16 BLOCKS: Revisiting Richard Donner's Swan Song

16 BLOCKS (Blu-ray)

2006 / 102 min

Warner Bros

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😽

Though nobody obviously knew it at the time, 2006’s 16 Blocks ended up being director Richard Donner’s last film. Considering his lengthy filmography is loaded with modern classics, this unremarkable action film is an anticlimactic capper to an impressive career, but isn’t without its merits.

Burned-out, alcoholic detective Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is ordered to escort career criminal Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) from the precinct to the courthouse to give testimony in a trial regarding a crooked cop. It’s seemingly a routine assignment...all he has to do is drive Bunker - you guessed it - sixteen blocks. This turns out to be easier said than done because, while Mosley stops along the way to buy more booze, a group of men try to kill Bunker.

Crashing the car, the two now have to try and get to the courthouse on foot while being hunted down. Not only do they need to arrive by 10:00 (otherwise the jury will be dismissed), it turns out they’re being chased down by a bunch of other dirty cops led by Mosley’s ex-partner, Frank Nugent (David Morse). Bunker’s testimony will apparently bring down the lot of them. 

"It's a flip phone, Mos. In a few years everybody's gonna have 'em."

Donner has always known his way around an action scene, a skill put to decent use here, which helps gloss over some of the story implausibilities. However, the blend of action and comedy that made the Lethal Weapon franchise memorable is sorely missed, which is too bad since both lead actors have proven to be pretty funny when given the opportunity. Still, their characters are fairly engaging, especially Bunker, who’s pretty damned obnoxious at the start of the film, but ends up being quite endearing. 

And if nothing else, 16 Blocks harkens back to a time when Bruce Willis still had the chops to elevate otherwise routine action films into something at-least watchable. Though largely forgotten these days, this one doesn’t rank among Richard Donner’s best work (or anyone else involved), but there are plenty of other directors with far worse swan songs.

This is a re-issue of a Blu-ray first released in 2006.

EXTRA KIBBLES

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Richard Donner and screenwriter Richard Wenk.

ALTERNATE ENDING - Whether or not it’s a better ending is certainly debatable, but it’s certainly more downbeat.

TRAILER