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New Police
Movie Is Toned Down, But It’s No Cop-Out 16 Blocks, the new cop movie from the director of the Lethal Weapon flicks and the star of the Die Hard series, is surprisingly—and refreshingly—low-key. There are no big explosions to speak of, and more than a few lulls in the ballet of bullets in this story of a washed-up alcoholic cop and an unwanted running buddy. Bruce Willis plays an alcoholic burnout with a badge--not for the first time, as anyone who has seen Die Hard with a Vengeance will fondly recall. As in that movie, he spends the movie trying desperately to get from point A to point B and finding chaos at every turn. Mos Def is Eddie Bunker, the convict Willis’ Jack Mosley is tasked to escort across town to testify before a grand jury concerning dirty cops. It isn’t long before Mosley and Bunker meet up with some of these rogues, and old wash-up is forced to make a decision that will put his life on the line. You could call it a moment of clarity, or a tried and true plot device. It’s no big shocker that the convict is ingratiating at first—shades of Eddie Murphy in 48 HRS—and that, over the course of this real-time thriller, the mismatched pair will get to know each other and discover that, gosh, they really aren’t so different after all. Cue the string section. But 16 Blocks has a lot going for it. There are actual surprises within this deceptively simple story—I was a little angry I didn’t pick up on a couple of them. (Willis’ cheesy mustache should have been a dead giveaway.) The two leads convincingly warm to one another, all without the benefit of screaming at each other. Apparently, someone left the race card out of this well-stacked deck, too. The Willis character actually appears to change for the better over the course of a tumultuous two hours, and Mos Def becomes strangely likable as he spouts character-revealing dialogue about his hopes for a better life beyond prison walls. The MVP award goes to David Morse, an actor of great restraint and all the more effective for his lack of scenery chewing. Not to say he doesn’t make a colorless villain. As the ringleader of the dirty cops, he’s the kind of guy who can convince you he’s doing the right thing while he’s twisting the knife into your back. The movie deals with some hot-button issues, but it’s mostly an above-average cop film, yet another opportunity for Willis to play a guy who has hit rock bottom. Willis seems to relish portraying a down-and-outer as much as Mel Gibson values a chance to subject himself to endless on-screen torture. Director Richard Donner is pretty restrained here, working from Richard Wenk’s economical screenplay. It’s a real change of pace from the veteran filmmaker’s usual slam-bang fare. Donner effectively employs some of New York City’s more run-down locations. Within a mere 16 blocks, we get good scenes on the subway, on the busy city streets, in shabby apartment buildings, on a bus, and Chinatown. Speaking of which, fans of the Lethal Weapon movies will appreciate the cameo by Kim Chan, who was so memorably hilarious as the Chinese crime boss in Lethal 4. He isn’t given a lot to do here, but the old guy is still a scene-stealer. Steve Kahan, who played Captain to Mel Gibson and Danny Glover also has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance. I try not to look at the prerelease materials for movies before I see them, but I assume it’s no coincidence the prisoner character’s name is Eddie Bunker. The real Eddie Bunker became a writer of note following his stretch behind bars. Dustin Hoffman’s film Straight Time is based on Bunker’s book, and the man himself acted in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Bottom Line: Pretty fresh, considering how many times Donner and Willis have been around the block. book, and the man himself acted in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Bottom Line:
Pretty fresh, considering how many times Donner and Willis have
been around the block. |
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Melquiades Estrada’s
Tumultuous Journey Home The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a modern-day western and Tommy Lee Jones’ directorial debut. The native Texan and fluent Spanish speaker went to familiar territory for his first feature. He stars as Pete Perkins, a ranch hand who spends his days working alongside the Mexican migrant workers so many other people in the area, including the plentiful Border Patrol, regard as disposable and anonymous at best, or as pests to be expelled and eradicated at worst. His best friend is Melquiades Estrada, played by Julio Cesar Cedillo, his fellow ranch hand and an illegal Mexican immigrant. Estrada is killed in an unfortunate run in with Barry Pepper’s Mike Norton, a tense Border Patrolman who is new to the area, and who finds himself quickly and regrettably over his head in an unfamiliar culture. Estrada extracted a seemingly hypothetical promise from Perkins to return his body to his native village of Jimenez if he died. Perkins is a man who keeps his promises, and he forces Norton to come with him on the long trek south with Estrada’s body. Guillermo Arriaga, whose previous credits include 21 Grams and Amores Perros, wrote the film. The story is presented to us out of order, but it’s not as aggressively achronological as was 21 Grams. It certainly has its bleak parts – a good half the story follows the travels of a blanket-bound corpse – but it isn’t as bitter and biting as was Amores Perros, one of maybe five movies ever that has made me seek the company of others so I wouldn’t be left alone with the echoes reverberating inside my head after the credits rolled. It demands the raw, emotionally vivid performances from its leads that Arriaga’s other films have, but without being as eviscerating. Jones’ grizzled visage and dense stoicism are well suited for his part as Perkins, a man who demonstrates his feelings only through action, and only when pushed by circumstance (or, on one memorable occasion, Tecate beer). He never says a kind word about Estrada, or a negative one for that matter, but when he’s leading a caravan of horses and a mule across the Mexican desert, as if it’s the most natural reaction in the world to his friend’s death, there’s no question of his devotion. Jones doesn’t say much, but his natural talents play so much to the part that he doesn’t need to. Cedillo appears only in flashbacks and as the model for an increasingly gruesome series of corpses, but even in his limited screen time, he makes us understand precisely why he and Jones’ characters would have been such fast friends. Considering their relationship is seen only through subtitles (unless you’re a more accomplished linguist than I), which alienate the viewer by their very nature, that’s no small feat. Pepper is fine too as a generally good if somewhat base man whose ignorance condemns him to be Jones’ prisoner. His meltdown from befuddled arrogance to a completely destroyed man is marvelous. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a tense, tight story about a man’s journey through one of the last somewhat accepted forms of racism in this country. It’s gruesome in parts, but in ways the story justifies and requires. It shows darker and uglier sides of humanity, but also enough virtues that the film doesn’t shove an imbalanced hopelessness on the audience. And it has an American lead actually speaking another language. Bottom line: engrossing, relevant, and well made. |
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