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(Photo by Ava Gerlitz)
WHADDYA MEAN THE DEPARTMENT WANTS HIM DEAD: Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) discovers that his prisoner Eddie Bunker (Mos Def, not shown) has a contract out on his life because his testimony in an upcoming trial will expose a cabal of corrupt officers in the police department. |
Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is an aging detective with a drinking problem. Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) is a petty criminal who has spent half of his life mumbling to himself behind bars while dreaming about opening his own bakery. With nothing in common, there's not much reason for the two to meet, let alone end up on the same side of the law.
However, that is what happens when Jack is ordered to escort Eddie from jail to the courthouse 16 blocks away in lower Manhattan. What should have been a brief uneventful car ride turns into a thrilling chase. Mosley, who stops briefly at a liquor store on the way to the courthouse, emerges to find a hit man with a cocked gun at the head of his prisoner.
Jack shoots the assassin, jumps in the driver's seat, and careens across Chinatown pumping Eddie with questions to learn why somebody wants him dead. Jack discovers that Eddie's scheduled to testify in less than two hours in a case against a half-dozen crooked cops.
When Jack calls for backup, his former partner, Frank (David Morse), makes it clear that the police department wants this key prosecution witness dead. Jack must decide either to look the other way or break the blue wall of silence.
He opts for the latter, which means they must run a gauntlet of the most corrupt, immoral, and bloodthirsty officers imaginable. What happens in the ensuing escape is the essence of 16 Blocks, an action film directed by Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon 1, 2, 3, & 4).
Ordinarily, the success or failure of a film like this depends on the chemistry between the leads who have spent the entire picture fighting each other. However, this film's plotline does not allow much time for the two to develop any intimacy. Nonetheless, both Bruce Willis and Mos Def, though playing cartoonish archetypes, manage to enhance their slight characters with enough endearing qualities and offbeat idiosyncrasies to sway the audience to empathize with their plight.
Meanwhile, like a computer game, wave after wave of ghoulish adversaries arrive to be eluded, dealt with, or dispatched; soulless demons devoid of a conscience. 16 Blocks provides the most pyrotechnics, fisticuffs, gunplay, car crashes, back alley dashes and fire escape leaps ever crammed into a cinematic chase lasting less than a mile.
Excellent (3½ stars). Rated PG-13 for violence, profanity, and scenes of intense action. Running time: 105 minutes. Studio: Warner Brothers
For more movie summaries, see Kam's Kapsules.