The Hard Way ** (1991, Michael J Fox, James Woods, Stephen Lang) – Classic Movie Review 10,212

Director John Badham ‘s contrived 1991 The Hard Way stars Michael J Fox, playing famous Hollywood action star actor Nick Lang, who joins the police to see life as it really is, and joins forces with James Woods as a hard cop, the reluctant New York City policeman Lieutenant John Moss. It is obvious that the mixed-matched duo are not going to get along very well, and meanwhile the cop has to catch a coldblooded killer.

Director John Badham turns this ordinary idea into an unsparkling comedy thriller, complete with a caricatured killer, an unbelievable plot and feeble raids on the work of Alfred Hitchcock.

Woods is not at his best as a Keystone cop and Fox hardly convinces as an actor. There are some fair stunts, explosions and a climactic cliffhanger, but it is film-making by numbers from the low-aiming maker of Bird on a Wire and WarGames.

Also in the cast are Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra, Penny Marshall, John Capodice, Luis Guzman, LL Cool J, Karen Lynn Gorney, Christina Ricci, Mary Mara, Delroy Lindo, and Bill Cobbs.

It is written by Daniel Pyne and Lem Dobbs, from a story by Lem Dobbs and Michael Kozoll.

The score is by WarGames composer Arthur B Rubinstein, who died at 80 in April 2018.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,212

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