16 Blocks Review
by Jerry at the Movies (Faust668 AT msn DOT com)April 26th, 2007
16 BLOCKS (2006)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars
Bruce Willis is one of our most unsung actors of the last twenty years. What he does is on screen is remarkable, remarkable for his sense of timing and his nuances. Since "Die Hard," he's only gotten better and wiser with his pick of roles. Gone is the smirking, wisecracking hero we were once accustomed to, back in the heyday of "Moonlighting" and "Die Hard." In "16 Blocks," he gives a truly magnificent performance as a tired, glum cop, a cliched character to be sure, but he invests it with enough subtlety and flair, not to mention grace and humanity, that it is probably close to the best work he's ever done.
At the beginning of the film, we are already sure this is no John McClane. Willis is Jack Mosley, an alcoholic veteran cop with a five o'clock shadow and a game leg. He visits the latest crime scene where cocaine sits on a table, a couple of corpses litter the floors, and all Jack wants is another drink. Nothing new for Jack, nothing worth sitting around for, at least until the forensic team arrives. His new job is to take a whining witness, Eddie Bunker (Mos Def), to a grand jury hearing which happens to be 16 blocks away from the police station. Jack takes the job reluctantly, stops at a liquor store and all hell breaks loose. You see Mr. Bunker was a witness to a murder committed by corrupt cops, prominently lead by the police chief Nugent (tough-as-nails performance by David Morse, who's been playing bad guys for as long as I can remember).
"16 Blocks" is clearly a run-of-the-mill thriller and, admittedly, you do not need a sixth sense to see where it is going. All the cliches are intact, and all the payoff scenes sputter as expected. Under the guidance of Bruce Willis, Mos Def and director Richard Donner, they at least give it a lift above the norm. The film primarily works as a character study with more dialogue than usual for this sort of thing (this may be an intentional hark back to the police thrillers of the late 60's and early 70's). Willis embodies a broken man, both physically and emotionally, who may be tired of playing by the immoral ethics of his police department. Mos Def shows a comical side to his caffeinated Eddie, who only hopes to stay alive long enough to open a bakery in Seattle! And director Richard Donner wisely infuses enough interest in his characters to make a potentially mediocre movie more exciting and suspenseful than it has any right to be.
Willis clearly makes the movie his own. He has come a long way since "Die Hard," and I am tempted to say that his Jack Mosley character works so well that it proves Willis is one of our best character actors. A beaten down cop like this played with such sincerity almost makes you wish Willis would resist a new "Die Hard" sequel.
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