Hard Way
Itâs easy to forget that before Michael J. Fox went down with the Parkinsonâs, he actually starred in quite a lot of good movies besides just the Back To The Future Trilogy, and this is certainly one of them, an action comedy from 1991, that sees him cast as Nick Lang, a spoiled, whiny movie star who decides to do intense research for an upcoming role as a big-city cop by latching onto a real life NYC cop played hilariously by James Woods. Itâs certainly an inspired teaming with great chemistry, and it also shows what a shame it is that Woods hasnât done more comedic roles in his career, as he is truly hitting it on all his trademark cylinders here, not only saddled with the obnoxious movie star, but also trying to quit smoking and catch up to a thrillseeking serial killer known as The Party Crasher (Stephen Lang). Director John Badham does a good job of spoofing the liberal elite Hollywood lifestyle in the early scenes, as Fox is surrounded by his hangers-on and servants, before going âundercoverâ as Woodsâ partner, where nonetheless he sticks out like a sore thumb as Woods (against his captainâs orders) drags him along on the investigation which includes going to the ghetto to find out how the Crasher gets his custom made weapons, to several shootouts where Fox is ill-equipped to handle the violence whist carrying a rubber gun. As for the villainous Party Crasher, Stephen Lang does a good job with the role, playing a bad guy who has literally invented his own video game with himself as the main character and whose motivation makes him seem like an off-the-wall Boondock Saint, but the script would have done well to at least flesh him out a little more to make the story more well-rounded. In addition, there are a couple of action scenes late in the film that seem sloppily shot and edited, including a confrontation in a parking garage and a shootout in a movie theater showing one of Foxâs action opuses, that makes the viewer feel as if the film is almost holding back when it comes to the violence itself. However, Annabella Sciorra is lovely as Woodsâ girlfriend and there are early roles here for LL Cool J as one of his fellow cops, Delroy Lindo as the captain, a very young Christina Ricci as Sciorraâs daughter, and a blink and youâll miss it subway cameo from Matt Damon. But itâs James Woods here that owns this show, whether beating the crap out of a cigarette machine that has taken his money, to his almost non-stop profanity-laced verbal abuse of the wimpy Hollywood star trying to ingratiate himself into his life, making this movie a must-see for any fans of his as well as being one of the last really good cop buddy comedies of the eraâŚ
8/10