Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7546 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-08-21
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Synopsis
16 BLOCKS is a tale of corrupt police officers, a Grand Jury witness, and one cop who is trying to do the right thing. Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is weary. A lame leg and a love affair with alcohol make him a virtual joke at the NYPD. Tired and ready to head home, Mosley is assigned one last job before he can punch out: pick up petty thief Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) in lock-up and transport him to the courthouse where he is set to testify before the Grand Jury. Only 16 New York City blocks separate the two, but it might as well be a million miles. Soon, the officer and his charge find themselves under fire, becoming the target of someone who wants to keep Bunker from testifying. Escaping the initial attack, Mosley calls for backup only to discover that corrupt police officers, including his ex-partner Frank Nugent (David Morse), want Bunker out of the picture. Mosley surprises everyone--maybe even himself--by doing the right thing and saving Bunker from certain death. With only 118 minutes to get the witness to the courthouse before the case will be thrown out, Mosley pulls out every trick in the book. He manoeuvres Bunker through the crowded, confined streets of Manhattan's Chinatown towards their destination, trying to avoid the police officers who are hunting them down as they race against time. Willis fully inhabits Mosley--a washed-up cop who is haunted by his past decisions--and Mos Def is right on target as Bunker, a chatty career criminal being hunted just as he is ready to turn his life around and make something of himself.

Customer Reviews

16 Blocks - a review
In my opinion a pretty decent thriller with Willis giving one of his better performances of recent years.The story takes place in New York with Willis transporting a prisoner the "16 Blocks" to get him to his court hearing.Given the relatively restricted location the film makers have done a decent job of constructing a plot that isn't insulting and obvious and have coaxed good performances out of a weary looking Willis and a cool mean looking David Morse as Willis's adversary.The plot development and it's little twists and turns come fairly evenly paced to keep you interested with a couple of those "there's no way he can get out of this one scenarios" to ratchet up the suspense factor.All in all a pretty decent thriller that deserved more of a fanfare on it's release and should hve earned Willis a little credit for his acting skills for once.
Enjoyable stuff.

Somethings missing...
16 BLocks isn't a rubbish film, I have to admit that before I continue with this review. The acting was good, and the story wasn't that bad but boy, was it slow. It started off at a normal pace. A bit of gunfire, a few laughs, first impressions of different characters. But suddenly it just went. The whole atmosphere that had been around in the first 30 minutes suddenly vanished and the next hour or so was really boring. And I don't know why?! Bruce Willis and Mos Def worked really well together and the story was going somewhere but I found it just got to a point where I was looking out the window, thinking of other things and not paying attention because it had got to the point where it was really, really slow and dull. Now I like Bruce Willis and I am a fan of edge of your seat thrillers but this one didn't do it for me. As I said before, not a bad film but to slow and boring for my liking.

OK - but lacks that little something
16 Blocks stars Bruce Willis as an aging alcoholic cop who is responsible for transporting a key prosecution witness (Mos Def) the 16 blocks across town to the city courthouse.

However this is no ordinary witness and this is no ordinary ride across town. The witness has turned states evidence and his testimony will result in the uncovering of police corruption which will go right to the heart of the force.

The only thing standing in the way of the dirty cops getting to the witness is a broken down boozing cop who is over come with responsibility when his last shred of pride comes to the surface as he gets to know his infectious would be partner.

16 Blocks is the typical Willis format, but would we have it any other way? Indeed he slips quite easily into his character and delivers quite a good performance.

However it is not all about guns and explosions and as it goes along there is quite a bit of depth added to the movie but it always just lacks that 'something' to move it on to the next level.

Overall the movie isn't a total disappointment or an over whelming success. The only problem is when the action does kick in and the one liners are delivered you know you have heard or seen it somewhere else before, only it was better the last time.