Plantiana
Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Wyatt
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
buddyboy28
You often hear stories about actors spending some time with the actual people who do the job that they're going to be portraying on screen. If a movie star is going to play a cop in a role, they might ride around with the police for a few days to get a sense of their traits and experiences. Well this comedy takes that concept to the extreme and plays it purely for laughs.Michael J.Fox plays an Hollywood,pampered movie star of Indiana Jones type action movies who is sick of been labelled as a family oriented actor and wants to play meatier roles. He plans on playing a cop in a gritty new film, and in order to do some research, he is teamed up with New York's angriest, most unsociable detective James Woods. But he's on the trail of a psychotic serial killer and doesn't intend to let Fox get in the way.The plot isn't important here. It's the hilarious banter and excellent chemistry between the two lead stars that makes the film so much fun, while director John Badham milks the concept for all it's worth. He plays around with the cop movie conventions and bites the hand that feeds him with lots of swipes at Hollywood, before the likes of Last Action Hero, Showtime, and Hollywood Homicide got in on the act.The production design is terrific throughout and is as good as you could hope for what is essentially just an action comedy. Badham clearly put a lot of thought into his locations. The New York city streets in the film are crowded, dirty, and gritty looking,to further contrast Fox's Beverley Hills lifestyle.The stunts are impressive, and as the film goes on, the action sequences become more and more over the top, which suits the film because it puts Fox and Woods into situations similar to Fox's character's movies. The mayhem climaxes with a fun homage to North By Northwest. A great action comedy,and Fox and Woods set this apart from the usual buddy cop movies from the 80's and 90's. Loved it.
az95
At my house, our summers have of late tended to turn into extended Michael J Fox marathons; last summer it was Family Ties on Netflix, and this summer is shaping up to be the summer of his obscure comedies. My mom knows we love MJF, so while grocery shopping, she picked up a four-movie DVD she found on a clearance rack, and one of the movies happened to be The Hard Way. I only watched it because my little sister asked me to, and I even brought my phone in the room in case I got bored (because that's what happened when she made me watch Midnight Madness, another little-known Fox film, his first role, actually). However, I never picked up my phone once! The film started out strong, with our first glimpse at the "party crasher," played with manic and slightly terrifying believability by Stephen Lang, and a joke involving Shakespeare plays that immediately got me hooked. Stephen Lang wasn't the only good actor in this movie; surprisingly, the whole thing was earnestly acted and nobody really bordered on cheesy, like they do in most bad comedies from that era. Michael J Fox was endearing- as usual- as the naive movie star shadowing a cop for a role, and even when he had emotionally difficult scenes, he never came off as cheesy (like he occasionally did in Family Ties). And James Woods was especially great as the love-stricken, NYPD cop. I'm usually very picky when it comes to movies- especially comedies- but I enjoyed this. If you're a Fox fan, definitely don't miss it!
Paul Andrews
The Hard Way is set in New York where detective John Moss (James Woods) is on the case of a ruthless killer nicknamed the Party Crasher (Stephen Lang) who taunts police as shoots people dead, he phones the police & invites them to watch as he kills people. While chasing the Party Crasher detective Moss is injured & his boss Captain Brix (Delroy Lindo) takes him off the case in order to babysit rich Hollywood action film star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) who is researching a role as a cop poses as Moss' new partner, Moss is horrified at having Lang follow him around as he won't let the Party Crasher case go & drags Lang into it...Directed by John Badham this action comedy thriller is the second Badham flick I have seen in the space of twenty four hours, I didn't plan it that way but the other was Blue Thunder (1983) & having watched both for the first time I am struck that while they are both decent enough action thrillers neither are particularly great & both feel rather routine. Here in The Hard Way we have the whole mismatched cop partners scenario with average results, a popular but over-crowed genre at the time there are better examples that spring to mind such as Lethal Weapon (1987), Red Heat (1988) & Tango & Cash (1989) to name but three. The difference fans of the film will point to is that Lang is an action film star but for all intents & purposes The Hard Way plays out like a straight cop thriller with little