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16 Blocks:

Review By: Edward Kasche
EdwardKasche@TheCinemaSource.com

Let me first preface by stating my bias towards movies filmed in New York City, the city where I do live and breath, with much difficulty sometimes. I love movies that film here, especially those that film near where I live: Mean Streets, others, and now 16 Blocks. Throw in another positive that it’s filmed in the dead of summer; hot, sweaty summer. Bruce Willis plays Det. Jack Mosely, an overweight, drunk-on-the-job, slouch of a police officer. He is assigned the meaningless task of transporting minor criminal Eddie Bunker (Mos Def), who’s due to testify, from the precinct to the courthouse sixteen blocks away. He has 118 minutes to go 16 blocks. Almost immediately, an attempt is made on Eddie’s life, and Jack’s instinctive choice in that moment sends the movie on its course. The plot involves ex-partners, corrupt cops, hostages, two unexpected friends fighting for second chances, and a rat race through the city we all love, or despise.

16 Blocks needed more work before going before the cameras, meaning – the script; but that’s not to say an entertaining movie wasn’t created. Specifically, it needed more work in the story’s plausibility department. The premise is terrific and the buildup of suspension is taut, but moments of ignorance and incompetence, which I can only assign to the screenplay, detracted from the overall experience. These moments thwarted my emotional connection to the characters by employing leaps in logic, and gaps in filling out the history of the characters’ lives. For example, it is difficult enough to find someone in NYC when you know exactly where to look, let alone having to scour streets on a bum leg, while bleeding, to find someone who doesn’t want to be found. Also, there are missing connections in Willis’ motives throughout the movie. His ultimate motive negates earlier conversations, and arrives unexpectedly and contradictory to earlier plot lines. The end, though fulfilling in its conception, is disappointing in its arrival. However, regardless of its faults, the movie has some moments of amazing action (sporadic gunfire – realistically portrayed) and wonderful human relationships (discussions of birthdays that are quite touching). The inciting incident, when the first attempt is made on Eddie’s life, is sharp and focused and is an exhilarating moment of action. There are numerous other shoot outs and chases that easily rank above many current movies, but it is the balance of the exhilarating and the illogical that makes the movie good, not great.

There are certain