After modest success with Hostage, Bruce Willis plays a broken-down cop once again in 16 Blocks. Richard Donner directs this "intermittently exciting" tale of a journey across New York to escort a valuable witness (Mos Def) to court. Willis even grew a 'tache to show us how he's evolved from movie star to character actor, but going by lukewarm ticket sales, moviegoers prefer his earlier sweaty stubble and dirty vest look.

Emotional Block

Richard Donner and screenwriter Richard Wenk make a rather irritating double-act for 20 minutes of deleted scenes. Actually the scenes amount to considerably less than 20 minutes as Donner and Wenk are onscreen for most of that time making unfunny quips and offering redundant explanation for why scenes were cut, ie pace, the need for "more urgency" blah, blah, blah. The really annoying part is that you cannot view these scenes without the commentary.

Among them is an "improvisational purge" by Mos Def, which offers a classic example of how badly presented these off-cuts are. While the young actor releases all his personal childhood demons in a stairwell face/off with David Morse (as Frank), the emotional impact is completely flattened by Donner waffling in voiceover about how gosh-darn great his acting is. We're sure Mr Def will thank him for that.

Not So Sweet 16

Three 'Making Of' featurettes run at around two minutes each. These, along with a short reel of behind-the-scenes footage, afford just a teasing glimpse of production. Regarding the look of the film, Parker explains that he's effectively "making a black-and-white movie in colour" to give a sense of the old-school noir aesthetic. The remaining featurettes deal with the choreography of an intricate Voodoo dance and give Parker a chance to say that he's being "very careful" not to offend followers of the Voodoo faith.

The suits at Warner Bros are particularly excited about the "shock" alternate ending, which is showcased separately on this DVD. Donner and Wenk give us a brief intro explaining that this was the original ending shot for the film but they don't reveal why it was changed. It's pretty obvious, however, that test screenings will have had a part to play along with the standard Hollywood obsession for happy endings. We don't want to ruin it for you, but we will say that this finale goes overboard on melodrama.

Aside from a trailer, that wraps up the extras for 16 Blocks. Surprisingly there's no word from Bruce Willis or Mos Def. Needless to say then, it's hardly worth crossing the street for.

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