Starring: Bruce Willis, Mos Def

5 out of 10 stars: There's a sturdy tale about a worn-out New York City cop who finds redemption in the movie 16 Blocks; unfortunately, Bruce Willis's latest take on a man-in-decline is reduced in its effect by an unwelcome surprise -- Mos Def's annoying, actorly performance as petty crook Eddie Bunker. Nothing in the initial set-up here indicates that an ill-conceived character will bring the movie down, but Eddie is one of the most discordant good guys in recent memory, a man who almost made me root for the crooked cops and alienated me from the movie as a whole.

Looking the worst he's ever appeared on screen, Willis lets detective Jack Mosley's body tell his story. His terrible mustache nearly eclipses his ruddy complexion, bloodshot eyes, shaky hands, and formidable paunch. Straight away it's apparent that Jack's seen it all during his tenure with the NYPD, and now he cares about little of it. When he's asked to escort Eddie to a downtown courtroom, we know all Jack really wants to do is clock out and get loaded in the early hours of the morning. Here, Willis is a toned-down hero who takes a chance by appearing past his prime; Def also goes out on a limb, but his decision to pair Eddie's motormouth delivery with a nasal whine is one of the illest choices he's made since going rock & roll on his second solo record. (And I mean "ill" in a bad way.) You can't ignore the guy, as he chatters through nearly every scene, and he's instrumental in helping Jack find the light at the end of a dark career. Perhaps director Richard Donner and screenwriter Richard Wenk could've gone Lethal Weapon 2 with their design: have a pair of aged cops and make Eddie a sort of new-school Leo Getz. That might have been tolerable.

The premise is simple: Jack is told he must get Eddie to a courtroom by 10:00 a.m. so he can testify before a grand jury. It's 8:00 a.m., we know how many blocks the courthouse is from the precinct, and traffic in Manhattan is strangely light given the time of day. 15 minutes from now, Jack will begin to learn that whatever Eddie witnessed is of terrible import, as there's an attempt on his life in broad daylight. Now on foot (did I tell you Jack also has a bum leg?), Jack finds a temporary safe house in one of his favorite bars, yet the arrival of his former partner (David Morse) and his heavies further triggers his survival instincts. Jack learns that Eddie saw a bad cop doing some bad things, and his testimony will set in motion events that will take down a handful of the city's finest. The stand-off between Willis and Morse is one of the movie's best moments, and the pair will again match wits in a well-executed subterranean chase/shoot-out sequence. Up until this point, the sepia-toned action is engaging and seeing all these characters at crossroads with themselves and one another makes for solid B-movie entertainment.

But when the action goes from four legs back to four wheels (Jack hijacks a bus, a development which is teased in the opening scene) things pretty much go down hill, save the requisite third-act twist which brings Jack's awakening full circle. Jack's isolation is what I hooked into, and I was left wanting more of it. Instead, I found myself watching a buddy movie with two stars unable to catch a spark off of one another. And to think I first considered that Bruce Willis and Mos Def might almost have too much chemistry. I'd say roughly 8 blocks into things, I wanted out, and every minute that followed certainly felt like "real time" was expiring.