Striking Distance

If Striking Distance were a book, it could be called a good read. Instead, it's a painless watch. Read full review

Willis and Parker are fine in their respective roles, but neither character is given much spark. Willis sulks for most of the picture, grimacing at his enemies and drinking his way through scenes. Read full review

The plot of STRIKING DISTANCE is full of implausibilities, but they're entirely beside the point, since the film delivers what it promises: tough talk, chase scenes by land and by water, plenty of explosions, and pretty girls murdered in nasty and imaginative ways, served up with a dash of sex and a generous helping of knee-jerk cynicism. Read full review

Striking Distance is the kind of movie that Last Action Hero wanted to be: an outrageous cop-movie spoof with equally gratuitous parts of dumbness and decibels. The problem is that, unlike his Planet Hollywood partner Ah-nold, Bruce Willis doesn't seem to know that he's goofing on himself. [17 Sept 1993, p.7B]

Thanks to this flabbergasting howler of a sequence, Striking Distance becomes that rare thing: a movie so bad it's actually pretty good. [17 Sept 1993, p.AE17]

The film's highlight is that rarest of action sequences, the boat-car chase (happily for River Rescue, there's a good highway right by the water!). Striking Distance, which was directed by the aptly named Rowdy Herrington (Road House ), has few other surprises. [18 Sept 1993, p.G5]

Not much sets director (and co-writer) Rowdy Herrington's suspenser apart from other run-of-the-mill efforts in this genre, though a number of supporting players acquit themselves well. And the story's resolution has the ring of unpleasant truth to it. Willis is by now so familiar with characters like the perennially grungy Hardy that he can portray them in his sleep - and at times seems to be doing just that - while Sarah Jessica Parker makes for a fairly lackluster romantic sidekick. [22 Sept 1993, p.E10]

Herrington stages his action efficiently enough - the opening car chase manages to put a couple of spins on a hackneyed cinema staple - but is let down by his own script which seems to have been hanging around in the water so long it's become bloated. Read full review

Columbia apparently dragged the river to come up with the script for this Bruce Willis vehicle -- an OK action movie until it sinks under the weight of implausible plotting and over-the-top direction. Read full review

His unauthorised investigation, with partner Jo Christman (Parker), is a routine affair, the film's familial and professional tensions sunk by a script that's all development and no pay-off. Read full review

Off to a decent start with a bang-bang car chase that takes the life of cop Tom Hardy's father, Striking Distance never recaptures the sense of gritty believability that is essential but rarely found in the cops-and-killers genre. Indeed, it quickly sinks into the usual cliches. [17 Sept 1993]