16 Blocks
Bleh. Struggling to muster the energy to even comment on this. With Richard Donnor at the helm I held out a glimmer of hope that it might surprise me and not be the mundane action flick it threatened to be, but alas, mundane is just the beginning of the film’s troubles.
16 Blocks ends up being one of those really bad cop conspiracy films that popped up a lot about fifteen years ago – like Striking Distance (also starring Willis) and a few others I can't quite recall this second (think there was a Van Peebles directed one in there somewhere). Here Willis’ rugged old alco cop has to transport Mos Def, playing the most annoying person ever to be alive, the titular sixteen blocks to a court house so he can testify against corrupt cops – corrupt cops who are all over those blocks trying to kill him, and Willis should he get in their way.
Let me put this out there: I am in no way convinced that Mos Def is an actor. His voice grates like nails down a blackboard and just how the hell are you meant to care about a character like that? I was barracking for the baddies all the way just to kill him to shut him the fuck up. And that's all there's really worth saying about this.