In 1991, Michael J. Fox had two pictures released: in March, the buddy cop comedy The Hard Way and in August, the fish out of water comedy Doc Hollywood.
In an interview years later, Fox would talk about the unpredictability of how movies perform, stating that he thought The Hard Way would be a giant hit that had the potential to turn into a franchise and Doc Hollywood would do only OK business. The reverse happened: Hollywood was a hit and The Hard Way performed a box office belly flop, earning a weak $25 million.
Too bad because I’ve always thought The Hard Way is a highly entertaining flick that deserved a bigger audience. From director John Badham (who made Saturday Night Fever!), it stars Fox as Nick Lang, a pampered movie star who is known for big-budget action spectacles. As he prepares for his new role as a tough cop, he decides to shadow real NYC cop John Moss (James Woods), who doesn’t take well to a spoiled celebrity following him around. Lang joins Moss on the trail just as he’s closing in on a demented serial killer known as the Party Crasher (played in a deliriously nutty performance by Stephen Lang).
The Hard Way is far from a perfect film and there are better and more well-known buddy cop comedies. Still, it’s a lot of fun and represents one of my favorite Fox pictures where he’s not playing Marty McFly. The Hard Way shares some similarities with another 90s box office disappointment, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero, which came two years later. The Hard Way is better. And it’s worth a look.
It’s also got LL Cool J playing a fellow cop and the end credits begin with his hip hop classic “Mama Said Knock You Out”. So it’s got that going for it, too!
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