Directed by Richard Donner. Starring: Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse, Jenna Stern. Action/Drama. Synopsis: A burned out cop receives a simple assignment at the end of his night shift: transport a prisoner 16 blocks to the Courthouse to act as a witness before a grand jury. The assignment turns out to be anything but simple when there is an attempt on the life of the witness, and it turns out that the people he was going to testify against, and now be prtoected from, are police officers. For a guy like me, an action movie buff who likes Bruce Willis and thinks David Morse is one of the better character actors of the last twenty years or so, picking this one off the shelf was pretty much a no brainer. Sometimes, when you go into a movie knowing that you like the genre, like all of the main actors, and know it was directed by someone with a reputation for good movies, you're disappointed.
Not me.
Not only is 16 Blocks as good as I thought it would be, its better. The plot is fast moving, hard hitting, and grabs you right from the start. Jack Foster (Willis) is a burned out-both mentally and physically-cop who is a sporting a paunch and fighting a losing battle with the bottle. After a long night's work, he just wants to go home and crash, when he is given the unusual assignment-for a detective-of picking up a witness who is in custody and driving him a few blocks to the Courthouse so that he can testify for the District Attorney.
Jack is reluctant, to say the least, but grudgingly follows orders and goes to pick up Eddie Bunker (Mos Def The Woodsman, Bamboozled) an unimposing, talkative, and naive convict who is anxious to testify so that he can have his charges dropped.
We see the relationship building between Eddie and Jack from the beginning, as Eddie, almost literally, talks non-stop and Jack makes no effort to hide his disdain and disinterest in Eddie. Even stating at one point that 'life is too short".
The plot turns when Jack pulls over to limp into the liquor store (at 8:00 a.m) in a neat symbolic scene. We know that Jack is a serious drinker from his first scenes, but is he stopping in the middle of an assignment and breaching operating procedure because he needs the gulp, or has three blocks of Eddie's chattering driven him to it earlier in the day than usual? The film leaves that the viewers interpretation, but what is clear is that Eddie is a lot more important witness than even he realizes when a man approaches the hand cuffed Eddie seated in Jack's car in an assassination attempt. Fortunately, Jack drops his bottle in time to foil the would be killer.
Well, the ante is now raised quite a bit and its clear to Jack that Eddie must be the target of some pretty bad and dangerous folks, so he hides Eddie in a bar that he's familiar with and waits for some of his brother officers to arrive. Not the good move as it turns out they are met by a contingent of detectives led by Jack's old buddy and former partner, Frank Nugent (Morse). Turns out that this group of cops are the ones who don't want Eddie to testify and hired the druggies to try to whack Eddie on the street. That didn't work, so now they want to finish the job themselves and they just expect Jack to go along, of course. He doesn't and, ladies and gentlemen, we have a movie.
Jack and Eddie's narrow escape from the bad cops is just the first as they both try to navigate the mean streets of NYC, trying to get Eddie in front of the jury before the 10:00 dealine, while knowing that they can't trust police to help them, in fact, they are not sure who they can trust...even each other. The film does a good job of working in the developing bond between Jack and Eddie without slowing down the action. It also tells us a sub-plot in reverse all the while. We know from the opening voice over and first two scenes that Jack is a cop on the downside, but how did he get that way and what went down between him and Frank back in the day? These answers are important to the plot and ending of the film, and are revealed near the conclusion of the movie in a effective way.
For an action film, the story is unusually centered almost completely on the three main characters, although the minor players who make appearances in one or two scenes keep the flavor of the movie, especially Jenna Stern, who shows up in an important role in the final 15 minutes as Jack's sister.
As for Willis, Mos Def, and Morse, I have never seen any of them better. Especially Willis, who tells us so much about his character in his body language and actions without the use of dialogue. In fact, he probably speaks less in this film than any other he has starred in, but says more. Willis fans will not see the wise cracking action hero with the s*** eating smirk that we've all grown accustomed to over the years...I don't think he even smiles until the final ten minutes. The difficult thing about this role is that you have to believe, at least initially, that Jack Foster is not only burned out, but borderline incompetent as a cop. However, the story has him outthinking the pursuing officers, and he would have to be gutsy and courageous to help Eddie get to court, when it apparently does not benefit him at all. Willis does both sides of Jack without compromising the other.
Mos Def is wonderful as well, though his artificially high pitched voice and non-stop chatter might irritate some, it is essential to the character and, as some one formally involved in law enforcement, I can tell you that there are a ton of Eddie Bunkers out there; ultimately harmless, likable screw ups who are in trouble and keep getting in trouble, but want to turn their lives around with some dream that is usually pie-in-the-sky, in Eddie's case, opening a bakery. (Get it? Bakery,pie in the...oh, never mind) If you've seen Mos Def in more than one of his movies (Bamboozled, Something The Lord Has Made, The Woodsman, etc.), you realize that his range as an actor is stunning.
David Morse (The Rock, The Negotiator,12 Monkeys, Green Mile) shows once again why he seems to be on the short list for important character roles in so many good films, particularly action films. In 16 Blocks, I'm happy to tell you that he has perhaps his biggest role since Inside Moves and he delivers. Big time.
If you pick this one up on DVD, you will be treated to a very good alternate ending that is much different from the one they went with in the film, though you might agree with me in that I'm glad they choose the one they did.
This movie is a very good, top tier action film, one of the better ones in recent years and maybe the best yet for Bruce Willis other than the Sixth Sense.
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