BARELY awake and desperate to go home and sleep off a hangover, grizzled NYPD detective Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is far from pleased when he is unexpectedly assigned babysitting duties.

Petty criminal Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) is due to testify at 10am before a grand jury and someone needs to escort him the 16 blocks from lock-up to the courthouse. Jack begrudgingly accepts, and places Eddie in the back of his car for the short 15-minute drive.

Stopping off en route to pick up breakfast (a bottle of liquor), Jack is shell-shocked when two assassins attempt to kill his prisoner.

Jack calls for back up and is relieved when homicide detective Frank Nugent (David Morse) arrives with colleagues Jimmy Mulvey (Cylk Cozart) and Robert Torres (David Zayas).

But then the trouble really begins because Eddie realises that the men he is due to testify against are standing before him.

Unfolding almost in real time, 16 Blocks dusts off the plot of the 1977 Clint Eastwood chase thriller The Gauntlet to play an exhilarating game of cat and mouse on the streets of New York City.

Director Richard Donner orchestrates the action sequences with customary aplomb, including a shoot-out in a low rent apartment block that shows hunters and prey have intelligence as well as firepower.

The banter between the lead players is lively and the relationships well developed, and the couple of plot twists are well concealed if not exactly original, but screenwriter Richard Wenk can't resist a smattering of cheese at the end.

Willis delivers a performance of few words while Mos Def barely pauses for breath during his twittering, running commentary.

Damon Smith