16 Blocks 2006

1 witness… 118 minutes…

6.438 / 10   1860 vote(s)
PG-13
Action Adventure Crime Thriller

An aging cop is assigned the ordinary task of escorting a fast-talking witness from police custody to a courthouse, but they find themselves running the gauntlet as other forces try to prevent them from getting there.

Homepage https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/16-blocks
Release Date 2006-03-01
Runtime 1h 45m
Directors Richard Donner, Glen MacPherson, Jim Van Wyck, Hans Bjerno, Tim Singh, Tudor Jones, Karen Young
Producers Randall Emmett, Avi Lerner, John Thompson, Jim Van Wyck, Stephen J. Eads, Todd Gilbert, Ilyse A. Reutlinger, Manfred D. Heid, Gerd Koechlin, Derek Hoffman, Jochen Kamlah, Brian Read, Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort, George Furla, Josef Lautenschlager, Hadeel Reda, Trevor Short, Andreas Thiesmeyer, D.J. Carson, Arnold Rifkin, Dennis Berardi, Fiona Campbell Westgate, Devin Sterling
Writers Richard Wenk, Richard Wenk

Iffy at times, but '16 Blocks' produces a fine enough thriller - one that I can say I enjoyed.

Bruce Willis and Mos Def double up well as Jack and Eddie. I particularly like Willis' look for the majority of the film, he genuinely looks how his character supposedly is - good acting, but also some nice make-up etc.

Mos Def is solid, I remember liking him when he appeared on 'Dexter' - I rate him less here, just because of the annoying voice he has; which grates hard at times. Speaking of that Showtime television show, Angel Batista himself (David Zayas) also appears which is cool. David Morse, meanwhile, makes for an OK villain - the casting perhaps could've been greater for the antagonist, mind.

None of the plot is all that shocking or surprising, every crossroad that appears is pretty simple to predict where it's heading. Also, maybe I'm the only one who felt this, but there's one moment on a bus where it seems as if Jack is about to unleash some unbelievable secret plan but it just fizzles out into oddly nothing. Might be just me.

All in all though, I reckon you'll be able to find a satisfactory 105 minutes with this - I did, at least.

r96sk

16 Blocks is an incredibly atmospheric movie with some quite incredibly done street scenes. Its intensity draws you in and makes you quickly form strong opinions of each character. I initially considered Mos Def's character to be annoying, but after a number of watches I realised if he hadn't given his character so much character then he would have been inconsequential and that would have weakened the movie severely. I think Bruce Willis was very brave to take the part of Jack Mosley and commit to it in the way he did. He makes this film what it is.

Rob