Bruce
Willis is a booze-addled cop trying to protect a witness (Mos Def) in this
fairly intelligent thriller set in Manhattan.
Bruce Willis is a booze-addled,
sleep-deprived cop who gets a chance to redeem himself when someone tries to
kill a witness he’s escorting to the courthouse. Mos Def, as the witness,
adopts what must be the most irritating voice since Philip Seymour Hoffman’s
Truman Capote, but, like Hoffman, he’s interesting. The witness needs to
testify by ten, so the usual formula would be that at 9:59, Bruce, having blown
up half of Manhattan in the chase, shoots the bad guy, who has idiotically
whipped out a rifle instead of surrendering to police, and whisks Mos (Mr.
Def?) into the room with one second to spare. I suppose some people will be
disappointed not to see that. Director Richard Donner gives the proceedings
some of the qualities of his Lethal Weapon--a mismatched black-white duo
(Mos Def is the optimistic one), a mix of suspense, action, and
character-driven humor, though less of that. Willis gives a nice, low-key
performance, and David Morse is good as his former partner, even if his
character’s pretty standard issue. This one probably won’t win any awards, but
as 2006’s first decent Hollywood thriller, it’s worth a look.
posted 9/9/13
