(USA) After sitting for almost two years in the editing room, Mikael (1408) Håfström’s troubled, multi-lingual spy-drama starring a bevy of Hollywood and Chinese/Hong Kong cinema heavyweights still looks like a hackneyed piece of work. Sure, the irresistible Gong Li puts up quite a show as a Chinese gangster’s wife working for the Resistance party in late 1941 Shanghai, but most of the cast fail to rise above the film’s overstuffed plot and convolutions.
16 Blocks is a formulaic cop movie.There’s probably nothing in 16 Blocks you haven’t seen before: A drunk cop, crooked higher-ups, questionable subject matter, and more twists and turns than a runaway minibus ride. Yet this Speed-meets-Infernal Affairs film is still fine, high-tension entertainment if you’re in need of a quick fix.
