The Hard Way is set in New York where detective John Moss (James Woods) is on the case of a ruthless killer nicknamed the Party Crasher (Stephen Lang) who taunts police as shoots people dead, he phones the police & invites them to watch as he kills people. While chasing the Party Crasher detective Moss is injured & his boss Captain Brix (Delroy Lindo) takes him off the case in order to babysit rich Hollywood action film star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) who is researching a role as a cop poses as Moss' new partner, Moss is horrified at having Lang follow him around as he won't let the Party Crasher case go & drags Lang into it...
Directed by John Badham this action comedy thriller is the second Badham flick I have seen in the space of twenty four hours, I didn't plan it that way but the other was Blue Thunder (1983) & having watched both for the first time I am struck that while they are both decent enough action thrillers neither are particularly great & both feel rather routine. Here in The Hard Way we have the whole mismatched cop partners scenario with average results, a popular but over-crowed genre at the time there are better examples that spring to mind such as Lethal Weapon (1987), Red Heat (1988) & Tango & Cash (1989) to name but three. The difference fans of the film will point to is that Lang is an action film star but for all intents & purposes The Hard Way plays out like a straight cop thriller with little in the way of depth. The two main character's of Moss & Lang are great & equally great performances by Woods & Fox carry the lightweight script & it's them who make this as watchable as it is, the interplay between the two is funny at times & the gradual warming of the character's towards each other works pretty well. However beyond a spirited couple of leads The Hard Way is routine & clichéd, there's the grumpy police captain, the bad guy with a personal vendetta against the hero, the veteran cop & his rookie partner, a love interest & a final confrontation to the death. The Hard Way is also very predictable in the way it unfolds, at over 110 minutes it's maybe a little long, Moss or any other NYPD cop doesn't seem to do any real police-work other than what he wants & the Party Crasher is given virtually no background or motivation other than the excuse he was killing criminals which gets explored with all of one line of dialogue.
There are some funny moments here for sure but maybe not quite enough, Moss screeching through New York shouting profanity as everyone around him or the one to one in a bar with Lang where he pretends to be Moss' girlfriend is also a highlight but beyond the energy & goodwill brought to the film by the two leads (both character's & actor's) there's just not that much here as any sort of plot takes a back seat. While not particularly violent The Hard Way is full of profanity so if you have sensitive ears in that regard be prepared. The action is pretty good but there's not enough of it, there's a couple of car chases & stunts, an explosion at a petrol pump & the final confrontation above Times Square in New York which looks impressive but lacks excitement. Apparently James Woods had his own hairdresser on set at a cost of $6000 a week.
Flopping at the box-office I would suggest the buddy buddy cop film had lost it's appeal somewhat & The Hard Way is a fairly routine example anyway. This has that big budget Hollywood look about it & looks nice enough. The acting by the two leads is great with the always excellent James Woods taking first prize, Fox is very good too while rapper LL Cool J has a small role as a cop.
The Hard Way is a standard mismatched cop action thriller that is made watchable by great performances by it's leading actor's & some pretty funny moments & one-liners but story-wise this is less than average & there's certainly not enough plot here to fill 110 minutes.
Directed by John Badham this action comedy thriller is the second Badham flick I have seen in the space of twenty four hours, I didn't plan it that way but the other was Blue Thunder (1983) & having watched both for the first time I am struck that while they are both decent enough action thrillers neither are particularly great & both feel rather routine. Here in The Hard Way we have the whole mismatched cop partners scenario with average results, a popular but over-crowed genre at the time there are better examples that spring to mind such as Lethal Weapon (1987), Red Heat (1988) & Tango & Cash (1989) to name but three. The difference fans of the film will point to is that Lang is an action film star but for all intents & purposes The Hard Way plays out like a straight cop thriller with little in the way of depth. The two main character's of Moss & Lang are great & equally great performances by Woods & Fox carry the lightweight script & it's them who make this as watchable as it is, the interplay between the two is funny at times & the gradual warming of the character's towards each other works pretty well. However beyond a spirited couple of leads The Hard Way is routine & clichéd, there's the grumpy police captain, the bad guy with a personal vendetta against the hero, the veteran cop & his rookie partner, a love interest & a final confrontation to the death. The Hard Way is also very predictable in the way it unfolds, at over 110 minutes it's maybe a little long, Moss or any other NYPD cop doesn't seem to do any real police-work other than what he wants & the Party Crasher is given virtually no background or motivation other than the excuse he was killing criminals which gets explored with all of one line of dialogue.
There are some funny moments here for sure but maybe not quite enough, Moss screeching through New York shouting profanity as everyone around him or the one to one in a bar with Lang where he pretends to be Moss' girlfriend is also a highlight but beyond the energy & goodwill brought to the film by the two leads (both character's & actor's) there's just not that much here as any sort of plot takes a back seat. While not particularly violent The Hard Way is full of profanity so if you have sensitive ears in that regard be prepared. The action is pretty good but there's not enough of it, there's a couple of car chases & stunts, an explosion at a petrol pump & the final confrontation above Times Square in New York which looks impressive but lacks excitement. Apparently James Woods had his own hairdresser on set at a cost of $6000 a week.
Flopping at the box-office I would suggest the buddy buddy cop film had lost it's appeal somewhat & The Hard Way is a fairly routine example anyway. This has that big budget Hollywood look about it & looks nice enough. The acting by the two leads is great with the always excellent James Woods taking first prize, Fox is very good too while rapper LL Cool J has a small role as a cop.
The Hard Way is a standard mismatched cop action thriller that is made watchable by great performances by it's leading actor's & some pretty funny moments & one-liners but story-wise this is less than average & there's certainly not enough plot here to fill 110 minutes.