Willis has never looked rougher or more ragged than he does here as Jack Mosley, a walking death wish who discovers his sense of justice still has the spark of life.
16 Blocks (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:156
Fresh:87
Rotten:69
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: Despite strong performances from Bruce Willis and Mos Def, 16 Blocks is a shopworn entry in the buddy-action genre.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for violence, intense sequences of action, and some strong language
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Mar 3, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $36,883,539
Synopsis: All he wanted to do was go home and get a drink. But at 8:02 a.m., hungover NYPD detective Jack Mosley (BRUCE WILLIS) is assigned a seemingly simple task. Petty criminal Eddie Bunker (MOS DEF)... All he wanted to do was go home and get a drink. But at 8:02 a.m., hungover NYPD detective Jack Mosley (BRUCE WILLIS) is assigned a seemingly simple task. Petty criminal Eddie Bunker (MOS DEF) is set to testify before a grand jury at 10:00 a.m. and needs to be taken from lock-up to the courthouse, 16 blocks away. It should take Jack 15 minutes to drop him off at the courthouse and get home. Broken down, out of shape, with a bad leg and a serious drinking problem, Jack's role on the force is simple - clock in, clock out and stay out of trouble in between. He's in no mood to deal with a punk who's been in and out of jail for more than half his life. But beneath the punk in Eddie lies a man committed to turning his life around and constantly searching for "signs" that will lead him to a brighter future. Jack knows better, though - people don't change. In Eddie he sees only a pathetic rat who was offered a sweet deal... a rat he will be rid of soon enough. When Jack shoves Eddie into the back of his car and pulls out into the morning New York city rush hour, he doesn't notice the van looming behind them. His head throbbing, and Eddie's flair for conversation only making it worse, Jack stops off at the local liquor store to pick up some breakfast. As Eddie waits inside the locked car, fuming at getting stuck with Jack as his escort, he's suddenly faced with a much bigger problem - a loaded gun pointed at his head. Jack emerges just in time to prevent Eddie's execution, killing one assassin and narrowly escaping a second. When Jack calls for backup, homicide detective Frank Nugent (DAVID MORSE) and his team are first to arrive at the scene. Eddie suddenly goes pale - one of the detectives on Nugent's team is the man he is supposed to testify against. In an instant, Jack's quickie trip downtown turns into the nightmare of a lifetime: the criminals that want Eddie dead are actually cops. There's a history between Jack and Nugent - a dark history that Jack has been desperately trying to forget. And as Nugent is quick to point out to his old friend, Eddie's testimony threatens to bring them all down. Nugent offers to stage a mock hostage situation in which Eddie is killed and Jack does what he does best - walk away. But this time, Jack has been pushed too far and seizes his last opportunity to do the right thing. A split second before Nugent's team can execute Eddie, Jack sets in motion a chain of events that will irrevocably impact all of their lives. Battling against time and the corrupt cops gaining on their every move, Jack and Eddie fight their way to the courthouse block by gut-wrenching block. These are Jack's streets, too - and he won't go quietly. In Eddie, he finds purpose, hope and the strength to do something he should have done six years ago. And Eddie begins to see that all of the "signs" he's been following were meant to lead him to Jack. It's the story of how two men change - and change each other - during a tense 16 block struggle between life and death. --© Warner Bros. [More]
Starring: Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse, Casey Sander
Starring: Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse, Casey Sander, Cylk Cozart
Director: Richard Donner
Director: Richard Donner
Screenwriter: Richard Wenk
Producer: Jim Van Wyck, Avi Lerner, Randall Emmett, John Thompson, George Furla, Hadeel Reda, Derek Hoffman
Composer: Klaus Badelt
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for 16 Blocks
It seems such a waste to go onto the actual streets of Lower Manhattan and shoot a movie this stupid.
An ending so Pollyannaish that I expected a chorus of animated daisies to jump out of somebody's ***.
The bedrock of the plot is the dogged determination of the Bruce Willis character. Jack may be middle-aged, he may be tired, he may be balding, he may be a drunk, but if he's played by Bruce Willis you don't want to bet against him.
It's standard, familiar fare: Take away the profanity and swap Bruce Willis with Richard Crenna, and you would have a perfect CBS movie of the week, circa 1982.
[The film has] an air of believability that thankfully doesn't get lost in the sometimes fast pace of the flick.
This action-thriller is so predictable that you probably could outline the plot after watching a 30-second TV spot. But it's so entertaining you won't budge from your seat until the final bullet has flown.
One of the best things about the movie is that it gets its tension from what we know and don't know about the characters, not from bashing us over the head with lame-o action sequences.
A limp, lazy exercise in nostalgia for the buddy genre that director Richard Donner helped define in the '80s.
The show really belongs to Willis, who brings a hangdog authority to the midlife action pose of paunchy, hungover, yet ready to rock and roll.
This is some of the best filmmaking ever done by director Richard Donner.
It goes from one implausible situation and hail of bullets to the next outlandish moment and more gunfire. There are also moments of extreme, flat dullness -- those generally being the moments when Def isn't talking.
The film works better if you think of it as an extra-long mission from True Crime: New York City, only with better-looking cut-scenes and a lamer soundtrack.
There are at least 16 ways the pressure-cooker situation at the center of `16 Blocks' could be defused...
The premise, which has been seen countless times before and done with far more style and flair, is terribly thin.
Rock music puts emphasis on the beat, jazz puts emphasis off the beat. 16 Blocks is jazz music: It's an action film, but its high points can be found in the punctuation, in the quiet moments between chases or shootouts.
The film kicks and lurches like a dying jalopy, undermining the otherwise lean efficiency with which Donner steers his metropolitan odyssey.
You spend much of the film with the same demeanor as Jack %u2014 excited but numbed, eyes winced, jaw clenched, just waiting for it to end.
There are enough little twists to keep you amused and mostly entertained.
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