Insieme per forza

Great banter filled with the excellent angry James Woods as the main cop along side Micheal J. Fox as the inspired actor within actor lol I know how silly that sounds but this a pure fun popcorn flick. Neal Badham is a terrific director & Stephen Lang was great as the Party crasher; all around awesome movie!

The Hard Way is directed by John Badham and collectively written by Lem Dobbs, Michael Kozoll and Daniel Pyne. It stars James Woods, Michael J. Fox, Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra, Luis Guzman, LL Cool J and Delroy Lindo. Music is by Arthur B. Rubinstein and cinematography is by Don McAlpine and Robert Primes.

An action movie star researching a role is allowed to tag along with a hardboiled New York City policeman, who is less than enamoured with his company as he looks to stop the serial killer known as "The Party Crasher".

Given John Badham's CV, The Hard Way looked to be right up his street, his career containing solid if unspectacular buddy buddy action comedy pictures. This is just above average thanks to the Woods and Fox pairing and some nifty dialogue one liners. The concept of a Hollywood star tagging along with a grizzled real copper is smart, but the pic ends up over stuffed, even if the action and comedy - courtesy of some high energy set-pieces - rewards enough to stop tedium setting in.

Lang's maniacal villain is over the top, though he seems to be enjoying himself, while such is the brisk pace for the most part, when it sags into its quieter periods it strains the patience - the blend uneasy. Yet the finale rewards on basic action terms, with suspense intact, to ultimately give us a just above average pic of its type. 6/10

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.

Wildly violent, but hilarious comedy about a showboat-like Hollywood action star (Michael J. Fox) who in order to prepare for his next film, comes to the Big Apple and tags along with a hard-boiled police detective (James Woods) who is desperately determined to nab a notorious killer dubbed "The Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) despite nearly getting himself killed in the process. Fox and Woods certainly make an interesting comedy team. There's no way that this movie could without the presence of a seriously funny actor like Woods to be included in the film. The film has a few great moments including one where the Woods character impolitely asks the captain (Delroy Lindo) to get the Fox character off his back and the film's climax is exciting and makes a great reference to "North by Northwest". It's the "The Odd Couple" meets "Dirty Harry" head-on.

"The Hard Way" is a good old fashioned popcorn flick which gets off to a fast start and keeps moving until the credits roll. Fox plays an Indiana Jones type adventure movie star who goes to NYC to hang with a badass cop (Woods) to learn what being a cop is like and becomes embroiled in a serial killer caper. The well crafted, unpredictable screenplay is chock full of action, comedy, stunts, suspense, light drama, etc. with nary a dull moment to be found. Good not-to-be-taken-seriously Hollywood fun stuff worth a second look for those who saw it a decade ago.