The Hard Way barely lags behind as Badham’s efficient direction helps to keep the movie moving at a brisk pace. He does a good job giving us both worthwhile comedy and action moments, with the latter’s well-executed nighttime chase sequence deserves mention here. John Badham is no stranger to directing action comedies, given his past experiences in Stakeout (1987) and Bird on a Wire (1990). Stephen Lang’s antagonist turn as Party Crasher may have been a bit over-the-top but at least he pulls off the role in an entertaining way possible. Woods delivers a perfect foil here and he’s pretty good playing a disgruntled, tough-cop role. Fox’s comedic skill is put into good use here, notably in a scene where he pretends to be Moss’ girlfriend Susan (Annabella Sciorra) as he teaches him how to talk to a woman. And it sure did, especially the spot-on chemistry between Fox and Woods. The high-concept premise about a mismatched duo between a tough cop and a Hollywood action star does sound like a lot of fun. As Lang tags along with him over the next few days while on the job, Moss continues his unofficial investigation to track down Party Crasher’s whereabouts, which in turn, putting both of them in danger. Moss, who is putting off the case from investigating the notorious serial killer nicknamed Party Crasher (Stephen Lang), has no choice but to put up with Lang. Moss, on the other hand, isn’t too pleased when he learns his superior officer (Delroy Lindo’s Captain Brix) wants him to babysit Lang.

This includes everything from following him everywhere he goes to studying every single detail he needs to know so he can use the experience to secure a leading-cop role for an upcoming movie. However, Nick wants to be taken seriously as an actor and one day after he saw footage of the tough NYPD cop John Moss (James Woods) on TV, he decided to be like him. On paper, it looks like a hit-in-the-making with Fox playing a Hollywood action star named Nick Lang, who’s been enjoying tremendous success, thanks to his Indiana Jones-like Smoking Gunn franchise. Then came 1991 where he starred alongside James Woods in John Badham’s The Hard Way. Sitting on top of the list was, of course, the highly-successful Back to the Future trilogy followed by Teen Wolf (1985) and to a certain extent, the well-reviewed Casualties of War.īy the end of 1990 after Back to the Future Part III, Fox’s movie-star status is on the roll. Between 19, these were the few crucial years that made Michael J.

Back to the future part iii underrated