Review of 16 Blocks (2006) by Mosstromo — 05 Mar 2013

Lost opportunities all around on this uninteresting film.

What opens strong with the promise of interesting characters whose personal life will create uncountable chances for complication of a tale that sports an interesting premise, soon dives into the murky depths of mishandled stories.

Every decision made on action pieces, character development and sequence of events seems to be the wrong one. Complications are either forgotten, resolved fast and simply or avoided altogether (as are sense and logic for that matter).

Richard Donner shows at several points that he is a very good director, specially during the wonderful sequence where the first shots are fired, but those moments soon dry out in the sterile ground of the uninspired and clumsy screenplay.

Bruce Willis manages to interpret his run-down cop convincingly, even at the more ridiculous moments, but all the points he gains for the flick are lost every single time his counterpart played by Mos Def opens his mouth. I've seen Mos Def in "Be Kind Rewind" and I don't remember having disliked him so violently, but in this film his every rendering of dialog is gut-wrenching turning him into a Jar-Jar-Binks-esque figure.

Overall a sad experience for which I'd say that the cost of the viewing should be the deciding factor for avoiding or not this film, and only if you reaaaaaally like Bruce Willis movies and need to fill a gap on all you've seen from his filmography.