I still believe that Bruce Willis is one of moviedom's most under-appreciated actors. Yes, he works a lot and makes millions doing it, but as he moves through his career, he just gets more impressive in his performances. I thought his work in Hostage was magnificent but here he's even better, especially early on the film, when he's tired and sore; at the start of 16 Blocks, Willis--who's portrayed some of the most macho characters in films over the last 15 or so years--is almost unrecognizable. He's old, all of a sudden, and got this little pot belly that probably came from his character's heavy drinking. But it's not just the make-up job and a (I assume) prosthetic gut, but his entire demeanor. At one point, when another character asks him an annoying riddle, he snaps, "Life's too long and you make it seem even longer." It's the perfect mantra for his character, and we believe it--that the character is done living and can't wait for it all to end--because of Willis' performance. The rest of the film is an amazing ride, sort of Die Hard meets The Odyssey. The plot simple: Willis's character, Jack Mosley, the tired cop even more tired after a night's work sitting in an apartment where some drug dealers have been killed and waiting with the stiffs until the medical examiner can get there, has one more chore to take care of before he can knock off and go home--most likely to drink himself to sleep. His job: transport a witness, Eddie Bunker (Mos Def, in an amazing performance) 16 blocks from the jail cell where he's been held to the courthouse where the witness is to testify before a grand jury probe of a crooked cop. There's a deadline (of course there's a deadline); Willis has to get him there in less than two hours. The simple transport job gets more complicated when it turns out that people want the witness dead before he can testify--and those people are cops, led by Mosely's former partner, Frank Nugent (David Morse, who--as he always does--turns in a riveting performance that's marvelously restrained). The scriptwriter, Richard Wenk, really knows how to structure an effective film as, once the chase begins, the film doesn't let up until nearly the end: time after time, you wonder: how's he going to get out of this? Okay, he miraculously got out of that last mess, but he can't possibly get out of this mess, can he? The only reason I give this film a nine instead of a ten is because there is one moment, late in the film, when the film uses a kind of tired trick on the audience; in case you're not as cynical as I am, I won't reveal what that moment is--but you'll recognize it just as soon as the moment begins to unfold. Sitting in the theater, I recognized exactly what was going on as it was going on and I felt annoyed more than anxious for Mosley and Bunker. That may be a small quibble, but it's enough to keep this film from earning the perfect score.