16 Blocks (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Alternative Version Alternate Ending Interviews-Cast & Crew Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	97:26
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Richard Donner
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Bruce Willis Mos Def David Morse Jenna Stern Casey Sander Cylk Cozart David Zayas
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Klaus Badelt

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Richard Donner is a long term producer and director of quality action films including genre classics like the Lethal Weapon series and Superman. In this recent film he has also managed to cast one of Hollywood's favourite action leading men, Bruce Willis, who plays Det Jack Mosely. So why doesn't that combination result in a good or even great action film? Well, that's a difficult question to answer but I think the majority of the problem lies in the simple and clichéd screenplay.

    The plot which plays out in real time (Cliché #1) involves an alcoholic and broken down (Cliché #2) old police detective (Bruce Willis)  who has just finished a night shift and gets told by his boss to do one last job before going home (Cliché #3). The job is transport a minor league criminal (Mos Def) from a holding cell uptown to a downtown court room where he is scheduled to give evidence. The distance of this journey is the titular 16 Blocks. The minor league criminal begins to grate on the old police detective immediately. As they progress on their journey it quickly becomes apparent that the criminal is giving evidence in a police corruption trial and the corrupt cops are out to kill him (Cliché #4). If this isn't enough clichés for you then the big one at the end will knock your socks off. I can't believe that another film would use the old (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) 'hidden tape recorder to capture confession' cliché, which has been used some many times it is trying to claim frequent flyer points off the studios.

    On the plus side the film does include some good action sequences and develops some tension, especially during the first half. Another negative however is the Mos Def character, Eddie, who seems to be some sort of naive angel sent to help Bruce Willis. The problem is that he is really annoying and you keep wishing that the leader of the corrupt cops, Det Frank Nugent (David Morse) would just shoot him and help us all out.

    On balance, this is certainly not the worst action film I have seen but it has such a flimsy premise and is so full of old clichés that it becomes frustrating.

Video

    The video quality is very good with no major issues to report.

    The feature is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio or very close to it.

    The picture was reasonably sharp and clear but there was certainly some softness on backgrounds in some sequences. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was very good.

    The colour was very good with no issues to report.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English and English for the hearing impaired. They are well positioned to make use of the black bar outside of the 2.40:1 framing of the film, although when two lines of subtitles are present at the same time they do impact the picture. They are clear easy to read and virtually exact to the spoken word.

    There is no layer change during the main feature.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 stereo soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync. Mos Def's strange accent does cause some difficulty with understanding his dialogue at times. This would be an issue with the original material rather than the transfer.

    The score of this film by Klaus Badelt does a good job of building and maintaining tension despite the skimpy plot.

    The surround speakers were used constantly for lots of atmosphere and significant surround effects especially gunfights and traffic and bus crash noises.

    The subwoofer was also used a lot to add tension, bass to the music and depth to scenes like the bus crash.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

   Menu

    The menu was silent and still but did include some well thought out motifs as cursors such as the crosshairs on the scene selection menu.

Play with Alternate Ending (96:33)

    There is an option to play the film with a different ending using seamless branching. This ending is much less clichéd but also much less believable especially in terms of Det Nugent's motivations.

Alternate Ending (4:59)

    The same alternate ending which is available by seamless branching is also available separately.

Interviews (17:21)

    Presented 4x3 these are standard promotional interview snippets with Bruce Willis, David Morse, Richard Donner and other cast and crew. Don't expect any great insights.

Trailers

    Man About Town, The Big White, The Covenant.

The Region 4 version (when compared to Region 1) misses out on:

• French 5.1 soundtrack
• Introduction to alternate ending by director
• Deleted Scenes with commentary
• Theatrical Trailer

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Interviews

    The best version however appears to be the Region 3 Hong Kong release which includes DTS ES audio, Dolby Digital EX audio plus the same extras as the US release.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is excellent but better version are available internationally.

    The extras include an interesting alternate ending but little else of value.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall