Directed By: Richard Donner
Written By: Richard Wenk
Starring: Bruce Willis, David Morse, Mos Def
For an actor, creating a character from scratch is, at best, a mixed bag. The script provides you a blueprint, gives you an inkling of what’s below the surface and offers you a context in which to place your character. Some scripts employ stock characters that allow actors to draw inspiration from others who have played that “type” of character before. Other scripts, ingeniously, create varied and rich characters so full of depth that they actually border on unique.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a unique character even within the same time zone as 16 Blocks. That’s not to say the characters in this story are dull or uninteresting, but there’s nothing here the audience hasn’t seen before. We are introduced, via voice-over, to Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) as he records on tape his “last will and testament.” It’s a brief scene before we jump back in time and the story starts.
Mosley is Willis’ John McClane character from the Die Hard series, only here he’s ten years older. Otherwise, the characters are virtually identical—it’s easy to see McClane turning into Mosley, should he choose to continue with the booze and general depression. They both drink heavily, they both have headaches, and they both are very tired, world-weary people. The only difference, it seems (aside from the age), is that Mosley doesn’t smoke. Or, more importantly, he simply doesn’t have time.
16 Blocks is a quick moving story. Mosley is handed an assignment to escort a witness, Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) 16 blocks to the courthouse. They’ve got to arrive before 10am, a paltry 118 minutes, or the case gets thrown out. It’s a nothing assignment for Jack, and he even stops for a drink along the way.
Which is precisely when things start to go wrong for Jack. He stops an attempt on Eddie’s life by some hired goons and quickly the chase is on. Jack manages to find shelter in a local bar he knows well and calls in the situation, requesting backup. Backup arrives in form of Jack’s partner of seventeen years Frank Nugent (David Morse). He’s a calm, collected type of cop, always thinking and always planning.
The movie quickly boils down to a cat and mouse chase game between Jack and Frank. We learn that Frank wants Eddie dead since Eddie is going to testify in a trial that will bring Frank and other cops down. It’s a match-up of wits between the former friends; Jack with his superior knowledge of the city and it’s thousands of underground tunnels and escape routes against Frank with his technology and almost super-human deductive skills.
This movie is about its characters, none of whom are new. David Morse’s Frank Nugent is the same character he played in The Negotiator and Mos Def’s Eddie Bunker may be the single most annoying character of all time. His high-pitched squeaky little voice grates on the audience all the way through the film, and is compounded by the fact that his character never stops talking.
Personally, I wanted to stay and see how the drama between Jack and Frank played out, but had the urge to get up and leave every time Eddie talked. Ultimately, I stayed to see the resolution. There’s nothing surprising about this movie in the least. It’s a by-the-book thriller set within a great construct of a plot; 16 blocks in 118 minutes, with a ruthless gang of police after you, hauling an annoying witness who can’t help but make things worse. The tension nearly writes itself.
The film is engaging and briskly paced (a must if you are going to color inside the lines) and delivers a few twists that the audience may or may not see coming depending on the level of investment. The pay off is good and the acting holds its own, despite the absolutely horrendous choices made by Mos Def in creating his character of Eddie Bunker, talker-extraordinaire.
All in all, 16 Blocks is a film worth its time as a rental, definitely something to catch on cable when it makes it there, and a decidedly scary glimpse into the future for those who ever wanted to know how McClane’s life turned out after the Die Hard series.
- A. Chlebowski is a graduate of Marquette University and holds a Bachelor's in Theatrical Production and an Associates in English and History. He's lived and worked in Milwaukee (WI), Chicago (IL), Burlington (VT), Los Angeles (CA) and now resides in St. Louis (MO), where he was born. He likes reading, writing and drinking. Go Cardinals!!!