Am I back?? I dunno. Have I the front?? Where do you side?
Am I back?? I dunno. Have I the front?? Where do you side?
Member since:14.08.2002
Reviews:150
Members who trust:77
Jack Mosley might not be the best police in the world, but he certainly isn't one of the "New York's worst" he declares his colleagues to be. Washed-out, and often drowning in liquor in fact, the R word hasn't hit him yet but he might as well hand in his badge, considering the respect he seems to get from others. If there's a bust with the suspects already found to be OD'd, he'll be on street level and guarding the door, allowed next to stand over the ruins until lowlier policemen turn up to bag the corpses. Told not to touch anything, he'll reach for the spirits the junkies have no need for, and kick back with a mugfull and the paper.
So he's not too surprised when one job the morning after the night after the day before seems particularly weak and beneath him - transfer a low-life crook to the courthouse, as his testimony is needed, and there's a deadline of 10am. Funnily enough, this isn't as straightforward as it sounds.
This DVD was picked off the shelves at the sale price of just £3 in the hope of a Phone Booth cum Cellular style taut, real-time, claustrophobic, little film with a high concept. Unfortunately, that wasn't what was on offer.
The plot of course can't be discussed further, as certain people have it in mind that the crook getting to the courthouse on time would be a bad idea, and if there's any thrills to be had it's in who that actually is, why, how many of them there are and what their success or failure will result in. But as far as everything else goes, things can be talked about.
And
the biggest talking point must be the acting, which will also let you know the high concept thriller is not in evidence. Mos Def is what we have to start the film thinking of as a baddie - Eddie, a small-time crim, but a crim. First seen riffing around needing a suit for his big court appearance, and other appointments that might or might not be important, he actually does a good job (at least as competent as in Hitchhiker's Guide, anyway). You will certainly have issues as to his awkward strained voice, but he delivers his lines in a nice way, with a good twitchiness carried all through the performance.
"Nice way", "performance" - words not associated with the real baddy of the piece, played by David Morse. He's just far too wooden. He wants to be one of those clipped, hard-talking polices you find in better genre films, but just comes across as an awkward lump you can never believe in. Witness him leaning on a car, his commish diverting his aimed gun, and boy you can almost begin to feel he wanted to pull the trigger.
Unfortunately that has consequences for the rest of the film and cast. Bruce Willis is the lead, Mosley, and once he's saddled with awful tiredy alcy make-up, and Morse to play *under*, of all things, he can do nothing. The first confrontation in a bar is just awful, all meaningless leans into frame, stunted leers. Luckily that's soon over, and when Willis can give his character more status, and more things to do, even if that's only walk along the street with Mos Def, he's back to something like the Willis we normally can expect.
The rest of the cast are rather perfunctory - people who get in the way, people who help the task at hand, the other policemen and women. You won't notice anything positive or negative about them.
Without sounding like a scratched record, the whole idea of the film did scream for a tight little affair, but the makers have tried their level best to go against that. There's no real sense of the bigger picture - no countdown of the blocks, for instance (which might have been made awkward by filming a New York story in Toronto), and little clock-watching. The pace and drive of the film could have been a whole lot better if it had dwelt on that one thing, but instead the whole work opens out to cover as many generic city-scapes as possible (the building site, Chinatown, rooftops, basements, subways - everything except the park). There's also a scattergun way of switching from the heroes of the film to the baddies and this too fragments any tension. Twice at least Willis calls for help, and it's plain we don't want him to get help, so why bother?
Still, there is a reasonable B-movie effort made here. You might well say that's not what you should expect of a Richard "Lethal Weapon" Donner thriller, but that's what you get. Cops good and bad, a crook with a heart of gold, a little bit in the way of a twist or two, and some reasonably well edited action. There's never a sense of anything being better than satisfactory, however, even though the low-key and under-used score, and Mos Def and Bruce Willis performances might get a six or seven out of ten on a good day.
The DVD is rather a weak effort. Trailers for Poseidon, Superman returning, and the actual 16 Blocks itself, and the only extras amount to 26 minutes. These are director Donner and the film's writer introducing and talking annoyingly over several deleted and extended scenes, and introducing a very different ending. It's a little hard to judge as this version isn't scored, colour-corrected or completely polished, but clearly the right one was seen in the flicks.
What we're told is very little - we infer Willis's nearly unnoticeable limp was from a pebble stored in his shoe for the shoot, but otherwise there's little in the way of learning to be done. The film-makers talk about chopping lots out to save an itchy bum, but the film is only 100 minutes or so, and OK, some of the cropped scenes are unneeded, but one trimmed as unworthy riffing shows the case again that Willis and Def together are the good reason for watching this film.
The disc comes with German dubbing, and hard of hearing subtitles for both English und Deutsch, and an audio description, for those needing it.
It certainly could have been a lot better - Morse could have stayed at home that audition day, for one, and the blowing out of the candles at the end could have actually looked like one of the characters doing it and not an off-screen fire extinguisher. The surprises aren't incredibly great, and while there are a couple of pleasant titters to be had at appreciatively clever points, the film remains average and disposable. £3 for a purchase is about right - less than the cinema ticket, for sure. Perhaps the makers realised the film had left everyone mildly entertained and nowhere near loving the film as a keeper when they decided to give us so little else on the disc.
Oh, and for those narked by the American word police for policeman in the above, sorry - it won't happen again.
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I think we've all, at some point, robbed alcohol from the cold, dead hands of a corpse. Surely this is worth seeing for no other reason than Willis's fabulous moustache? xx
n13roy 29.05.2008 12:41
Really well written, detailed and very informative DVD review there indeed. I remember seeing this in the Cinema, and expecting a MUCH better Film !!!!...........Roy......
emmorticia 28.05.2008 00:07
Good to see you're still here after I've been away for 2.5 years :) Think I'll avoid this one...but guess you can't complain for £3!
![16 Blocks [DVD] [2006]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78479200.jpg "16 Blocks [DVD] [2006]")
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