in the way of depth. The two main character's of Moss & Lang are great & equally great performances by Woods & Fox carry the lightweight script & it's them who make this as watchable as it is, the interplay between the two is funny at times & the gradual warming of the character's towards each other works pretty well. However beyond a spirited couple of leads The Hard Way is routine & clichéd, there's the grumpy police captain, the bad guy with a personal vendetta against the hero, the veteran cop & his rookie partner, a love interest & a final confrontation to the death. The Hard Way is also very predictable in the way it unfolds, at over 110 minutes it's maybe a little long, Moss or any other NYPD cop doesn't seem to do any real police-work other than what he wants & the Party Crasher is given virtually no background or motivation other than the excuse he was killing criminals which gets explored with all of one line of dialogue.There are some funny moments here for sure but maybe not quite enough, Moss screeching through New York shouting profanity as everyone around him or the one to one in a bar with Lang where he pretends to be Moss' girlfriend is also a highlight but beyond the energy & goodwill brought to the film by the two leads (both character's & actor's) there's just not that much here as any sort of plot takes a back seat. While not particularly violent The Hard Way is full of profanity so if you have sensitive ears in that regard be prepared. The action is pretty good but there's not enough of it, there's a couple of car chases & stunts, an explosion at a petrol pump & the final confrontation above Times Square in New York which looks impressive but lacks excitement. Apparently James Woods had his own hairdresser on set at a cost of $6000 a week.Flopping at the box-office I would suggest the buddy buddy cop film had lost it's appeal somewhat & The Hard Way is a fairly routine example anyway. This has that big budget Hollywood look about it & looks nice enough. The acting by the two leads is great with the always excellent James Woods taking first prize, Fox is very good too while rapper LL Cool J has a small role as a cop.The Hard Way is a standard mismatched cop action thriller that is made watchable by great performances by it's leading actor's & some pretty funny moments & one-liners but story-wise this is less than average & there's certainly not enough plot here to fill 110 minutes.
Cinema_Fan
There are buddy cop movies and there are cop buddy movies, then there is John Badham's 1991 The Hard Way. Angst ridden, angry and street wise New York City police Detective Lt. John Moss (James Woods) has forced upon him the ivory towered, naïve and utterly irritating Hollywood star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) to further Lang's research into the life of "how to live the cop's life" for his latest movie.With the added work from writers' Lem Dobbs (Dark City, 1998), Michael Kozoll (First Blood, 1982) and Daniel Pyne (Fracture, 2007) a writing chemistry that works well together, particularly in the hands of John Badham (WarGames, 1983 and Short Circuit, 1986). Bringing these two giants, Woods and Fox, to the silver screen together is by no means an easy task if they are to gel, and this is exactly what has been done. With a chemistry on screen that is a highly intoxicating, humorous, witty and action filled with highly explosive personalities, and what a script too; quick, sharp and fun. This is a fun movie with a capitol "F", seeing Woods and Fox play off each other is simply stunning, it really is a pity that there were no outtakes during the end credits here as we can very plainly see these fine actors enjoying the pleasure of their work.Parodying the parody, The Hard Way is an entertaining spoof movie of street cop reality and movie star elite that when mixed can deliver a hard and soft movie of serious principles set against the whims of entertainment. Along side James Woods and Michael J. Fox we see Luis Guzmán, Karen Lynn Gorney's cameo role, coming back after a fourteen-year hiatus since her last role as Stephanie in John Badham's epic Saturday Night Fever (1977) and a young and delightful Christina Ricci, playing only her second role in her career. Then saving the best till last, we have Stephen Lang as the chilling and narcissistic serial killer The Party Crasher; creepy, very creepy.It is the work of the two leading men that are indelible to this piece, James Woods playing the hyper anxious stress ball trying to capture New York's latest killer and in the mean time trying his best to keep his relationship with New York beauty Annabella Sciorra. However, it is the role of undercover actor playing undercover cop "Ray Casanov", Michael J. Fox here has more than excelled himself and has proved that he is more than capable to being able to use comedy and wit, very refreshing stuff indeed. With the backup of James Woods The Hard Way shows that an oddball pairing makes a surprisingly satisfying arrest.
