June 5, 2021

16 Blocks (2006) Movie Review

Director: Richard Donner

Writer: Richard Wenk (Screenplay)

Starring: Bruce Willis, Yasiin Bey, David Morse, Jenna Stern, Casey Sander, Cylk Cozart, David Zayas

Plot: An aging alcoholic cop is assigned the task of escorting a witness from police custody to a courthouse 16 blocks away. There are, however, chaotic forces at work that prevent them from making it in one piece.

Tagline – 1 Witness… 118 Minutes…

Runtime: 1 Hour 42 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: 16 Blocks starts when an alcoholic cop Jack Mosley (Willis) is asked to do one more job before his shift is over, transferring a witness Eddie Bunker (Bey) 16 blocks away, only what seems like a simple job takes a turn for the worse.

Eddie is the key witness that will expose police corruption, with Frank Nugent (Morse), Jack former partner looking to tie up loose ends, forcing him to fight against his friends to do the right thing.

Thoughts on 16 Blocks

Characters & Performances – Jack Mosely is an alcoholic cop who tends to keeps to himself on the job, he is just waiting for retirement, but is forced into taking one more job, escorting a witness across town, where he will need to learn who he can trust from within the force to do the right thing. Bruce Willis is strong in this role, he works well as the aging cop without doing the full action scenes. Eddie Bunker is the witness that needs transporting, he talks a lot and has a criminal background makes him come off like a normal criminal in the eyes of Jack, he has however turned his life around looking for redemption with what he has discovered. Yasiin Bey is fun to watch as the quick talker even if this is more of a serious action film. Frank Nugent is the man leading the hunt for Eddie, he is a former partner to Jack and tries to push him into following his instructions, he is trying to control the situation before it gets out of hand. David Morse is as always great to watch in the villainous roles in film, this is no different, always being the presence on camera.

Story – The story here follows an aging alcoholic cop that is given an assignment to escort a witness across the town for a court case only to find himself being hunted down by a group of cops that want to keep their secret. This is one of the action films that does get to give us a simple idea that will rely on the characters needing to learn about change along the way. We get to see how Jack finds a new direction and a former criminal will look to keep his life on the right track, while the typical cops wanting to keep things quiet are hunting them down. It is an easy watch, without relying on twists along the way.

Themes – 16 Blocks is an action thriller that will keep the action in New York with the contained streets and the action being tactical, even if it is panicked. The pace of the story is great, give us time to breath as we learn about the characters between the action sequences.

Final Thoughts – 16 Blocks is a great action film that will give us plenty of entertainment throughout with a good character development.

Signature Entertainment presents 16 Blocks on Digital Platforms 7th June and on Amazon Prime Video 18^th June

ABC Film Challenge – Thriller – E – The Entitled (2011) Movie Thoughts

Director: Aaron Woodley

Writer: William Morrissey (Screenplay)

Starring: Kevin Zegers, Victor Garber, Laura Vandervoort, Devon Bostick, Dustin Milligan, Tatiana Maslany, Ray Liotta

Plot: A young man, broke and jobless, abducts three rich college kids to try and get money from their fathers.

Runtime: 1 Hour 31 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Entitled starts as Paul Dynan (Zegers) finds himself struggling for money, seeing his mother dying and not being able to afford the medication she needs to treat her condition, he turns to his friends Dean (Bostick) and Jenna (Maslany) to come up with a plan, which will see him look to hold three rich college kids, Hailey (Vandervoort), Nick (Milligan) and Jeff (Breger).

The plan is to get their rich parents Bob (Garber), Clifford (McHattie) and Richard (Liotta) to pay off big to help fill in the problems Paul has been going through, only things don’t go to the plan they had in mind.

Thoughts on The Entitled

Thoughts – The Entitled gives us a thriller that will put the focus on the idea of the divide between the rich and poor, showing how the poor will be pushed to the extremes to get what they need to get through the everyday situations. The plan does seem very typical, where one person knows what they want, but the rest of the crew seem to let things spin out of control, but the infighting between he parents does become the most interesting part of the film. The performances from the three parental figures are the strongest, with the rest always feeling like loose cannons out of control, which is part of the idea of the film. The film does want to play into a twist, teasing all the way, without always giving us the shock value it wants to present to us.

Final Thoughts – The Entitled is a thriller that feels by the book, that wants to shock with a twist, only to trip over the final outcome.