All he wanted to do was go home and get a drink. But at 8:02 a.m., hungover NYPD detective Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is assigned a seemingly simple task. Petty criminal Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) is set to testify before a grand jury at 10:00 a.m. and needs to be taken from lock-up to the courthouse, 16 blocks away. It should take Jack 15 minutes to drop him off at the courthouse and get home. But when assassins try to take Eddie out, Jack realizes there's more to this assignment than he'd anticipated and he calls for backup. Homicide detective Frank Nugent (David Morse) and his team are first to arrive at the scene. Eddie suddenly goes pale-–one of the detectives on Nugent’s team is the man he is supposed to testify against. In an instant, Jack’s quickie trip downtown turns into the nightmare of a lifetime: the criminals that want Eddie dead are actually cops.

Intense. That is the one word that seems to fit the movie the best because the movie comes at you almost like a freight train rumbling up to speed and then going out of control as it crashes into you head-on full speed. The movie is relentless, the action keeps building and the drama keeps intensifying and it makes for a movie that was very enjoyable and highly entertaining. There isn’t a lot of depth to the movie, there is no real surprises even if the movie does attempt to throw a few at you, heck it even attempts a moral that we can all change but the movie isn’t about that it’s a much simpler tale told in an intense gun fighting kind of way.

The movie is simply about a man who once knew why he did his job and is no longer sure why he is a cop anymore who now must make a choice, the easy way is to just give Eddie heck he’s a petty thief that looks to always remain a thief or for once to do the right thing and try and get Eddie to court. That’s where all the action comes in, the closer they get the harder it gets, the other side is as or more determined to make sure Eddie doesn’t arrive than Jack who isn’t sure if it’s worth all the trouble. It makes for a very intense and tense feel to the entire movie like the whole thing is skating on a razors edge ready to tumble either way and you as the audience pretty much know which way the cookie is going to crumble and know who is eventually going to win still find yourself doubting as the movie dances along which is a great testament to the director and which is why the movie is very good and highly enjoyable.

I normally don’t like singers or rappers who are trying to turn actor, there is a reason they are singers and not actors and that is because normally they can’t act and they shouldn’t try to. But this is the second movie I have thoroughly enjoyed Mos Def in with last years Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy being the first. He literally steals the movie, Bruce Willis plays his normal and very believable down on his luck, alcoholic burnt out detective role but it is Mos Def that makes the movie. He literally never shuts up in the movie and his constant blathering provides a great backdrop to the movie and lets the audience know where everything stands and what is going on amidst gun fights and intense action sequences. It also makes for a memorable character the kind of character that you take from the movie the kind you remember long after the movie is over. Bruce Willis holds his own but his character is one you have seen numerous times and one he himself has done a number of times, it is Eddie that will stand out in your memory not Jack. So I take my hat off to him and would support him doing another movie while on the other hand I would like to see every wannabe singer/actor quit making a travesty out of Hollywood. The movie is made by Mos Def and will be remembered because of him and is a fun, intense, action movie that is great for a rainy or slow movie going day.

Grade: B