best movie i've ever seen.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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.

This is a great,fun film.Michael J.Fox and James Woods team up in another one of John Badham's (Stakeout,Bird On A Wire) fast paced comedies.On the surface it's just another buddy cop picture that were so popular in the 80's/90's,like Lethal Weapon,Tango & Cash etc,but what sets this film apart is the fact that one half of the duo (Fox on hilarious form) is not a cop,but an Hollywood Movie star,posing as a detective whilst researching a role for a movie.Woods is the angry,tough and unlucky cop who has to babysit him,while he has his little real life experience amongst the crime ridden streets of New York.But he gets more than he bargained for when he finds out that Woods is on the trail of a psychotic serial killer called The Party Crasher (a deliberately over the top Stephen Lang).The action sequences in the film (back when there was no CGI)are terrific,and the pace of the film never slows down for one second,it is absolutely relentless. And last but not least,the main reason why the film works so well for me is simply the chemistry between the two leads.On paper,the thought of Woods and Fox,two completely different style of actors,teaming up in a comedy would seem ridiculous,but they make it work superbly.It is one of the best films from each of them and it's a shame they never appeared on screen together again.It's a fun action comedy,with a slant on the typical cop movie and lots of digs at the Hollywood industry.

The Hard Way is set in New York where detective John Moss (James Woods) is on the case of a ruthless killer nicknamed the Party Crasher (Stephen Lang) who taunts police as shoots people dead, he phones the police & invites them to watch as he kills people. While chasing the Party Crasher detective Moss is injured & his boss Captain Brix (Delroy Lindo) takes him off the case in order to babysit rich Hollywood action film star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) who is researching a role as a cop poses as Moss' new partner, Moss is horrified at having Lang follow him around as he won't let the Party Crasher case go & drags Lang into it...Directed by John Badham this action comedy thriller is the second Badham flick I have seen in the space of twenty four hours, I didn't plan it that way but the other was Blue Thunder (1983) & having watched both for the first time I am struck that while they are both decent enough action thrillers neither are particularly great & both feel rather routine. Here in The Hard Way we have the whole mismatched cop partners scenario with average results, a popular but over-crowed genre at the time there are better examples that spring to mind such as Lethal Weapon (1987), Red Heat (1988) & Tango & Cash (1989) to name but three. The difference fans of the film will point to is that Lang is an action film star but for all intents & purposes The Hard Way plays out like a straight cop thriller with little in the way of depth. The two main character's of Moss & Lang are great & equally great performances by Woods & Fox carry the lightweight script & it's them who make this as watchable as it is, the interplay between the two is funny at times & the gradual warming of the character's towards each other works pretty well. However beyond a spirited couple of leads The Hard Way is routine & clichéd, there's the grumpy police captain, the bad guy with a personal vendetta against the hero, the veteran cop & his rookie partner, a love interest & a final confrontation to the death. The Hard Way is also very predictable in the way it unfolds, at over 110 minutes it's maybe a little long, Moss or any other NYPD cop doesn't seem to do any real police-work other than what he wants & the Party Crasher is given virtually no background or motivation other than the excuse he was killing criminals which gets explored with all of one line of dialogue.There are some funny moments here for sure but maybe not quite enough, Moss screeching through New York shouting profanity as everyone around him or the one to one in a bar with Lang where he pretends to be Moss' girlfriend is also a highlight but beyond the energy & goodwill brought to the film by the two leads (both character's & actor's) there's just not that much here as any sort of plot takes a back seat. While not particularly violent The Hard Way is full of profanity so if you have sensitive ears in that regard be prepared. The action is pretty good but there's not enough of it, there's a couple of car chases & stunts, an explosion at a petrol pump & the final confrontation above Times Square in New York which looks impressive but lacks excitement. Apparently James Woods had his own hairdresser on set at a cost of $6000 a week.Flopping at the box-office I would suggest the buddy buddy cop film had lost it's appeal somewhat & The Hard Way is a fairly routine example anyway. This has that big budget Hollywood look about it & looks nice enough. The acting by the two leads is great with the always excellent James Woods taking first prize, Fox is very good too while rapper LL Cool J has a small role as a cop.The Hard Way is a standard mismatched cop action thriller that is made watchable by great performances by it's leading actor's & some pretty funny moments & one-liners but story-wise this is less than average & there's certainly not enough plot here to fill 110 minutes.

There is this hypomanic impatient fearless New York cop (James Woods, who else?) in pursuit of a serial killer known as The Party Crasher. Then there is this terribly wealthy, effete, spoiled Hollywood actor (Michael J. Fox) who's been churning out serial Nick Lang action movies, each followed by a Roman numeral.Fox happens to spot Woods' bloodied face on TV news and decides he wants to bunk with Woods, live Woods' life with him, do his job with him. He adores Woods as "the real thing". What he learns from Woods will be incorporated into the Nick Lang movies to lend them more verisimilitude.Basically, that's it. You could sit back for an hour or two and dream up most of the funny exchanges and ridiculous events. (It's a comedy.) The wisecracks are endless. A lot of the humor depends on insults aimed at Fox. He's called -- let me think, I have to be careful here -- a cheeseball, a maggot, a Dickless Tracy, and other things, some of them so shocking that no respectable viewer could possibly comprehend them.After a battle with a gang, Fox stops in his tracks, feels his eye, and remarks anxiously, "I think I lost a contact out there." I don't know how many mismatched cop movies you've seen, but I'll mention in passing all of the Dirty Harry movies, all of the Lethal Weapon movies, "Dragnet," one with Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt the name of which I forget, all of the Stakeout movies. One of them, "Foster and Laurie", is pretty good. At one point we get a brief trailer for a Nick Lang movie which parodies the cop movie genre. This entire movie is like that parody.What audience is it aimed at? Well, it starts off in the first scene with a car speeding through the streets of New York, banging into other vehicles, James Woods behind the wheel, screaming obscenities, gesticulating wildly, and doing odd topological things with his face -- because he's late for a date. The speeding car, however, leads directly to a shoot out in a crowded nightclub. The bodies fall in slow motion.If that opening grabs you, then this may be your movie.