The Hard Way

Directed by John Badham, The Hard Way follows grizzled cop John Moss (James Woods) as he reluctantly agrees to allow a pampered Hollywood star (Michael J. Fox’s Nick Lang) to tag along with him on the job for a few days – with complications ensuing as John and Nick find themselves drawing closer and closer to a vicious serial killer (Stephen Lang’s Party Crasher). It’s a high concept premise that’s employed to somewhat bloated yet predominantly entertaining effect by Badham, as the filmmaker does an effective job of balancing the comedic and action-oriented elements within Daniel Pyne and Lem Dobbs’ screenplay. The movie, which generally progresses at a blistering pace, is consequently chock-a-block with funny, exciting sequences, and it remains clear, certainly, that the ample chemistry between Woods and Fox plays a key role in cementing The Hard Way‘s success. And although there are a few palpable lulls within the narrative (and Lang’s over-the-top villain is developed in only the most cursory sense), The Hard Way climaxes with a fairly engrossing finale that ultimately does cement its place as an above-average buddy-cop thriller.

*** out of ****