16 Blocks (March 2/06)

Richard Donner is unquestionably one of the most underappreciated filmmakers of his time, despite the fact that he's directed such notable flicks as Superman, The Omen, the Lethal Weapon series, etc, etc. And though he's had his share of misfires (Conspiracy Theory, Timeline), Donner can generally be counted on to elevate even the most mediocre screenplay into something watchable. 16 Blocks belongs somewhere the middle of Donner's oeuvre; the film is entertaining enough, but the lack of any real momentum prevents it from becoming anything more than a mildly engaging actioner.

Bruce Willis stars as Jack Mosley, a grizzled cop with a serious drinking problem who has long-since resigned himself to a career devoted to babysitting corpses and being pushed around by his colleagues. One fateful afternoon, Jack finds himself unwittingly assigned the task of escorting a lowlife named Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) from to a courthouse that's 16 blocks away. En route, the pair encounter assassins, dirty cops, and a whole host of other seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

It's clear almost immediately that Donner - along with screenwriter Richard Wenk - isn't interested in offering up a typically fast-paced thriller; instead, the filmmaker takes his time in developing the various characters, a strategy that admittedly lends the movie a little more substance than one might expect out of the genre. Consequently, 16 Blocks suffers from a decidedly uneven structure featuring sequences that come off as taut and genuinely exciting or low-key and kind of superfluous.

Having said that, there's no denying that the performances go a long way towards keeping things interesting - something that's particularly true of Willis' subtle turn as a cop that couldn't possibly be more different than John McClane. David Morse, as a shady detective on the case, does his usual scene-stealing thing, while Mos Def seems to be channeling Damon Wayans' homeless character from In Living Color. It's a broad performance that's certainly an effective counterbalance to Willis' assured work, though Def's character ultimately becomes awfully difficult to root for as a result (the guy is mostly just irritating).

Donner, despite his questionable reliance on shaky cinematography, does an expectedly solid job behind the camera - with the end result a film that, while not terribly memorable, is generally effective for what it is.