RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

jessegehrig Oh, its not very good, but its also not so bad. Yes, entertaining, no not really funny or exciting though and its billed as an action/comedy. The movie is full of skilled actors and Michael J. Fox, that formula has worked in the past, hey maybe it even worked this time around but don't ask me, or I guess you are kinda asking hence the review. John Badham is not a good director, he tells stories poorly. With the movie The Hard Way, Badham is given a story that has no life, he tells a crap story and he tells that crap story for crap. Every joke is telegraphed long before it plays out, no characters are ever in any real danger, and no words spoken are very memorable. Hey, The Hard Way is better than Lethal Weapon 3, or The Last Action Hero, or Red Dawn both original and the remake. That's gotta count for something right?

Scott LeBrun The buddy-cop action movie certainly has been a staple in cinema for a while now. And the makers of this film know that the success lies in a successful clash of well-defined personalities. That's the appeal of this long, loud, silly, over the top, but very fun slick picture from mainstream action specialist John Badham ("Stakeout", etc.). It's got some hilarious lines (the script is by Daniel Pyne and Lem Dobbs, based on a story by Dobbs and Michael Kozoll) perfectly delivered by its well cast stars.James Woods is John Moss, a hard charging, volatile NYC detective hot on the trail of utterly deranged serial killer The Party Crasher (Stephen Lang), who kills innocent children and lowlife criminals with equal fervor. The already ill-tempered Moss has his patience tested even further when he's ordered to chaperone a spoiled-brat Hollywood star, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox), who wants to do research for a role he covets and has decided that Moss will provide the perfect inspiration.The high strung Woods and the endearingly annoying Fox are an ideal pairing; they're both perfectly cast. They're supported by a rich lineup of top character players. Annabella Sciorra is absolutely lovely as Moss' frustrated potential girlfriend. Lang is a riot as the unhinged villain; wait until you get a load of the kinds of things he does. Delroy Lindo is Moss' starstruck boss, and Luis Guzman, LL Cool J, Mary Mara and John Capodice play his colleagues. A young Christina Ricci is amusing as Sciorra's daughter. Penny Marshall has a fun cameo as Langs' agent.As Nick notices, Moss is a very quotable guy, such as when he's lecturing the naive Nick on what being a *real* cop is like. "We don't get 17 takes to get it right!" But it's also a hoot to see a pampered, naive person like Nick get plunged into the realities of life on the streets of NYC. Another of the highlights is when Nick insists on playing the part of Susan as he attempts to tell Moss what he's doing wrong with his lady.It all culminates in one of those great movie moments where our heroes are doing battle with the psycho on an enormous replication of Nick's head and hand, created to advertise his latest film vehicle.Highly recommended to action-comedy fans.Eight out of 10.

MBunge Buddy cop movies got a bad reputation coming out of the 1980s. It's not entirely undeserved because there were so many bad ones, but there were so many bad ones made because it's a formula that can be endlessly tweaked to produce some really entertaining flicks. There's no better example of that than The Hard Way, which switches around a few ingredients to create one of the better and funnier buddy cop duos you'll ever see. Sadly, that dynamic is undone by the extended, self-negating conclusion of this film. This is a story about "X" that becomes so completely "not X" at the end, it's hard to believe.Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods) is a New York City detective on the trail of an insane killer known as the Party Crasher (Stephen Lang). Moss is also one of the most seething, irritated men in the world, something that's not at all helped when movie star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) decides Moss is exactly the sort of example he needs to follow to land a coveted dramatic role. After he gets banged up while trying to apprehend the Party Crasher, Moss is assigned to shepherd Lang around town and show him what a real cop's life is like. Well, Moss decides he's not going to let this pampered Hollywood pretender get in the way of his investigation and Lang decides he's not going to let Moss barrage of indifference and rage keep him from getting the inspiration he needs. Throw in Moss' sort-of girlfriend (Anabella Sciorra) who finds Moss shutting her out, while his new "partner" is more like the kind of man she wants, and you've got the basics of The Hard Way.While director John Badham does a nice job creating the street life of New York on screen and Stephen Lang and Anabella Sciorra are very good in their by-the-numbers roles, there's no question that it's Woods and Fox who make this movie worth watching. Their scenes together are outstanding, with Woods playing up the rawness of reality as much as he can and Fox perfectly projecting the sheltered attitude and experience of the rich and famous. Making it even more enjoyable are how different facets of that relationship are suggested or referenced. On the one hand, Moss' closed off and solitary nature represents a sort of integrity against the prying, voracious culture embodied by Lang's attention. Lang essentially wants to steal parts of Moss' personality and existence for his own use and Moss bristles at that. On the other hand, Moss' refusal to let people into his life is also portrayed as a sort of selfish, self-destructive quality that pales in comparison to Lang's more open and expressive nature. For all of Lang's pretensions, he is in many ways a more functional human being than Moss. Combine that sort of nuance with the crackerjack performances of Woods and Fox and the first, say, two-thirds of The Hard Way is a very good film.Unfortunately, that last third founders very badly. The contrast between Moss' supposed real world and the fakeness of Hollywood is the animating concept of just about everything in The Hard Way. But Moss isn't a real cop and he doesn't live a real cop's life. It's a Hollywood version that is both sanitized and more exciting than the real thing. So, the story is built on a contrast that the filmmakers either can't or don't want to sustain. The result is this motion picture has three successive endings that are each more exaggerated and more Hollywood-like than the one before. It eventually concludes with Moss and Lang fighting the Party Crasher atop a giant recreation of Lang's head on a billboard over Times Square. It is a scene as over-the-top and ridiculous as any of the scenes from Nick Lang's movies that are mocked throughout this film.There's nothing all that wrong with the triple-ending of The Hard Way. It just clashes so starkly and severely with the tone and intention of the rest. Imagine Schindler's List ending with the "Springtime for Hitler" musical number from The Producers. And although Fox is great in his own right, the role of Nick Lang cries out for an actual 80s action hero to spoof his own image, instead of a comedic actor trying to create the same impression.The Hard Way is one of those motion pictures that just goes wrong and the more you love it at the start, the more disappointed you'll be at the finish. The good is good enough to make it work a look, as long as you don't let your hopes get too high.

gcd70 Good action-comedy from veteran director John Badham, a man who usually delivers. James Woods and Michael J. Fox are in good form as angry cop and spoiled movie star respectively.Nick Lang (Fox) decides he wants to do serious movie roles, and works side by side with cop Woods to try and get a feel for life as a New York cop. The pair work very well together (surprisingly), and there are some genuinely funny moments, including some great one-liners and sarcastic humour from James Woods."The Hard Way" never gets too serious, and is good, if light, entertainment.Friday, June 28, 1991 - Greater Union Melbourne