The Fresh Films Review: Striking Distance (1993)

Striking Distance (1993)

Directed by:
Rowdy Herrington

COUNTRY
USA

GENRE
Crime/Thriller/Action

NORWEGIAN TITLE
Innen rekkevidde

RUNNING TIME
101 minutes

Produced by:
Marty Kaplan
Arnon Milchan

Written by:
Rowdy Herrington
Marty Kaplan

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Det. Tom Hardy	Bruce Willis
Jo Christman	Sarah Jessica Parker	½
Captain Nick Detillo	Dennis Farina	½
Detective Danny Detillo	Tom Sizemore	½
Detective Eddie Eiler	Brion James	½
Detective Jimmy Detillo	Robert Pastorelli	½
Tony Sacco	Timothy Busfield
Lieutenant Vince Hardy	John Mahoney
District Attorney Frank Morris	Andre Braugher

Review

Striking Distance is stylistically a typical early 1990s thriller for better or worse, with recognizable good/bad dichotomy, self-willed and unruly police detectives, and a crudely engaging TV-style narrative. The plot here is rather good. It is predictable, yes, but also beguilingly constructed and slowly thickens around Bruce Willis' sympathetic protagonist. With a more subtle and apt direction job, the film could have been a taut thriller, but after having excelled with some great action and chase scenes (notably the car chase in the opening act), director Rowdy Herrington completely messes up his own work during a coarse and tasteless finale in which Robert Pastorelli gets unrestricted opportunity to ruin the film with his wild overacting and preposterous psychological profiling.