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16 Blocks
The idea of a law-abiding man putting his neck on the line to deliver a prisoner safely to court has fuelled a lot of good movies over the years. Elmore Leonard is at the National Film Theatre next month to talk about one of the best, the Western 3:10 to Yuma, which he wrote. Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet may be another inspiration for Richard Wenk's screenplay - given that he's named the three lead characters after writers it's probably safe to assume he knows it's not exactly original. There's the cop, Mosley (Bruce Willis), presumably a nod to Bill Clinton's favourite crime novelist, Walter Mosley (Devil in a Blue Dress). The prisoner is one Eddie Bunker (Mos Def), who you may recognise as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs, but who was also a convicted felon and wrote the screenplays for Straight Time, Runaway Train and Animal Factory. Then there's Mosley's old partner, Frank Nugent (David Morse), the name of one-time film critic who also wrote some of the best John Ford movies, including The Searchers. So here's the deal: Mosley needs to take Bunker the 16 blocks across town where he will testify before the grand jury. It should be routine, except that Nugent, and the rest of the NYPD, want to make sure he never gets there. Seems old Eddie knows more than is good for him. Even though he's tired and old and broken, there is something in Mosley that won't stand by and allow him to be murdered. 
Needless to say, the fugitives soon find themselves on foot, and the subway option is quickly ruled out in favour of the more photogenic Chinatown basements and rooftops. Director Richard Donner has a track record for action-packed buddy movies, most notably the Lethal Weapon pictures. He's modified the sledgehammer tactics here to allow some breathing room between the bluster, and in return gets three fine performances. A real actor, Mos Def pushes out the boat as the motormouth Eddie; beneath his non-stop verbiage you know he's in mortal fear. The always underrated Morse is calm and authoritative as the bad cop, Nugent, and Willis cuts the contrast as the taciturn, weary Mosley. The movie ends up exactly where you imagine it must, and the mechanics grind some along the way, but there's something gratifyingly old school about this show. It's not a classic, but good vintage all the same. Tom Charity 
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