This is a story about a burnt out cop who gets the job of driving a con to the court house to testify 16 blocks away (hence the title). It begins with Bruce Willis's character alone on a bus with all the windows covered with newspaper dictating his last will and testiment into a dictaphone, from there the story winds back and we see how his day turned out this bad. Bruce willis plays detective Jack Mosely a burnt out wreak of a cop who is out of shape with a drinking problem and a dodgy leg he looks as if he is sleep walking through his working day.

He gets lumbered with the seemingly simple task of dropping off Eddie a fast talking thief played by Mos Def at the court house to testify a scant 16 blocks away. The traffic is terrible and along the way Jack stops to get some booze. As he is in the off licence two hit men try to kill Eddie. Jack gets back just in time to save Eddie from the hit men and they then run to a nearby bar to wait for back up. Backup shows up almost two quickly in the shape of Frank (played by David Morse) Jacks ex-partner and a few other cops. It soon becomes apparant that these cops are behind the assisnation attempt on eddie, as he is about to testify against them, and are there to finish the job all jack has to do is turn a blind eye and he can go home. Jack shoots one of the cops in the leg and then escapes with eddie they have 2 hours to make it to the court house or the case will be closed so effectively all the dirty cops have to do is keep them away and they'll have won.

The film that follows is a lot of Bruce Willis and Mos Def running through the back alleys of New York trying to get to the court house, it is apparant that the two characters don't really like each other and its never completely clear why Jack saves Eddie from the cops in the first place but they do come to more of a friendship as the film progresses.

The performances of all the leads are quite good I felt that Bruce Willis burnt out cop was at points a touch too laboured and I occationally found Mos Def's character a touch annoying and the accent he used was a touch perculiar but most of the time he was good as the motor mouth Eddie determined to turn over a new leaf as a baker.

The dirty cops in the film headed up by David Morse are quite good ruthless and desperate they are hunting Eddie to stop him exposing them and are perplexed and angry at Jack for not being on their side and just handing the kid over. The also are trying their hardest to keep the whole situation under wraps from the rest of the police force.

It has some solid action sequences a fair amount of run and gun some vehicle sequences though not many.

All in all a solid action thriller with a bit more going on than the usual mindless stuff a nice fairly uplifting ending

16 Blocks is an interesting film. On seeing the trailer I assumed it was going to be a fairly traditional action film, us vs them, a sipmle plot sprinkled with expensive explosions. The actual film is somewhat different.

The characters seem rather two dimensional when you first see them, a burnt out cop and a fasttalking petty criminal. During the film you learn that they are actaully more than they seem, and they begin to become more like people.

The plot puts Bruce Willis in his traditional role of man against the world, fighting a system that should be working for him but is misinformed. Some of the tactics in use on both sides are clever. The chase between two groups through a bustling, unknowing city is interesting...

The action sequences were well done, with a reasonable amount of realism. The interplay of the two characters is interesting... although they start off with very little reason to like each other, they become good friends through their shared ordeal.

In general, an interesting and entertaining film. It doesn't fit exactly into any specific type (beyond the generic "Action"), and has parts that will appeal to different people in my opinion.