|
| |
 |
| |
| Released: |
2006 |
| |
|
| Genre: |
ACTION
THRILLER
|
| |
|
| Origin: |
US |
| |
|
| Colour: |
C |
| |
|
| Length: |
102 |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
Highly enjoyable action-thriller. |
Reviewed by Chris Tookey
|
| Not many 76 year-olds are still directing movies, so let’s show some respect for Richard D. Schwartzberg. He’s better known as Richard Donner, who’s frequently dismissed as a formulaic Hollywood hack but has kept on doing his thing despite being largely despised by the critics. | | His most successful movies have included Superman, The Omen and the Lethal Weapon franchise. There have been stinkers along the way – most regrettably, Timeline and the notorious Banderas-Stallone buddy flick Assassins – but Donner pictures are generally characterized by extreme competence and expert judgment of pace. Aspiring directors might learn more from studying him than they would from analyzing more fashionable film-makers. 16 Blocks is a typically professional Donner movie: an energetic chase thriller that’s never less than gripping, but still allows itself time to meditate on its deeper themes and include that important but all-too-often disregarded ingredient in action movies: character development. If there is an underlying theme to Donner’s oeuvre, it is an interest in male bonding, which manifests itself in a high ratio of buddy-buddy movies. Here, the unlikely chums are strikingly well written. Bruce Willis (pictured left) could play the role of world-weary cop in his sleep, and has occasionally done so; but he’s excellent as washed-up, hung-over, borderline-corrupt, New York detective Jack Mosley. After being up all night, Jack’s assigned a seemingly simple task: to escort petty criminal Eddie Bunker (Mos Def, pictured right) the sixteen blocks – about a mile – from lock-up to courthouse by 10am. Along the way, Jack stops off at a liquor store to buy a liquid breakfast, but he returns to his locked car to see someone trying to shoot Eddie in the head. Jack kills one assassin and avoids the bullets of another, then makes for a bar and calls for backup. Backup arrives in the less than reassuring form of homicide detective Frank Nugent (David Morse) and his stone-faced sidekick. Jack senses from Eddie’s body language that the people out to kill Eddie are no ordinary criminals, but corrupt cops. Jack has to make a decision: do as he usually does – walk away from trouble – or finish his job of protecting Eddie. Needless to say – this guy’s being played by Bruce Willis, for heaven’s sake – he doesn’t walk away. He goes on the run, with the entire NYPD on his trail for killing a cop. But he’s not just on any run: he’s determined to get to the courtroom by 10am, even though he knows the bad guys will be there waiting for him. | | This neat set-up is fleshed out with strong performances. Willis is on top form. As in his most famous movies, such as Die Hard, he excels in a hard-bitten, laconic, embittered role that casts him as the reluctant hero and will give new hope to other sweaty, paunchy guys with receding hairlines. | | The ever-reliable Morse makes a splendid villain: the kind who doesn’t know he is the villain, but sees himself doing a creditable job under exasperating circumstances, much like our poor, misunderstood, former Home Secretary Charles Clarke. | | Mos Def is an admirable foil for Willis, developing from an annoyingly garrulous racial caricature into the moral centre of the piece. Underlying the movie is a heart-warming optimism that people can change. Sure, they can become corrupt, but they can also turn their lives around for the better. The key to the central buddy relationship is Eddie’s determination to change from a mean, whining criminal into a generous-spirited baker of birthday cakes. It’s a dangerously cute metaphor, but somehow it works – mainly because writer Richard Wenk doesn’t allow it to become too sugary. The plotting is not free of implausibilities - especially the leading baddie’s astonishingly obliging speech of self-incrimination towards the end. But realistic performances and sprightly editing mean that most of the movie’s faults will occur to audiences only after they have left the cinema. 16 Blocks is a not-so-guilty pleasure. Refreshingly for modern thrillers, it doesn’t trivialise violence or gloat over bloodshed. By comparison with younger, more heartless directors in the Tarantino mould, Donner is a model of humanity and understatement. His good, old-fashioned craftsmanship makes the tale consistently exciting, and because you can’t help but warm to the two central characters, you keep rooting for them. | | I wouldn’t claim 16 Blocks to be any kind of classic, but I defy anyone to sit through it and not be entertained. | |
|
|
