The Hard Way (1991) - Video Rental Chicken Fat

"Don't eat like me, don't sit like me, and do not smoke like me!"

Director

John Badham

Cast

James Woods - Lt. John Moss

Michael J. Fox - Nick Lang

Stephen Lang - The Party Crasher

Annabella Sciorra - Susan

Delroy Lindo - Capt. Brix

LL Cool J - Det. Billy

Luis Guzman - Det. Pooley

The Hard Way starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods is another film from my past. As I mentioned before, I went through a cop movie phase in my mid to late teen years, and into my early 20s.  

It's a movie that's different and original for Michael J. Fox.

I don't remember when exactly I found this movie. I just know it was another video store rental back when I was teenager. 

I had a small list of these kind of police comedies I loved watching such as K-9 with Jim Belushi, Turner & Hooch with Tom Hanks, all the Beverly Hills Cop movies starting with part three and working backwards, and Metro with Eddie Murphy. 

The latter was filmed in San Francisco, which is why I took a special interest in that flick. Incidentally, Beverly Hills Cop III was filmed at Great America theme park in Santa Clara, California - my old stopping ground during my summers. Hence, my affinity for the least popular third movie in that franchise.  Back then, Great America was owned by Paramount Studios and therefore was called "Paramount's Great America." 

Anyways, The Hard Way has stuck with me until now as I write this.

It's a buddy and cop comedy movie about New York Police Lieutenant, John Moss (James Woods), who's investigating a serial killer vigilante who calls himself "the Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang). 

Moss is a closed-off sharp tongued officer with a short fuse. He's in a fairly new relationship with Susan (Annabella Sciorra) whom he's trying to impress. Susan is a single mom trying to find a good man to help raise, and be a positive influence for, her young daughter, Bonnie (Christina Ricci).

His relationship, his job, and his inability to stop the Party Crasher are all that occupy his mind. His unwillingness to open up in his relationship is working against his relationship with Susan. 

Meanwhile in Hollywood, actor Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a spoiled and dissatisfied actor known for his action movie character "Smoking" Joe Gunn who's a mix between Indiana Jones and James Bond.

With a new movie just coming out, "Smoking Gun II," Lang wants to land a new, realistic, grittier role so he'll be taken more seriously as an actor. 

He sees the role of police agent "Ray Casanova" in an upcoming movie "The Good, The Badge, and the Ugly" as the perfect opportunity to accomplish this goal. He believes landing this role will boost his acting status to something more serious, and a way to avoid being typecast.

Lang sees Moss in a news interview on T.V. regarding the Party Crasher during which Moss has an angry outburst and makes an obscene comment.

This is the kind of character Lang wants Casanova to be. Angry. No-nonsense. Quick with the cynical comments and insults. Strong and determined. 

He decides to arrange the opportunity to shadow Moss around in order to study him as an officer in preparation for the role.

He's able to get the NYC Mayor to team him up with Moss. Through Police Captain Brix (Delroy Lindo), he's paired with Moss under the guise of being his "new partner" using the pseudonym Ray Casanova.

Much to Moss's chagrin, looking after Lang means being pulled from the Party Crasher case.

Furious, Moss goes out of his way to make sure Lang understands he doesn't want him around. He even attempt to ditch Lang, defying Brix's orders. On top of all this, he continues to investigate the Party Crasher case. 

James Woods and Michael J. Fox in The Hard Way.

The more Lang tries getting to know Moss, and what makes him the way he is inside and outside, the more irritated and angry Moss is, and tries to lose him.

Susan even turns to Lang for relationship advice because she thinks Lang really is Moss's police partner and surely must know more about him than she does. 

But the more his girlfriend and the Hollywood star familiarize themselves with him, the more Moss struggles with opening up to anyone.

While to story centers on Lang and Moss, we never have a lot of insight into why Moss keeps himself closed off.

In one seen, Lang blatantly asks Moss, "Will you open up? I just want to know what it feels like to be inside your skin."

Moss flies off the handle, and shouts back "I don't want you inside my skin! You understand? It's private! What's in there belongs to me!" 

Even Susan asks him about himself during their date at a pizza place, claiming she's told him everything about herself and Bonnie but he's never told them about himself.

In a hilarious scene where Lang and Moss are talking in pub after Susan snaps at Moss, Lang starts pretending to be Susan in an attempt to help Moss learn how to open up a bit to a woman like Susan. 

Lang as Susan, asks him how "someone so strong and so in charge isn't really comfortable in who he is." 

First Moss isn't comfortable with the question, as would be expected. Then he says that because he's divorced, every time he's serious about a woman, he gets scared. 

That's a good start for the audience in knowing more about Moss's character, but it seems the audience should know more.  

There's so much more room. Further insight would have made the movie better. It could make the audience more sympathetic and relatable to this rough and angry cop. But the audience is limited to this small bit of dialogue. Why does he get scared? What happened when he divorced? Why did he divorce?

Spoiler:

The movie ends with a quick resolve as Moss finally stops the Party Crasher. The end then cuts to Moss, Susan, and Moss's fellow police officers watching the Hollywood premier of Lang's new movie. We know Moss learns to express himself to Susan, and by the end, they're likely married.

Though Moss saves Susan from the Party Crasher in the end, even that's not enough as far as the audience's understanding of him.

Still The Hard Way is a fun, hilarious movie. There's great chemistry between Woods and Fox. Watching them work off of each other is entertaining. 

It's too bad they didn't make more movies together. They're both quite a pair that seem opposite of each other, which is what makes them work well together.

Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don't Breath) portrays his character as high strung, unsympathetic, and self-righteous. 

Stephen Lang as "The Party Crasher."

Stephen pulls these traits off wonderfully. 

He's an intimidating presence on screen using a lot of energy to leave the audience with a killer whose strong cold personality is unforgettable. 

In one scene where Moss confronts the Party Crasher in a stake-out gone wrong, holding a hostage at gun point, he tells Moss that he's not the bad guy because he hunts down all the criminals that make Moss's job difficult. 

Somewhere in that exchange, Stephen leaves the audience with a small spec of sympathy. It's visible in that clear frustration the Party Crasher has towards Moss because he doesn't see what he's trying to do. To him, Moss is just too much of a cop to see the "good" he thinks he's doing for society.   

Overall, The Hard Way is a hilarious, entertaining movie that deserves a little more attention.

It tends to trip under the radar despite its star cast - Fox, Woods, LL Cool J, Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra, a very young Christina Ricci, and a cameo from Penny Marshall.

According to imdb.com, this was Ricci's fourth movie. Her next role after The Hard Way was Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family released the same year. 

This film is directed by John Badham who's notable directorial work before this movie includes Saturday Night Fever, WarGames, and Short Circuit. Right before directing The Hard Way, Badham directed Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn in Bird on a Wire. 

I do like this movie. It has held up all these years since my cop movie phase back in the 1990s. It's not perfect nor does it need to be perfect. The Hard Way takes the old buddy cop comedy formula, and adds some originality to it. The movie accomplishes precisely what it means to. And I recommend it.