AT THE MOVIES WITH DILLON KIMMEL
Hung over and at his emotional breaking point, Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) trudges into his NYPD office for another day on the job as a less-than-honest New York cop. A co-worker soon confronts him and begs Mosley to escort a criminal from jail 16 blocks to the courthouse so that he can testify. Mosley grudgingly obliges, and picks up repeat offender Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) a few minutes later. Still hung over and feeling rather irritated, Mosley finds the noisy and talkative Bunker all the more annoying. A 15-minute trip soon turns into much longer as traffic hampers the two from getting to their destination. An annoying convict and traffic are too much for Mosley, who quickly pulls over to a liquor store for some relief. He returns from the store to find an assassin pointing a gun at Bunker. Mosley kills the hostile and a gunfight with several other hostiles ensues.
The two escape to a run-down bar where Mosley calls his former partner, Frank Nugent (David Morse), for backup. But things get even harrier when Nugent and several others show up. And Mosley definitely knows something is wrong when Bunker clams up after seeing a certain officer walk into the room.
As it turns out, Bunker witnessed one of Nugent’s crooked men “doing business” and is set to testify to a grand jury in a case that could bring down Nugent and several other cop cronies. Nugent calmly asks Mosley to do what he always does: walk away while Nugent frames and kills Bunker, eliminating the chance that he and his fellow cops are caught in their illegal activity.
But this time, Mosley refuses. He escapes the bar alive but must figure out how to get Bunker the 16 blocks necessary to get to the courthouse. The streets are crawling with cops who want nothing more than to take out Bunker before he has the opportunity to send them to the slammer for a very long time. Mosley himself soon becomes collateral damage and finds his own life at risk. But Mosley refuses to give Bunker up, and is determined to do whatever possible to expose the truth. To further complicate matters, Mosley soon divulges a personal secret that could implicate him in some of the same crimes as Nugent.
16 Blocks is a very effective thriller with its share of twists and turns that keep the audience guessing. Bruce Willis is once again phenomenal as the emotionally unstable Jack Mosley, and Mos Def also gives a stirring and thought-provoking performance as a crook determined to turn his life around.
David Morse is also effective as Nugent, although the filmmakers could have done a better job of developing his character. It would have been better had the audience known the fate of Nugent. [Spoiler Warning] Although we assume Nugent goes to jail for his role in the “crookedness,” we never quite know for sure.
Another thing that bothered me was we never knew what the “crookedness” was. All the characters spoke of was “business” and “jobs” but never elaborated. It was difficult, then, to make a connection with what they were talking about.
Overall, 16 Blocks was all right, but not fantastic. It had some excellent performances by Bruce Willis and Mos Def and had an original and exciting plot, but left too many strings untied to be considered as an elite movie.
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