There are certain aspects of the movie making industry which Hollywood has mastered. There are plenty of good actors to go around, and cinematographers almost always manage to get their jobs done well. When it comes to screenwriters and directors, there is a bit of a bear market. Out of this situation comes 16 Blocks, a decent action flick which suffers where most movies suffer, and is strong where movies typically are strong.
The Story
Richard Donner’s latest opus covers territory similar to that of his Lethal Weapon series. Detective Jack Mosley, played by Bruce Willis, is given the seemingly routine task of transporting Eddie Bunker (Mos Def), a petty thief determined to change his ways, to a court hearing before the jury’s tenure ends at 10:00 a.m. It is a mere sixteen blocks away, and he has 118 minutes to get there. But the seemingly ordinary assignment quickly proves to be anything but.
Detective Mosley, a worn out and worn down officer outranked by younger men who seems to be just putting in time at work to get a paycheck to support his drinking habit, makes a stop on the way to court to purchase some spirits. It is at this moment when a group of men who have been suspiciously lurking about decide to assassinate Eddie Bunker, but Mosley arrives in time to thwart their plans.
Breathing hard from the exertion, Mosley takes Bunker to the bar of a man he knows and calls for backup. He starts drinking, but when the backup arrives in the form of Frank Nugent (David Morse), his erstwhile partner of twenty years, it soon becomes obvious that Eddie Bunker has been targeted for execution by the police themselves.
Jack Mosley, out of shape with a bad leg and looking sickly from lack of sleep and too much drink, is the most improbable hero one could imagine. This of course means that he jumps in and saves Bunker from execution and the two spend most of the rest of the movie trying to evade the police and to get to the courthouse before the end of the jury’s tenure.
The Acting
The acting is the bright spot in the movie. Bruce Willis, perennially underrated, adeptly portrays a worn out wino going from middle age to old age. Everything from his delivery to his body language is spot on. It is all the more impressive when contrasted with a small section of the film where we see Mosley in better times. He sits straighter, he displays more swagger and does it subtly enough that its effect is almost subconscious at first.
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