When Bruce Willis became famous for the Moonlighting series and went on to make Die Hard he was (for the time) an unlikely action hero. He was a jokey, balding, motor mouth who was not like the typical movie star. As Willis enters what is probably the third stage of his career, he is now becoming an equally unlikely character actor who makes interesting choices. In 16 BLOCKS the character of Jack Mosley (a griselled, alcoholic burnout cop) is to Willis what the character of Frank Galvin was to Paul Newman in The Verdict. Both characters are destroyed men who have a single shot at redemption and both represent the manner in which society can destroy the individual if he is not strong enough emotionally. How odd that Willis, who has never worked with Richard Donner, would end up in this flawed, character driven piece which is a love letter to the 80's and even to adjacent decades of film making but most definitely not to 2006.
16 BLOCKS is a nod to the action pictures and police corruption stories we can still vaguely remember from the late 70's and early 80's. It should not be judged by the creakiness of its plot contrivances but rather by whether it makes you feel a pang of nostalgia for a time when movies were built around memorable characters who made difficult choices. Into this project walks an action star and a director whose careers have dropped off considerably. These men are relics of the 1980's and together they have charmingly fashioned a throwback piece that reminds us of a time before the explosions got so big that no one could believe them anymore. Before the uber-cynicism of the 21st century there were tales of people fighting corruption and winning unlikely but costly victories. Working together Willis and Donner have achieved an unlikely victory with this brisk, flawed, and sometimes gooey tale of human redemption. It's got rapid fire dialogue (via Mos Def and Willis) that reminds you of Glover and Gibson in Lethal Weapon. This is definitely a Donner signature (admittedly it can get annoying at times). The movie's also got the urban (New York city) feel of a Sydney Lumet picture. And it's got a big bus chase at the end a la Eastwood's The Gauntlet. It's got corruption reminiscent of Serpico, best friends who choose different moral paths, and a general feeling of tilting against windmills. Like Jack Mosley, Willis and Donner are also in slightly over their heads in this answer to action pictures of the 21st century. What they are really doing is creating an homage to a type of movie that is no longer the norm. In Donner's world, people matter. Characters matter. They are only barely successful which is what makes this movie so charming. They are working against the odds that anyone will care or even get what they are attempting.
The film is full of too many coincidences. It feels, at times, too familiar. It is not for the ultra-cool or for the cold hearted. The appeal of this film will be lost on people who don't believe that character and heart are essential components in a good story. This movie is for those who loved the movies of the late seventies and early eighties and who are willing to throw caution to the wind and not over analyze the plot. This is a movie for people who like to dream that the individual still has a shot at vanquishing the corrupt. Willis is excellent in this movie. Mos Def is an irritating but likeable place holder and his performance works. David Morse is incredibly good as Willis' former partner. This one gets an extra star for bucking the trend and being a throwback to an earlier and (some might say) a better time.