Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon/s) is a respected old pro who knows how to make an action movie that delivers thrills and maybe something to chew on as well.
16 Blocks (2006)
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Theatrical Release: Mar 3, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $36,883,539
Synopsis: All he wanted to do was go home and get a drink. But at 8:02 a.m., hungover NYPD detective Jack Mosley (BRUCE WILLIS) is assigned a seemingly simple task. Petty criminal Eddie Bunker (MOS DEF) is set to testify before a grand jury at 10:00 a.m. and needs to be taken from lock-up to the... All he wanted to do was go home and get a drink. But at 8:02 a.m., hungover NYPD detective Jack Mosley (BRUCE WILLIS) is assigned a seemingly simple task. Petty criminal Eddie Bunker (MOS DEF) is set to testify before a grand jury at 10:00 a.m. and needs to be taken from lock-up to the courthouse, 16 blocks away. It should take Jack 15 minutes to drop him off at the courthouse and get home. Broken down, out of shape, with a bad leg and a serious drinking problem, Jack's role on the force is simple - clock in, clock out and stay out of trouble in between. He's in no mood to deal with a punk who's been in and out of jail for more than half his life. But beneath the punk in Eddie lies a man committed to turning his life around and constantly searching for "signs" that will lead him to a brighter future. Jack knows better, though - people don't change. In Eddie he sees only a pathetic rat who was offered a sweet deal... a rat he will be rid of soon enough. When Jack shoves Eddie into the back of his car and pulls out into the morning New York city rush hour, he doesn't notice the van looming behind them. His head throbbing, and Eddie's flair for conversation only making it worse, Jack stops off at the local liquor store to pick up some breakfast. As Eddie waits inside the locked car, fuming at getting stuck with Jack as his escort, he's suddenly faced with a much bigger problem - a loaded gun pointed at his head. Jack emerges just in time to prevent Eddie's execution, killing one assassin and narrowly escaping a second. When Jack calls for backup, homicide detective Frank Nugent (DAVID MORSE) and his team are first to arrive at the scene. Eddie suddenly goes pale - one of the detectives on Nugent's team is the man he is supposed to testify against. In an instant, Jack's quickie trip downtown turns into the nightmare of a lifetime: the criminals that want Eddie dead are actually cops. There's a history between Jack and Nugent - a dark history that Jack has been desperately trying to forget. And as Nugent is quick to point out to his old friend, Eddie's testimony threatens to bring them all down. Nugent offers to stage a mock hostage situation in which Eddie is killed and Jack does what he does best - walk away. But this time, Jack has been pushed too far and seizes his last opportunity to do the right thing. A split second before Nugent's team can execute Eddie, Jack sets in motion a chain of events that will irrevocably impact all of their lives. Battling against time and the corrupt cops gaining on their every move, Jack and Eddie fight their way to the courthouse block by gut-wrenching block. These are Jack's streets, too - and he won't go quietly. In Eddie, he finds purpose, hope and the strength to do something he should have done six years ago. And Eddie begins to see that all of the "signs" he's been following were meant to lead him to Jack. It's the story of how two men change - and change each other - during a tense 16 block struggle between life and death. --© Warner Bros. [More]
Genre: Action/Adventure
Starring: Bruce Willis, David Morse, Casey Sander, Cylk Cozart
Screenwriter: Richard Wenk
Producer: Jim Van Wyck, Avi Lerner, Randall Emmett, John Thompson, George Furla, Hadeel Reda, Derek Hoffman
Composer: Klaus Badelt
DVD Info
Release:
Oct 10, 2006
Blu-ray Disc Features:
- Blue BD Case
- Widescreen - 2.40
Audio:
- Dolby Digital Surround Sound 5.1 - English, French (Quebec)
- Subtitles - English, French, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
- Trailers - 1. Theatrical Trailer
- Featurettes - 1. Alternate Ending - "Viewable Separately and Incorporated into the Film"
- Commentaries - 1. Deleted Scenes with Optional Director/Screenwriter Commentary
Reviews
At its heart, this is actually an excellent film. But, as filmmakers seek to escalate the big action, believability suffers severely.
The most high-octane action-- pyrotechnics, fisticuffs, gunplay, car crashes, back alley dashes and fire escape leaps-- ever crammed into a pressure-cooked chase lasting less than a mile.
The action is fast paced and the story throws in a couple of twists to keep you on your toes.
El oficio del director Richard Donner convierte a este policial de rutina en un digno entretenimiento. Ni más ni menos.
Willis and Def are wonderful...Donner (Lethal Weapon) unleashes a tight, effective yarn
The story has been cobbled together from familiar elements; however, it arranges these elements in ways that are occasionally surprising, and in ways that accord nicely with Christian ideas about sin, repentance and redemption.
Willis salvages what is essentially a routine thriller and elevates it to something worth watching.
A happier surprise is the smart work of director Richard Donner: 16 Blocks is all jumble and jangle—crowds, snarled traffic, and discordant car horns.
Fast-paced, tense and intermittently exciting, Donner's latest will keep genre fans engaged with its polished blend of tried and tested elements.
Willis has been playing slight variations on this role for years now, and though the films don't get better, his performances do.
A solid, bare-knuckle action-thriller from Richard Lethal Weapon Donner that avoids most of the genre’s clichés and boasts a commendably dishevelled performance from Willis, as a washed-up NYPD flatfoot dissolving in self-loathing.
It's like those cartoon chase sequences where the scrolling background is on a loop. Here, the characters are on a loop, and the backgrounds change.
16 Blocks can happily sit alongside Inside Man as an example of a well-made, superbly-acted, intelligent thriller. More of these, please.
Em seus melhores momentos, lembra alguns dos filmes policiais mais cínicos dos anos 70; nos piores, parece os exemplares do gênero mais inofensivos e escapistas dos anos 90.
The movie isn't good enough for him, but all the same [David] Morse manages to give as fine a performance as the material allows. Finer.
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