After reading about the movie's troubled production, which only lacked actual murders to be as fraught as the movie's plot, I was amazed that "Striking Distance" is even watchable. In fact, it's not bad at all. There's a high bar for plot twists, and it clears that bar with flying colors.
Bruce Willis, as usual, makes the movie worth watching all by himself (even though he practically disowned it later). Sarah Jessica Parker doesn't disappoint, if only because she's not slathered in make-up for a change. The supporting actors could hardly be improved upon: Dennis Farina, Brion James, and far too little of John Mahoney and Andre Braugher.
And no, I'm not forgetting Robert Pastorelli. He is one of two big mistakes that almost sink the film:
Pastorelli seemed to have invaded from another, and much worse, movie. He played Jimmy Detillo, a mentally ill cop, at a constant pitch of hysteria worse than anything I've seen in hospital emergency rooms. Why he wasn't nominated for a Razzie is beyond me. He was certainly worse than John Lithgow ("Cliffhanger"), and even Keanu Reeves, who has no business doing Shakespeare ("Much Ado"). The winner, Woody Harrelson, may have deserved it; I don't know because I have not and never will see "Indecent Proposal," which almost swept the nominations in 1994.
Deadlier than Pastorelli were the decisions to let two scenes drag on long after interest was exhausted. The car chase at the beginning lasts 5:06 minutes, not as long as "The French Connection" at 5:50, but it felt twice that, with none of the vigor or suspense that William Friedkin mastered. Worse, the climactic scene: I don't remember how many times the bad guy seemed to be dead only to surface for another fight, but I think it's more often than "The Terminator," and, again, with nothing like James Cameron's control of tension and suspense.
Bruce Willis, as usual, makes the movie worth watching all by himself (even though he practically disowned it later). Sarah Jessica Parker doesn't disappoint, if only because she's not slathered in make-up for a change. The supporting actors could hardly be improved upon: Dennis Farina, Brion James, and far too little of John Mahoney and Andre Braugher.
And no, I'm not forgetting Robert Pastorelli. He is one of two big mistakes that almost sink the film:
Pastorelli seemed to have invaded from another, and much worse, movie. He played Jimmy Detillo, a mentally ill cop, at a constant pitch of hysteria worse than anything I've seen in hospital emergency rooms. Why he wasn't nominated for a Razzie is beyond me. He was certainly worse than John Lithgow ("Cliffhanger"), and even Keanu Reeves, who has no business doing Shakespeare ("Much Ado"). The winner, Woody Harrelson, may have deserved it; I don't know because I have not and never will see "Indecent Proposal," which almost swept the nominations in 1994.
Deadlier than Pastorelli were the decisions to let two scenes drag on long after interest was exhausted. The car chase at the beginning lasts 5:06 minutes, not as long as "The French Connection" at 5:50, but it felt twice that, with none of the vigor or suspense that William Friedkin mastered. Worse, the climactic scene: I don't remember how many times the bad guy seemed to be dead only to surface for another fight, but I think it's more often than "The Terminator," and, again, with nothing like James Cameron's control of tension and suspense.