DotTheEyes
Movie Fan
This was a film I always planned on renting. I had seen the trailer and TV ads and thought it seemed good, but not good enough to see in theatres. Anyways, I rented/watched it yesterday.
Overall, it's one of those movies which falls into the Not Great, But Not Bad Either crevice. If you've ever seen a Bruce Willis action-thriller before, you know what to expect. Here, he plays a burnt-out NYPD cop who is given the unenviable assingment of transporting a low-level felon (Mos Def) from jail to a nearby courthouse (the distance between thw two is... just read the title!). Anywho, everything goes wrong... of course. It turns out the felon is set to testify against a team of corrupt cops and they're all out on the streets trying to stop him from reaching court. Now, Willis' cynical, hard-bitten, and tired cop and Def's loud-mothed, one-liner-dispensing hoodlum must join forces to survive.
As directed by Richard Donner (a veteran with Lethal Weapon, Superman, and Timeline on his filmography), this is an entertaining, but very unoriginal film. From the first shot to last, everything is rather old-fashioned and by-the-numbers. This doesn't mean, though, it's an awful film. It's not. There's plenty of exciting action and Willis and David Morse (as the villian) are both great (Def could have been good, if it wasn't for this ANNOYING accent he throws on for this role). It's just the type of film you enjoy for it's running time and then forget most the details of by the time you're pouring cereal the next morning. If you can accept this (and are a fan of Willis and cop thrillers), I'd say give it a rent.
Overall, it's one of those movies which falls into the Not Great, But Not Bad Either crevice. If you've ever seen a Bruce Willis action-thriller before, you know what to expect. Here, he plays a burnt-out NYPD cop who is given the unenviable assingment of transporting a low-level felon (Mos Def) from jail to a nearby courthouse (the distance between thw two is... just read the title!). Anywho, everything goes wrong... of course. It turns out the felon is set to testify against a team of corrupt cops and they're all out on the streets trying to stop him from reaching court. Now, Willis' cynical, hard-bitten, and tired cop and Def's loud-mothed, one-liner-dispensing hoodlum must join forces to survive.
As directed by Richard Donner (a veteran with Lethal Weapon, Superman, and Timeline on his filmography), this is an entertaining, but very unoriginal film. From the first shot to last, everything is rather old-fashioned and by-the-numbers. This doesn't mean, though, it's an awful film. It's not. There's plenty of exciting action and Willis and David Morse (as the villian) are both great (Def could have been good, if it wasn't for this ANNOYING accent he throws on for this role). It's just the type of film you enjoy for it's running time and then forget most the details of by the time you're pouring cereal the next morning. If you can accept this (and are a fan of Willis and cop thrillers), I'd say give it a rent.
I didn't like seeing Willis so "down and out" looking, but it's worth a watch and it actually had an ending. I hate movies where they just stop writing.