClane Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is an out of shape, lazy drunk of a cop. At the last minute he’s given the task of transporting Eddie (Mos Def) across sixteen blocks in time to testify before the grand jury. Trouble is that Eddie’s testimony will be very harmful to the force and many of the city’s finest will do whatever it takes to make sure he never makes it to his court date.
Mosley’s former partner (David Morse) is one of the men who would be implicated by Eddie’s testimony and he offers Jack the chance to just walk away, but Jack decides to do the right thing and becomes a target as well. Can he get Eddie to the courthouse in 90 minutes at which time the case will be thrown out or will he be stopped by men he considered his friends?
The film is full of trademark touches from Donner and he does a good job at presenting everyone in the film as real people each with their own flaws. Morse and his men are on the wrong side of this but they never become throw-away movie cliché villains. Willis shows he can still play this Die Hard role in his sleep. Mos Def gives a good performance that starts out more than a little annoying but is filled in by events and dialogue throughout the film that make him an interesting (if still annoying) character.
The film has a few plot twists and misdirection scenes that fans of this genre will see coming long before they pay off. There are also quite a few pleasant surprises like the absence of a forced romance in the plot and the side story of Eddie’s dream meeting his sister in Seattle and owning his own bakery.
Of all the action movies out this spring this is the best of the bunch by far. Sure it has elements we’ve seen before but Willis and Mos Def work well in this buddy picture that’s really more than just a buddy picture. There are a few head-scratchers and one or two groan moments, but the film stays on track and entertains (even when it gets caught up in a Speed moment on a bus). Not a must see, but good enough to think about if you’ve got nothing else going on this weekend.