16 Blocks (2006)

Director:

Richard Donner

Writer (WGA):

Richard Wenk (written by)

Release Date:

3 March 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

For a New York cop and his witness, the distance between life and death just got very short.

Plot:

An aging cop is assigned the ordinary task of escorting a fast-talking witness from police custody to a courthouse. There are however forces at work trying to stop prevent them from making it.

Plot Keywords:

Bus | Aging Detective | Bus Ride | Bakery | Birthday Cake

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	Det. Jack Mosley
Mos Def	...	Eddie Bunker
David Morse	...	Det. Frank Nugent
Jenna Stern	...	Diane Mosley
Casey Sander	...	Capt. Dan Gruber
Cylk Cozart	...	Det. Jimmy Mulvey
David Zayas	...	Det. Robert Torres
Robert Racki	...	Det. Jerry Shue
Patrick Garrow	...	Touhey
Sasha Roiz	...	Kaller
Conrad Pla	...	Ortiz
Hechter Ubarry	...	Maldonado
Richard Fitzpatrick	...	Deputy Commissioner Wagner
Peter McRobbie	...	Mike Sheehan
Michael F. Keenan	...	Ray Fitzpatrick (as Mike Keenan)

Also Known As:

16 Blocks (Germany)
Sixteen Blocks (USA) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, intense sequences of action, and some strong language.

Runtime:

USA:105 min | Philippines:110 min

Country:

Germany | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Hungary:16 | Sweden:11 | Argentina:Atp | Ireland:12A | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Portugal:M/12 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Netherlands:12 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:15 | Germany:12 | Finland:K-11 | UK:12A | Australia:M | Denmark:11 | USA:PG-13 | Brazil:14 | Singapore:PG | Norway:15

Filming Locations:

Casey's Bar - 613 S. Grand Avenue, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Alcon Entertainment

Trivia:

WILHELM SCREAM: Immediately following the bus tire being shot out a wilhelm scream can be heard.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Jack Mosley drives the bus down the alley after Eddie climbs back into the bus, the NYPD SWAT Team starts shooting at the Driver's side in an attempt to hit Jack. In one shot we see rounds ping below the driver's side of the window, but in the next following shots, the white paint where the bullets supposedly hit is unscathed.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jack Mosley: [tape recording] This is Detective Jack Mosley, Shield number 227. I guess this will be my last will and testament. This is for Diane. Now, they're gonna come talk to you and they're gonna tell you things. But what they tell you isn't really what happen. So Diane, I think you should know what really happened. I was trying to do a good thing.

Movie Connections:

References Herbie Fully Loaded (2005)

Soundtrack:

Good Flower Round Moon

unnecessary remake

This is a remake - revised, updated and relocated - of "The Gauntlet", a mid-'70s action film starring, and directed by, Clint Eastwood, about a burnt-out cop who dedicates himself to preserving the life of a witness to police corruption. Eastwood's film was really not much more than a "B-movie', but it was well made, and Eastwood used the film as one of his earliest efforts to work through the problem of a character development - how it is that people stuck in a rut somehow manage to redefine themselves in response to unexpected crisis.

In "16 Blocks), that noble theme is reduced to mere slogan - 'people do change'. And this slogan is the only real gesture the film makes towards any sort of real character development. In fact the characters are all the same at the end as they were at the beginning; and I don't believe for a moment the arbitrarily tacked on ending that supposedly reassures us that - hey, 'people do change'. Thank you, slogan; roll credits.

Don't blame the actors, they're actually doing their best; they're just not given anything to work with. The dialog (lacking in any real spark of interest) is partly to blame; but the real fault of this impoverishment of drama is director Donner's. It's clear from the get-go that he doesn't care a flying squirrel for this picture - his comments on the DVD added material almost state this outright. So he just comes in, tinkers with some machine, and heads home for dinner - who cares what the result is? - where's the paycheck! But that doesn't simply abuse the production company getting the money together for this project, it abuses the audience that has come to expect some degree of professionalism from Donner - but here, he let's us down.

Lesson to be learned: Only make films when you think you can bring something interesting to the project.

Skip this, see "The Gauntlet" instead.