Where to watch Striking Distance
2 Stars
Is there any other modern-era movie star whose played a cop more times than Bruce Willis? He somehow embodies on-screen maverick enforcement officers with such ease that it’s not unreasonable to imagine him becoming a policeman if this acting thing didn’t pan out. Obviously it did. Since catapulting to world-wide stardom as detective John McClaine, Willis was pigeonholed into action-thrillers for decades to come. Striking Distance is a below average example of the Willis cop pictures.
Tom Hardy (Bruce Willis) is a disgraced cop who now works security on the rivers of Pittsburg. His unwillingness to accept a murder suspect as the figure who slayed his father. This causes Hardy to become ostracized from his peers on the force. Now, a few years later Tom is a barely functioning alcoholic with a temper problem. He’s been assigned a new partner (Sara Jessica Parker) and is out to catch a killer who dumps his female victims into the river for Hardy to find.
Striking Distance is the kind of action thriller that over populated cinemas in the early 1990’s. It features of the genre’s biggest stars and has a “high-concept” storyline, but it’s also tired and trots out so many clichés that the movie’s mystery killer is apparent from the opening scenes. Willis broods and acts either belligerent or abusive to every other character in the picture and writer/director Rowdy Herrington isn’t able to rescue the film with style or narrative logic. This relic isn’t worth a rediscovery.
Director: Rowdy Herrington
Stars: Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina