Good entertainment in the ever-popular bad-ass cop/hoodlum buddy genre. I really dug the biker heavies, and the thing with the bus was a masterpiece. I wonder how many old buses they trashed to get that sequence just right? Much like the car chase in "Bullitt"; its the part you remember years after you've forgotten the plot of the film.
Nick Nolte is excellent as the tough but rather dumb cop commuting between mayhem zones in his tired and much abused Cadillac convertible. Most of the western-style action takes place in sleaze-bag honky-tonks and a brothel. Quite effective.
Excellent action throughout but the broken-glass festival at the end is a little overdone. The fake streetcars are very unprofessional. Why spend so much money and effort on some scenes and then blow it on basic glitches like that? Movie audiences DO notice that sort of thing, just like airplane vapor trails in Westerns, so stay on the ball, Hollywood.
Speaking of balls, my favorite scene in this film is the one where Eddie Murphy gets the drop on Nick Nolte with a basketball ! Either Nolte is a very good actor or he really didn't know it was coming. Maybe both. Try doing 20 takes of that scene sometime.
Perennial villain Ed O'Ross (Red Heat, Universal Soldier) is in there as one of the bad cops and duly gets drilled in the finale. Has Ed O'Ross EVER been in a film where he didn't meet a violent end ? The problem is that as soon as you see him, you just know that he's going to be one of the heels.
I liked this film, and it still holds it own pretty well today for a new generation of viewers, despite the autos and clothes now starting to look a little dated.
R. B.
Nick Nolte is excellent as the tough but rather dumb cop commuting between mayhem zones in his tired and much abused Cadillac convertible. Most of the western-style action takes place in sleaze-bag honky-tonks and a brothel. Quite effective.
Excellent action throughout but the broken-glass festival at the end is a little overdone. The fake streetcars are very unprofessional. Why spend so much money and effort on some scenes and then blow it on basic glitches like that? Movie audiences DO notice that sort of thing, just like airplane vapor trails in Westerns, so stay on the ball, Hollywood.
Speaking of balls, my favorite scene in this film is the one where Eddie Murphy gets the drop on Nick Nolte with a basketball ! Either Nolte is a very good actor or he really didn't know it was coming. Maybe both. Try doing 20 takes of that scene sometime.
Perennial villain Ed O'Ross (Red Heat, Universal Soldier) is in there as one of the bad cops and duly gets drilled in the finale. Has Ed O'Ross EVER been in a film where he didn't meet a violent end ? The problem is that as soon as you see him, you just know that he's going to be one of the heels.
I liked this film, and it still holds it own pretty well today for a new generation of viewers, despite the autos and clothes now starting to look a little dated.
R. B.