16 BLOCKS

DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 102/101 minutes, alternate ending, deleted scenes (with commentary), theatrical trailer

STUDIO: Warner Bros/ Alcon Entertainment/ Millennium Films

RELEASE DATE: 6-13-2006

Bruce Willis is great at playing screwed up cops. Nobody else does it better than Bruce these days. Bruce must get a kick out of playing flawed characters. 16 BLOCKS has Bruce playing a drunk detective with a bad leg. He just wants to booze up again when his commanding officer wants him to take a witness (Mos Def) to the Grand Jury at 100 Center Street and he has only 16 blocks to go. Everything starts to go wrong when he stops to buy some alcohol. He is up against his former partner (David Morse) as a few bad cops want the witness dead or never to show up for the grand jury before the session closes at 10 am (who in the hell think a real grand jury would close so early in the day?!). He tries to do the right thing no matter how much the stakes get raised. A few nice surprises highlight the experience and you can see it with the alternate ending within the film if you want to (the alternate ending was the original ending, but the theatrical ending makes more sense). 16 BLOCKS is a fast moving thriller that shows Richard Donnner still can pull out a great film when he needs to.

VIDEO: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)

Warner always doe s an excellent job with the transfer. Colors and blacks are good. Image detail is great. I wish they would stop having the disc automatically play after it goes through the main menu cycle.

AUDIO: English 5.1 DD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Dialogue is clear and I have no complaints with the audio mix.

SPECIAL FEATURES: It is debateable, but the alternate ending takes some chances and you can view it as part of the film or on it's own (with an introduction by director Richard Donner and the screenwriter who just looks like John Travolta). 20 minutes of deleted scenes with commentary by Donner and the screenwriter makes it the most annoying deleted scenes experience I have ever had. Haven't they ever heard of doing optional audio commentary instead of talking over some of the deleted scenes and do a pop up video window?! It's just a shame.

FINAL ANALYSIS: 16 BLOCKS is a great thriller, but the extras should have been better.

this review is (c)7-30-2006 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission (except for excerpts and a link to the review). Look for additional content at http://enterlinemedia.livejournal.com and send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com