My Review of "The Hard Way"

The Hard way is a buddy cop movie that came out in 1991. It has a few notable actors of the time and a cameo that I didn't expect. For the most part, this is a competent movie but there are a few major things that get in the way of full enjoyment. There's also a lot of untapped potential with this film that they didn't even explore.

This movie starts out with the introduction of John. He's a hard nosed cop that has a very ill temper and quite sociopathic. It's evident when he's trying to get around town to meet a girl. John will abuse his powers as a police officer to get his way. When things don't go his way he cries in a huge puff like a whiny child. In fact, he does this throughout the movie and this is one of the grating things about this movie.

I recognize his character is supposed to be like this but it kills some of the fun with this movie. Yes, it's part of the fun of the movie but these types of people really get on my nerves and to see this guy as a good guy really got to me. Maybe some people can see it differently, but this guy really got on my nerves throughout the movie. To top it off he's one of the main characters, so that's not good for me.

Despite rushing to meet a girl for a date, he decides to ditch her for this suspect he's been chasing for a while. This villain's name is the Party Crasher. The Party Crasher is playing some sort of cat and mouse game with John. He will actually call the police ahead of time before he commits his crimes. His crimes are quite heinous too. This guy will openly shoot and kill people in public. Sometimes this will be even in broad daylight. The Party Crasher seems to be John's white whale. He will do anything just to capture him.

While all this is happening we have a movie star by the name of Nick Lang. He's getting bored of the roles that he's been getting. There's a big police officer role that he wants. To get this role, he believes that he has to get some real life experience. That's when he sees John on the news as some sort of Supercop trying to chase down the Party Crasher.

John looks like the perfect person for Nick to emulate his new role under. So he uses his powers as a Hollywood superstar to shadow John. Unfortunately, John's a huge jerk and doesn't want Nick around. He's chasing after his white whale after all. Any distractions will get him irritated, even though he's been taken off the case.

This movie just becomes a bickering tirade from John. Nick is a wide eyed actor trying to learn from him and John will constantly push him down. I think if they didn't push John so hard it could have been more tolerable to watch this movie. Nick does sort of win him over eventually but not by a series of actions. John never seems to learn his lesson throughout the movie. I guess he tries a little at the end but it's very tiresome.

I didn't expect to see LL Cool J in this movie. They even use his music throughout the movie. It's pretty cool but very pedestrian throughout the movie. There are some pretty big names in this movie but they play their roles a little too authentically. If they eased off the gas a little I think I would have had a little more fun watching this.

There were also aspects where Nick could have been utilized much better. We could have shown that actors have skills that aren't credited that could help out with police work. They did a little of this but they could have pushed it a little more. The movie tries to be a little self aware later on in the movie but I felt like it was a little too late.

Overall, this is a very mediocre movie. John's character was way too annoying for me to stay engaged with the movie. Sure the banter was a little fun but they didn't lean towards the fun enough with this one. That's why I have to give this one a 4.5 out of 10. I will definitely not recommend this movie to anyone but it did have potential.