Striking Distance is set in Pittsburgh where Tom Hardy (Bruce Willis) has just had to testify against his partner & cousin Jimmy Detillo (Robert Pastorelli), on his way to a policeman's ball with his father Vincent (John Mahoney) they get a call to say that a wanted murderer is being pursued. The two Hardy's decide to help out & give chase but end up crashing their car, when Tom regains consciousness he finds the murder suspect gone & his father dead. Two years later & Tom has been forced to take a job as a river patrol man as he has become an alcoholic loser, suddenly dead bodies begin to be found in the rivers around Pittsburgh that Tom patrol. Tom is convinced the killer is back but discovers that officially the new murders have no connection to the earlier ones, Tom is sure that a big cover-up is going on & that the killer is targeting him personally...
Written & directed by Rowdy Herrington there doesn't seem to be much love for this much maligned action thriller with even star Bruce Willis saying 'it sucked' while on a chat-show in 2004, hey Bruce I have news for you Striking Distance is nowhere near the worst film you have appeared in. Hudson Hawk (1991), Color of Night (1994) & Cop Out (2010) anyone? Anyway, Striking Distance was known under the title Three Rivers during production & is a decent enough action thriller. One suspects that maybe Willis was trying to star in another Die Hard (1988) but his character here is much less likable or quotable. The script is nothing more than a string of cop film clichés stringed together around a fairly basic murder mystery plot & every so often there's a big action set-piece. As it is I quite liked Striking Distance, there are a few decent one-liners, the character's although clichéd are given life by a good cast or pro's & there's enough action here to satisfy most. There's a particularly good car chase at the start. As I said the clichés come thick & fast, a disgraced alcoholic cop, a cover-up, a killer who taunts the cops, feelings of guilt & remorse & loss, honour & family connections. At just under 100 minutes maybe it's a little long but there's enough going on to keep ones interest even if the murder mystery may be a little easy to figure out & a bit too improbable to take seriously. Also the ending features a little overkill when it comes to the villain dying as he comes back from apparently being dead at least four times in ten minutes!
There are some good action set-pieces here including a great car chase with one of my personal favourite moments from any chase from any film when the cars start jumping over those humps & shoot up in the air one behind the other. There are boat chases, shoot-outs, fights & a bit of suspense as a mystery killer stalks & kills a few people too. Nicely enough shot there's not much style here but it looks alright.
With a supposed budget of about $30,000,000 this has the usual glossy Hollywood production values & is well made. There's a very good cast here including Bruce Willis, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Brion James & Tom Atkins with the only weak link the ever awful Sarah Jessica Parker in an early role.
Striking Distance is a pretty good action thriller, it has a reasonable murder mystery, some clichéd cop drama & some good action scenes. It's certainly no worse than a lot of routine Hollywood action thrillers, you could do a lot worse.
Written & directed by Rowdy Herrington there doesn't seem to be much love for this much maligned action thriller with even star Bruce Willis saying 'it sucked' while on a chat-show in 2004, hey Bruce I have news for you Striking Distance is nowhere near the worst film you have appeared in. Hudson Hawk (1991), Color of Night (1994) & Cop Out (2010) anyone? Anyway, Striking Distance was known under the title Three Rivers during production & is a decent enough action thriller. One suspects that maybe Willis was trying to star in another Die Hard (1988) but his character here is much less likable or quotable. The script is nothing more than a string of cop film clichés stringed together around a fairly basic murder mystery plot & every so often there's a big action set-piece. As it is I quite liked Striking Distance, there are a few decent one-liners, the character's although clichéd are given life by a good cast or pro's & there's enough action here to satisfy most. There's a particularly good car chase at the start. As I said the clichés come thick & fast, a disgraced alcoholic cop, a cover-up, a killer who taunts the cops, feelings of guilt & remorse & loss, honour & family connections. At just under 100 minutes maybe it's a little long but there's enough going on to keep ones interest even if the murder mystery may be a little easy to figure out & a bit too improbable to take seriously. Also the ending features a little overkill when it comes to the villain dying as he comes back from apparently being dead at least four times in ten minutes!
There are some good action set-pieces here including a great car chase with one of my personal favourite moments from any chase from any film when the cars start jumping over those humps & shoot up in the air one behind the other. There are boat chases, shoot-outs, fights & a bit of suspense as a mystery killer stalks & kills a few people too. Nicely enough shot there's not much style here but it looks alright.
With a supposed budget of about $30,000,000 this has the usual glossy Hollywood production values & is well made. There's a very good cast here including Bruce Willis, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Brion James & Tom Atkins with the only weak link the ever awful Sarah Jessica Parker in an early role.
Striking Distance is a pretty good action thriller, it has a reasonable murder mystery, some clichéd cop drama & some good action scenes. It's certainly no worse than a lot of routine Hollywood action thrillers, you could do a lot worse.