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Starring: Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Jamie King, Benecio Del Toro, Rosaria Dawson, Powers Boothe, Bittany Murphy, Michael Clarke Duncan,  Carla Gugino, Elijah Wood, Rutger Hauer, NIck Stahl, Josh Hartnett. Action/Fantasy/Animated. Directed by Robert Rodriguez.Synopsis: Sordid dealings and double crossings are the staple of the corrupt place called Sin City, with the crime being protected includes the ultimate unspeakable horror and the coverup reaching all the way to the highest level of government and the clergy. There are good people in Sin City, even if they haven't always been in the past, and this their story.

Absolutely loved this flick. Sin City is original, it's fresh, its aesthetically pleasing, tells an interesting-if slightly unbelievable-story and the acting is excellent. When you look at the names that put together this incredible ensemble cast, you might thnk to yourself that it would be hard to mess it up but, I think we all know that it is possible to have a bad flick even with a great cast. (See Attacks, Mars) 

As some of you likely know, the flick is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller (The Spirit), who also has a co-director's credit in this one. I'm not familiar with the graphic novel at all, but I don't think you need to be to enjoy this flick. 

It's hard to give a real comprehensive overview of this one without going on for far too long or giving away and spoiling some interesting  plot points and memorable scenes, but suffice it see that this flick tells a story that is inter-connected but unfolds in a non-chronological way, which I think makes it all the more interesting.

We're dealing with some hot button issues in this flick, gang, including: murder, drug abuse, homosexuality, pedophilia, prostitution, and cannibalism. A good time to be had by all and, crude as it likely sounds, set forth in an entertaining way.

There heroes of Sin City include a hard bitten cop on his way to retirement with a bad heart named Hartigan (Bruce Willis 16 Blocks)  who is determined to stop a child molester (Nick Stahl) who is the son of a prominent politician (Powers Boothe Men Of Honor)  and the nephew of an even more powerful man who is an influential clergyman, The Cardinal (Rutger Hauer Salem's Lot). This sounds like the type of thing a cop should do, but then if you think that you don't know Sin City very well. In fact, Hartigan's own partner (Michael Madsen Blood Rayne) is very, uhh...opposed to his partner's investigaton and takes steps, shall we say to prevent it.

Hartigan is not the only hero in Sin City, however. We also have Marv (Mickey Rourke The Pledge)  a large, hulking brute who is short on looks but long on loyalty, a great deal of which is directed towards finding the killer of Goldie, the hooker with the heart of gold who was murdered while spending time with Marv, and Marv was framed for the crime. He is relentless in finding the killer of his beloved oldie, enlisting the help of his probation officer (Carla Gugino Righteous Kill) and Goldie's twin sister, Wendy (Jamie King Two For The Money).

During his quest, Marv encounters a cannibalistic serial killer (Elijah Wood  Green Street Hooligans)  who, unbelievably, has ties to the Cardinal. Will Marv be able to achieve his justice and at what cost? Well, I will not spoil for the unfortunate ones who have not seen the flick as of yet, but I will say that we will find in Sin City that hookers, like Wendy, mete out their own form of justice in the part of the city they control-Old Town-and also qualify as heroes in our tale.

Their leader, Gail (Rosario Dawson Seven Pounds) is an ex-flame of one of the other good guys in Sin City, Dwight (Clive Owen The Pink Panther  Inside Man) who helps the girls out of a major jam with the cops in Sin City, particularly a dirty hero cop named Jacky Boy (Benecio Del Toro The Hunted)  

How does this all fit together, you might ask? Well, it does, but its one of those stories where you have to kind of stick with it from beginning to the end to fully understand ir...but I wouldn't call it a mystery or even suspense myself.

Visually, its stunning to look at, most of the story plays out in black and white, often with just on color in the frame which makes something, such as a severed hand spurting greenish blood, for example, really stand out. Also, its combined brilliantly with animation, both moving and still, which really gives it that comic book come-to-life look and feel that I'm sure Rodriguez intended and I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed.

I believe you will, too, that's really all I've been trying to say.  

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis,Rosanna Arquette, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer,Harvey Keitel. Directed by Quentin Tarantino.Action/Drama/Comedy.

Synopsis: Two philosphical hit men run into a day's worth of unexpected events after starting the morning on a simple assignment from their drug dealer boss.

O.k., I know those of you (everyone?) who have seen flick know that my poor attempt at a synopsis does dot come close to doing this film justice. I know that, I get that. I feel you.

But, how do you describe this ensemble, non-chronological, realistic satire, modern day homage to both film noir and grindhouse schlock?

I'm not sure you do, other than this, it's really, really good. 

Pulp Fiction is quintessential Tarantino, the proverbial "one they will remember him for", no disrespect to some of Mr. Tarantino's  other well regarded films. You have Travolta and Jackson  working together, both at their best and playing off one another beautifully. The dialogue between them is priceless, my guilty pleasure being the 'spiritual debate' between them before the accidental shooting death in the car. It's simply hilarious, which I know sounds really bad...unless you've seen the flick, in which case you'll understand.

Bruce Willis (16 Blocks) is wondeful as Butch, the aging fighter who is looking for one last grab at the brass ring and, like Jules (Jackson) and Vincent (Travolta) is connected to drug king pin Marsellus Wallace. (Ving Rhames The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard   Shooting Gallery )

Arguably the most memorable scene in a movie that is, basically, a collection of memorable scenes, is the overdose scene of Marsellus Wallace's wife, Mia (Uma Thurman My Super Ex-Girlfriend), after she has been out for the night with Vincent (with her husband's blessing). Vincent's friends who help him out of this awkward situation, married couple Eric Roberts (Break A Leg) and Rosanna Arquette are memorable, to say the least.

Christopher Walken's (King Of New York) one scene might be the funniest monologue in movie history. The "fix up the accidental killing" scene with Harvey Keitel (Wrong Turn At Tahoe) is my personal favorite, but no discussion of this flick would be complete without reference to the scene that most people who see this movie will remember vividly until they lay down for their eternal rest: the Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames "one gets saved and one doesn't from homosexual rape" scene. Trust me, any scene that can spawn this line(s) in context "...you hear me, buddy boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'm about to get medieval on your ass!!!" ...is part of a movie that is one for the ages. 

I loved the non-chronological flow as well as the sense that there wasn't so much of a standard 'plot', per se, but that I was just being introduced to these interesting characters and I very much wanted to see what happened next. 

This is a truly unique film that has a fresh and cynical take not only on our society and culture, but also on our culture of movies and what we like in them.

A timeless classic, in my humble opinion.

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.