Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.
Well, here's one of those generic thrillers they shoot here on a regular basis. 16 Blocks probably looked good on paper, but it's mostly a good example of a two-star flick coming to town to save a few bucks. To its credit, they shot enough footage in New York—and used Toronto sparingly enough—that you almost wouldn't recognize our fair streets. Almost.
Since so much was (apparently) shot in New York, where the story takes place, there aren't any grand give-away shots of Toronto. A good example is this set piece, where the baddies come hard at target Mos Def until he's saved by Bruce Willis (playing the drunk cop who will be redeemed before it's all over).
See, Bruno heads into this convenience store, which looks like it might be in Manhattan. In fact, it's a dressed-up Temperance Street. You get a good view of it in the following shots as he realizes what's going on, and the camera does a lovely little 360...
...and you can even see the Flight Centre on the corner of Bay Street.
Some of the sequence was grabbed nearby on the equally narrow Colborne Street. This split-second shot shows the awning of the Comospolitan Hotel on the left.
...And isn't that a Motophoto out the car window? It's hard to say for sure, but it's like the one at Scotiabank Plaza.
Also very easy to disguise are alleyways, and they use a good one here. This was shot in O'Keefe Lane, a grungy strip that runs parallel to Yonge across from the Eaton Centre. It was also used in Johnny Mnemonic, and you may have walked through it during last year's Nuit Blanche when it was transformed into Domaine De L'Angle #2. (Despite being a sad, dumpster-filled alley it actually has a second name, becoming St. Enoch's Square south of Shuter Street. St. Enoch might want to get a better PR firm...)
We usually see Lower Bay Station tricked out as some empty, creepy, post-apocalyptic train station, which makes it almost unspottable here. Only if you're looking for it (or if you know what the actual Canal Street station looks like) would you spot it here.
That subway car doesn't look like a standard New York vehicle either.
See, Bruce Willis is a dirtyish cop, but he's not as dirty as these other cops, and he's trying to make sure they don't get to Mos Def before Willis can get him (across sixteen blocks, natch), so that Mos can tell on the dirty cops.
And that all brings them, finally, to a courthouse lobby. And, hey, ain't that our courthouse lobby? Sho' nuff, it's the main floor of Old City Hall.
They also did a bit of location work in the Junction Gardens and Parkdale neighbourhoods, and that about does it for this one.
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There is a scene in this movie also where they are sitting in a bar with a big window, and the 501 Queen streetcar goes by in the background. I think it was somewhere in Leslieville
I remember the shooting for this film... I was working down @ Queen & Bay back then and it seemed like the "chaos" on Temperence Street would never end.
I tried watching this movie, but couldn't get past the first 20 minutes. Did it get better? I generally like Mos Def, but I couldn't stand that voice he was using in his roll.
Actually, you have the wrong Canal Street station. They were going for the local Broadway BMT one which has a similar tile mosaic as the movie still shows, but not on the pillars, which are just standard beams.
You could also look at "The Corruptor" with Yun Fat Chow and Mark Wahlberg for shots of O'Keefe Lane and St. Enoch's Square. They turned it into a New York City Chinatown scene.