Bruce Willis has done the “cop on the edge” roll so many times, he could have sleep-walked through this part as Jack Mosley, an alcoholic has-been detective with nothing to live for and no one to care. But he delivers, as he always does, an audience-involving performance while fighting to do one job right, getting a felon to court to testify against the misdoings of another police officer.
A couple of things bothered me: The bus scene is reminiscent of a 1977 Clint Eastwood movie, Gauntlet, and the motor-mouth witness (played by Mos Def) mumbles in a way that is hard to understand at times. I am very glad, however, that director Richard Donner chose to re-shoot the ending for theatrical release. The so-called “alternate” ending was what I guessed it would be; the one that was actually used was by far the better of the two and makes this worth watching. Yes, people can change, and so can movie endings.