Compelling ’16 Blocks’ driven by sharp acting

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In theaters

16 BLOCKS, directed by Richard Donner, written by Richard Wenk, 105 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new Richard Donner movie, “16 Blocks,” stars Bruce Willis as Jack Mosley, a washed-up, boozed-up, dried-up New York detective who is so down on himself and on life that he remarks early in the movie that life isn’t too short, it’s “too long.”

Looking at Jack, for whom a bottle never is too far out of reach, there’s no question that he means it. Not since the 1992 comedy “Death Becomes Her” has Willis played a character who looks quite as beaten up as this. Balding, sloppy and overweight, his lined face crisscrossed with gutters of exhaustion and disappointment, Willis’ Jack looks as if death might not just become him, but undo him – and fast.

Not that he’d necessarily mind. The first time we see Jack, he’s hunched over the wheel of a city bus, a bouquet of blood roses is slowly blooming on his shirt, and the cops outside are eager to take him down in a hail of bullets. How did he get here? It’s complicated.

In flashback, the movie dissolves, with Donner and screenwriter Richard Wenk sewing together a simple premise composed of familiar parts: Jack is charged by a superior to take a small-time thug named Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) downtown to court, where Eddie is supposed to take the stand in an effort to give testimony that will implicate a hive of dirty cops.

Thing is, as this movie sees it, cops don’t turn on cops, even if they’ve got the stink of crime all over them. Knowing this, Jack isn’t exactly surprised when he’s confronted by his colleagues – including his former partner, Frank (David Morse) – who believe that the best way to handle Eddie is just to kill him so they all can move on with their lives.

But Jack sees things differently – he rather likes Eddie. And there’s that small part of Jack that hasn’t been numbed by the booze that would like to believe that he’s better than that. And so, when guns are drawn and shots are fired, “16 Blocks” becomes a chase movie in which Jack and Eddie suddenly are on the run. If Jack doesn’t get Eddie to the courthouse on time so he can testify, all will be lost.

What ensues are some compelling old-school thrills, with Donner (“Superman,” “Lethal Weapon”) ramping up the action within the congested streets of lower Manhattan. The film has a tight, claustrophobic feel that is appealing, as are the performances by Willis and Morse, who take to their characters with the sense that each has seen and done things that the comparatively innocent Eddie couldn’t handle.

Perhaps more significant than the movie itself is the idea that we now have arrived at a cultural turning point. Within one week of each other, we have in major theatrical release a movie about corrupt New York cops in “16 Blocks” and a movie about corrupt New Jersey cops in “Running Scared.” It’s as if the shadow of 9-11 no longer is falling upon Hollywood, which not so long ago would have rejected these movies outright, fearing a cultural backlash and the loss of millions had audiences stayed away.

To a great degree they did – neither was a box-office champ, especially “Scared” – but their presence nevertheless indicates that the forward motion isn’t just happening onscreen, but behind the scenes as well.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

PRIME, written and directed by Ben Younger, 105 minutes, rated PG-13.

The romantic comedy “Prime” features neither the prime of Meryl Streep nor the prime of Uma Thurman. So, in spite of its eye-catching title, which promises plenty given the quality of its A-list cast, audiences should forget about seeing either actress achieve the prime of, say, a certain Miss Jean Brodie. As good as Streep and Thurman are here, they have been better elsewhere.

The question at hand really is whether the movie is building toward the prime of writer-director Ben Younger, whose 2000 debut film, “Boiler Room,” channeled Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” in ways that “Prime” channels elements of Norman Jewison’s “Moonstruck” and the middle to late career of Woody Allen.

This is a fine movie, but it’s also a young man’s movie, with confidence occasionally giving itself over to self-indulgence, weaknesses revealing themselves in the forced situations, a beginning that’s oddly uninformed, as if something went missing in the editing bay. But Younger is so good with his actors, their performances become the key to this film’s modest success.

In “Prime,” Streep is Lisa Metzger, a Jewish therapist who finds herself saddled with a mother lode of problems thanks to her professional relationship with Rafi (Thurman), a troubled, 37-year-old divorcee pining for a child before her internal clock blows a fuse.

Complications ensue when Rafi meets David (Bryan Greenburg), a 23-year-old artist with whom she takes an immediate liking when they moon over each other outside a movie theater. A few dates later, a rejuvenated Rafi takes to Lisa’s couch, talking intimately about David, with Lisa approving enthusiastically until she starts to connect the dots, realizing that the man so busy satisfying Rafi emotionally and sexually is her own son, a twist freely revealed in the film’s advertising campaign.

This professional and personal dilemma would like to be the heart of the movie, but really it fades next to the comedy of Streep’s discomfort (she acts with her eyes, the downward turn of her mouth) and Thurman’s heartfelt performance as Rafi, a woman facing mid-life in a city that celebrates youth and courts anonymity at a time when Rafi would prefer the opposite. As for Greenberg, he’s fine here, but interchangeable, and so not the perfect man for the role. Mirroring Younger, you sense his own prime is a ways away.

Grade: B-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at christopher@weekinrewind.com.

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

All-American Girl: Complete Series-C+

Bambi II-B+

Batman Begins-A

Broken Flowers-A-

The Brothers Grimm-D-

The Cave-C-

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-A-

Cinderella Man-A

The Constant Gardener-A-

Cops: Animated Series-B-

Cry Wolf-D

Doom-C+

Dukes of Hazzard-D

Elizabethtown-B-

Flightplan-B-

The Fog (2005)-D

The 40-Year-Old Virgin-A

Good Night, and Good Luck-A-

Guess Who-C+

Happy Endings-C+

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire-B-

A History of Violence-A

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-B-

Howl’s Moving Castle-A-

The Ice Harvest-B-

In Her Shoes-A-

The Interpreter-B+

Into the Blue-C-

The Island-C+

Jarhead-B

Junebug-A

Just Like Heaven-C+

Kingdom of Heaven-B-

Kung Fu Hustle-A

Lady and the Tramp: 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition-A

The Legend of Zorro-C+

Lord of War-C

March of the Penguins-A

Millions-A-

Must Love Dogs-C+

North Country-C

Oliver Twist-B+

Pride & Prejudice-A

Prime-B-

Red Eye-B+

Rent-C-

Saw II-D-

Serenity-A-

Simpsons: Kiss and Tell-B-

The Skeleton Key-B

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith-B+

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride-B+

Transporter 2-B-

Undiscovered-D-

Upside of Anger-B

Valiant-C-

Waiting…-C-

Walk the Line-A-

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit-A

War of the Worlds-B+

The Wedding Crashers: Uncorked-B-

The Wedding Date-B

Wildfire: Season One-C+

Zathura-A-