Striking Distance ** (1993, Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, John Mahoney) – Classic Movie Review 6660

Bruce Willis stars in co-writer/ director Rowdy Herrington’s dreary, by-the-numbers 1993 action thriller as a Pittsburg homicide detective called Tom Hardy who is busted down to river rescue cop after his father is killed in the opening car chase and Willis publicly accuses the police department of a cover-up.

Sarah Jessica Parker teams with him as his riverboat and bedtime partner Jo Christman, who helps him to solve the case of a serial killer bumping off all of Willis’s ex-girlfriends and chucking their bodies in the river for him to find. Naturally Parker is the next intended victim. All too evidently, the moral is that it is best not to mix business with pleasure!

This fairly ordinary, borderline poor premise never amounts to anything very much, though some of the action is energetically staged by the expert Herrington. The characterisations are cardboard and Parker has a particularly rotten time trying to breathe life into a most improbable relationship at the core of a mundanely written screenplay (by Herrington and Martin [Marty] Kaplan) with unconvincing scenes and plot development.

The revelation of the villain and the denouement are frankly ridiculous, and there are several chases and new climaxes too many. Willis, who thrives best and is best served if he has an intentionally funny script, looks tired of the project and can do much better with the kind of tightly written story and decent dialogue that he deserves.

Unusually, even some of the character acting is very ordinary, though the production (Arnon Milchan) editing, cinematography (by Mac Ahlberg), score (Brad Fiedel) and stunts are extremely smooth.

With a good star and this great Pittsburg river setting, why does it all have to be so mediocre?

Also in the cast are Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Brion James, Robert Pastorelli, Timothy Burfield, John Mahoney as Lieutenant Vince Hardy, Andre Braugher and Jodi Long.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6660

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John Mahoney plays Lieutenant Vince Hardy.