The Hard Way

Serviceable vapor-light genre fare that links the buddy cop cycle of the '80s to the wink-hard meta-action of HUDSON HAWK and LAST ACTION HERO, but it coulda used a few more lampshades on the lazy, nonsensical story. Woods and Fox play off each other beautifully, though--seems an attempt to draft off the De Niro-Grodin magic of MIDNIGHT RUN, and the dynamic's at least as enjoyable here. They even swapped in a Lindo for a Kotto. (No, that's not a Sambo joke. Wait, does this make it one? Shi-)

Silly little movie. The only thing that saves it from being terrible is the cast. Woods and Fox are great and several familiar faces support.

Sure, it's gimmicky and silly, and Moss' Dirty Harry routine is alarmingly normalized in the universe of the movie. But it's still funny and have decent action, plus it's of a brutality you hardly see in cop comedies. A window to the gritty vision people had in the past

sjov og underholdende

Really in many respects a bad movie. But come on - Michael J. Fox vs. James Woods.

T.H.W is a better than average buddy action comedy due to Woods' and Fox's obvious chemistry, some witty one liners, great stunt work and Badham's confident direction that moves the action along at a brisk pace. The meta aspects are not fully developed though, and the writers don't seem particularly committed to really deconstructing this genre, just gently prodding it, which seems like a waste. The villain is also too cartoonish, but the final set piece atop a movie billboard is pretty great.

The bizarrely rushed ending completely devoid of any denouement or comfortable resolution left a bad taste in my mouth, but I still think the film is worth watching for James Woods' fun performance and the surprisingly effective classic stunt work. If I were to look into this film further, I would love to think about how it treats guns. Characters are reverent around them, Fox nearly loses his job before it starts by asking for one, bullets aren't fired, they explode. Rather interesting.

Doesn't quite 'make it' for me. More thought seems to have gone into the duo's crowd serving antics than delivering a coherent plotline. Seems lazy in a way as if the leads' charisma (or just box-office pull) are adequate to make a half-assed picture work. There's undeniably something here but it's wasted potential, mainly.

Silly, but very enjoyable

Hollywood's sense of its own self loathing at its peak palpableness.

Action movie spoofing an action movie, it's over the top and ridiculous.

Funny, but not over the top or corny. It was enjoyable for a one time viewing and used James Woods in one of his only non villainous roles.

I love James Woods. Especially when he plays James Woods. MJ Fox makes a departure from his typically boyish and sheepish roles, but I don't know if these two mix well in this buddy cop comedy. I don't know if it was the runtime (2 hours!?), but I really, really struggled to finish this one. It gets very sluggish between the few action scenes and plot-forwarding moments.

Momma says "knock you out"... Best thing about this flick

This film is mostly your standard buddy comedy. However James Woods and Michael J Fox work well together here and end up making this an enjoyable film. The script is predictable but it does have some entertaining scenes. Overall I would recommend this film.

See famous actor nick lang toughen up as he switches the heightened reality of an action movie set with the heightened reality of an action movie reality.

Michael J. Fox plays striving actor Nick Lang and he is studying for a part to be a cop. He joins up with James Wood's character Detective Moss, and Nick learns The Hard Way about the life of a cop

One of my underrated favorites. Dare I say, this is Michael J. Fox's best movie. He's fantastic and Woods plays a great straight man.

Not having seen this underprized, self-teasing buddy flick since my youthful tape-renting days, I was surprised by how well I remembered it, likely due to its fresh meta-twist, some striking old-school stunt work and a helluva line-up. Put stylish '90s action workhorse Badham behind the wheel, and you have yourself a good old-fashioned harmless and effective action-comedy.