1993’s Striking Distance is a movie that has been largely washed away from the average movie-goers consciousness; neither praised nor lamented by critics it only ever achieved moderate success with audiences and was further put down when the films star, Bruce Willis, made a public apology for the film, addressed to anyone that had seen it, roughly a decade after its release.
Now, 16 years after its original debut, the Blu-ray buying public is being treated to a re-release of what many would claim is now a tired, boring and unsuccessful film. However, despite the average to negative comments nobody can deny that the premise behind Striking Distance is more than solid; it involves Pittsburgh River Patrolman Tom Hardy’s (Willis) attempts to catch a serial killer that he openly believes to be a police officer, and the Police Department’s efforts to silence him.
At the beginning of the film Willis’ character is a homicide detective, although he soon gets demoted to river patrol after publicly accusing the police department of knowingly imprisoning a patsy and allowing a serial killer (who he believes to be a policeman) to go free. The story then picks up two years later, after Hardy has turned to alcohol and not much has happened, until the murders start up again, and all the bodies are found along his patrol route, with the majority of evidence pointing at Hardy. Needless to say Hardy is in a rush to solve the case, not only because he is implicated in the murders, but because he wants to solve the conspiracy and catch the killer that murdered his father.
Conspiracy films have always proved popular, and most people can appreciate a good action film as well, however the twos genres don’t blend particularly well here, and Willis’ shootouts and chases sometimes feel a little forced and do nothing to compliment the main story, maintain pace or advance the plot; and while the overall plot is fairly intriguing it is wrought with problems that come in the form of tired and obvious police clichés, plot holes, and characters that are at times so annoying and stupid that they should have never been hired by the Police Department. There are also numerous problems with dialogue and jokes attempted by some characters that feel a little juvenile and not entirely funny, an example being Hardy accelerating his patrol boat to make his partner fall into the water several times.
However, despite it’s problems Striking Distance is a more than watchable film, as the number of unsavoury and questionable police characters introduced give the viewer plenty of people to finger as the killer (who’s eventual revelation, unlike most films, is fairly surprising), keeping them guessing right up until the final act, and the action scenes, whilst not always in-keeping with the tone of the film, are actually quite good; the opening car chase (despite being a little Blues Brothers-esque) and finale being the best examples.
The cast is also an impressive blend of some big name talent; Bruce Willis as Tom Hardy, far from his best role, and a character that spends the majority of the film in a pit of self-loathing or in a quiet rage, Bruce plays the part as well as he possibly can, as the script refuses to provide him with much depth. Sarah Jessica Parker plays Willis’ partner and love interest, a character that is one giant cliché, being the loving girlfriend, damsel in distress and always fairly flat, her acting is average at best and it’s easy to see here why she never made the big time.
The supporting cast is also very strong, with solid performances from a young and surprisingly skinny Tom Seizemore, as Hardy’s emotional ex-cop cousin, and Dennis Farnia as Hardy’s baggage ridden police Captain uncle Nick. There are also notable performances from less well known actors, such as Brion James (Fifth Element) and Robert Pastorelli (Eraser), which appear clichéd more as a result of a weak script than their acting talents.
Putting it bluntly, Striking Distance is much more of a B movie than a real blockbuster, but despite the negative comments it has received it isn’t a bad film. It has an easy to follow plot, and although it’s never the most tense thriller it does keep the audience guessing right up until the largely impressive finale. The acting is average the dialogue is poor and some of the action scenes have clearly been crow-barred in, but there’s plenty here to keep people interested. It’s by no means a classic, but a decent effort; it’s an easy to watch throw away film, one that you could watch whilst doing the ironing or cleaning the living room, a thriller with a fairly average plot that doesn’t require too much thinking.
Picture:
The picture quality of this transfer is similar to the film itself; average to good. It will neither astound nor horrify, as it doesn’t quite hold up to the quality of the newest blockbusters, but is no worse than any other late 80’s/early 90’s action film, meaning there is an obvious element of grain and some minor image enhancement but nothing that will prove distracting from the main feature.
On the whole colour levels are well presented; being both vibrant and deep when necessary, and giving a realistic and natural presentation of the actors’ fleshtones. There are some minor, and very difficult to spot, print errors but again nothing distracting as on the whole this is the finest presentation of the film to date, being far ahead of the standard DVD in terms of picture quality.
Audio:
Striking Distance has been released with a newly upgraded Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack that is surprisingly weak considering the source material. Accounting for the number of action sequences, gunshots, car chases and explosions that occur during the film the surround channels are left largely unused, with the most notable surround elements emanating not from any of the expensive action shots, but rather from a poor and fairly unimportant fireworks display. Bass is steady but again underused, with the only real positive coming from the well levelled and placed dialogue. All in all a disappointing mix.
Extras:
Striking Distance comes repackaged on Blu-ray with not one single extra, unless a standard Blu-ray trailer is to be counted. It does however feature BD-Live connectivity, although with the lack of enthusiasm this film has gained over the past 16 years and the lack of effort gone into improving this disc, it is highly unlikely to receive any spectacular updates via BD-Live anytime soon.
The Bottom Line:
Striking Distance isn’t a bad film at all; it may be littered with clichés, average acting and terrible dialogue provided by a fairly weak script, but the central premise is a strong one as everybody loves a good police conspiracy, and this is one that doesn’t fail to maintain interest throughout. It was never going to win any awards, because many films have done the same things better, but it’s an easy film that is well worth a watch.
Overall it comes via a fairly unsatisfactory disc, as the picture quality is at best average to good (despite being well ahead of the DVD version), the audio is surprisingly weak, considering that it was supposed to have been remixed, and there isn’t a single extra to be found, however it is a decent effort at an action thriller, with a very solid cast, and while it may not be worth full R.R.P. it is definitely worth a rent and certainly a disc worth picking up in a multibuy offer or bargain bin.
