16 Blocks

Bruce Willis, Mos Def

Directed by Richard Donner

Rated R

?This movie is a prime example of a big-time Hollywood director making the most out of the plentiful resources made available by most major studios.

Bruce Willis plays detective Jack Mosley, a haggard, booze-addled cop who seems upon first impression to be a little disenchanted with life.

After an evening on the graveyard shift, Mosley is given an assignment. He needs to transport a witness 16 blocks to the courthouse before the jury’s tenure expires, which in the film is about 118 minutes.

What they don’t tell him is the witness, played by Mos Def, is testifying against a group of crooked cops. It’s not too long after departing from picking up his reluctant passenger that pretty much all hell breaks loose on the streets of New York.

The film, besides a few moments in the beginning and end, seemingly plays out in real time, so the pacing is pretty quick, and Donner did an amazing job creating the feel of an overcrowded and dense downtown New York.

Very slick visually, but still dirty enough to not look too polished. It is violent, but not offensively and the acting is top notch.

The core of 16 Blocks deals with the age old question of whether or not people can change or not, and morality becomes a key ingredient for the main characters’ metamorphosis.

I almost give this movie my highest possible recommendation, I found it thoroughly entertaining from start to finish and can’t really think of anything negative to say about it.