16 Blocks film review

certificate_12A

16 BLOCKS

The format for 16 Blocks is as tired and worn as its central character. Bruce Willis plays a veteran cop who decides to take a redemptive stance after years of towing the corruptive company line. There's little original about this serviceable if formulaic drama. As an ageing policeman just going through the motions, there are parallels to be drawn between 16 Blocks' Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) and Lethal Weapon's Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover), something explained by the fact both films were directed by Richard Donner.

For Willis, whose big screen reputation was established playing a cop in Die Hard, this is familiar ground. The only difference is now, as middle age is etched on his wearied face, his role is somewhat more sedentary. "I'm tired," sighs Mosley, a gnarled New York detective with a bad leg and an even worse drinking problem. Exhausted from a night shift and looking forward to getting home to his only friend, the bottle, he's collared by his boss who instructs him to pick up a prisoner from a cell and escort him to the courthouse. It's a relatively short journey of 16 blocks, but one that turns into a dangerous adventure.

The prisoner Eddie Bunker (Mos Def), a small time career criminal with a tireless tongue, is set to testify against a number of corrupt policemen. When Mosley shoots someone attempting to kill Bunker, he suddenly finds himself standing up against a group of cops, led by his long time partner Frank (David Morse), who want Bunker dead before he testifies. The ticking clock element is established by the fact Bunker has to be in court by 10 o'clock.

Willis has never looked rougher. The sparkle and cheeky quips aren't called for here. Instead he's dour and bedraggled. It might have proved a more challenging role had it offered any depth, but little is ever revealed about Mosley. All we get are lines like, "I believe life's too long and people like you make it longer," as he talks to Bunker. What set him on his downward spiral is as unclear as why he suddenly had a life altering epiphany.

Mos Def's decision to play Bunker with an indecipherable nasal whine would have perhaps been even more annoying had he had anything of note worth listening to. The action sequences, as Frank (a typically forceful Morse) and his henchmen chase Bunker and his protector Mosley, become increasingly incredulous as the time ticks away.