This was my introduction to James Woods. I was 11 years old when I rented the VHS tape (in brutal pan and scan) and it felt grown-up to watch Michael J. Fox in an adult comedy dropping F-bombs, but I remember being more taken aback by Woods' fast-talking verbosity and heart-warming arrogance, a trait that has become his trademark over the years. Strange how in the 28-ish years since my first viewing I remembered so many lines of dialogue. I can't think of any other movie that has had that effect on me.
Fox plays Nick Lang, a Hollywood big-shot who is facing a crisis of confidence and desperately wants to shadow John Moss, a hard-bitten New York detective to research his potential next big movie. Moss is outraged by the idea, however his boss is a huge Nick Lang fan and forces them to work together to crack a case involving the maniacal "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang, that name again, long before his iconic role in Avatar), a psycho assassin who is systematically wiping out drug dealers at night clubs across the city. As with John Badham's previous movie Stakeout, the tone alternates between dark and comedic without every fully committing to both, instead playing it safe in the middle while occasionally glancing in each direction.
Fox and Woods have excellent chemistry, as their names would suggest, and the dialogue spars between them have perfect fluidity. Fox riffs on his naive but good-natured Marty McFly persona while Woods masks his self-loathing with hard-earned intellectual superiority over everyone else (the man has an IQ of 180, don't ya know). I do wish that the script could have been developed a bit more, alternating and reversing their roles as they imprint on each other and make each other better people. It's there, but as I said, they only superficially build on this.
When I was a kid I had a huge crush on Christina Ricci and suffered the dreadful 1991 Addams Family movie just to see her. She has a small role here as the 10-year-old daughter of Moss's girlfriend who seems wise beyond her years, but she too is underused and not developed.
Of all the buddy/cop movies that came out in this era The Hard Way seems to have fallen by the wayside in the shadow of Lethal Weapon and much lesser comedies such as Rush Hour. If only the script had been allowed to push just two steps further it could have been a legit classic, but is merely an amusing, if well-staged, action comedy with plenty of in-jokes and mild satire.
John Badham, like John Carpenter, prefers his movies to be shot in anamorphic Panavision (the notable exception being Stakeout, ironically his best-looking film) and after suffering many years of horrible pan-and-scan home video releases The Hard Way is finally presented on Blu-ray in 2.35:1 1080p. Shot by veteran cinematographer Donald P. McAlpine, famous for his iconic work on Predator, the movie looks slick and very high-key but there is some noticable print damage in the form of stress lines in some shots. Obviously, Universal did not master their Blu-ray from the OCN but it's still a decent-looking transfer nonetheless and likely the best transfer they are willing to give it.
Fox plays Nick Lang, a Hollywood big-shot who is facing a crisis of confidence and desperately wants to shadow John Moss, a hard-bitten New York detective to research his potential next big movie. Moss is outraged by the idea, however his boss is a huge Nick Lang fan and forces them to work together to crack a case involving the maniacal "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang, that name again, long before his iconic role in Avatar), a psycho assassin who is systematically wiping out drug dealers at night clubs across the city. As with John Badham's previous movie Stakeout, the tone alternates between dark and comedic without every fully committing to both, instead playing it safe in the middle while occasionally glancing in each direction.
Fox and Woods have excellent chemistry, as their names would suggest, and the dialogue spars between them have perfect fluidity. Fox riffs on his naive but good-natured Marty McFly persona while Woods masks his self-loathing with hard-earned intellectual superiority over everyone else (the man has an IQ of 180, don't ya know). I do wish that the script could have been developed a bit more, alternating and reversing their roles as they imprint on each other and make each other better people. It's there, but as I said, they only superficially build on this.
When I was a kid I had a huge crush on Christina Ricci and suffered the dreadful 1991 Addams Family movie just to see her. She has a small role here as the 10-year-old daughter of Moss's girlfriend who seems wise beyond her years, but she too is underused and not developed.
Of all the buddy/cop movies that came out in this era The Hard Way seems to have fallen by the wayside in the shadow of Lethal Weapon and much lesser comedies such as Rush Hour. If only the script had been allowed to push just two steps further it could have been a legit classic, but is merely an amusing, if well-staged, action comedy with plenty of in-jokes and mild satire.
John Badham, like John Carpenter, prefers his movies to be shot in anamorphic Panavision (the notable exception being Stakeout, ironically his best-looking film) and after suffering many years of horrible pan-and-scan home video releases The Hard Way is finally presented on Blu-ray in 2.35:1 1080p. Shot by veteran cinematographer Donald P. McAlpine, famous for his iconic work on Predator, the movie looks slick and very high-key but there is some noticable print damage in the form of stress lines in some shots. Obviously, Universal did not master their Blu-ray from the OCN but it's still a decent-looking transfer nonetheless and likely the best transfer they are willing to give it.