Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

The Hard Way Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 10, 2020

John Badham's "The Hard Way" (1991) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film as well as an exclusive new audio commentary by John Badham, producer/second unit director Rob Cohen, and critic Daniel Kremer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Unlikely partners

I can name many films, especially older ones, that I like to revisit, but there are only a few that I screen multiple times each year. For example, between Christmas and New Year’s Eve and then usually during the summer I revisit Blake Edwards’ The Party. Another film that I tend to play multiple times throughout the year is Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. I also have a special relationship with Walter Hill’s The Driver, which I consider one of the coolest action films ever made.

Luis Llosa’s The Specialist is another one of those select few films that I keep coming back to and I would like to tell you exactly why. My admiration for it begins with the stunning “Did You Call Me” track which blends a gentle piano theme, a smokey sax solo, and some astonishingly lush strings. The track is part of a genuinely masterful but neglected soundtrack produced by the great John Barry. The film sells Miami in much the same way the classic Miami Vice TV series did, and I like this too. Alexandra Seros’ screenplay then floods the narrative with great brash lines that easily could have been pulled from one of those macho film noirs Phil Karlson directed during the ‘50s. Of course, the film also unites some really big stars that, contrary to what mainstream critics have argued, are really good together. Two of them look sizzling hot (Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone), one looks legitimately repulsive (Eric Roberts), one looks and sounds exactly like an old-school Cuban mob boss, and one is just utterly unhinged (James Woods). It is why I always have a great time with this film. It’s got a fine style and top actors with great chemistry, plus I can almost feel the Miami breeze when I play it on my system.

But what does all of the above have to do with John Badham’s The Hard Way? I am getting there.

For a long time, I have maintained that Woods’ most intense performance is in The Specialist. Do you remember the sequence where he enters the bomb squad building, tries to trace Stallone’s location while talking to him on the phone, gets humiliated and goes berserk? This sequence is a masterclass on unbridled intensity which leaves the impression that Woods is a few seconds away from suffering a massive heart attack. However, in The Hard Way Woods goes a step further, and I had completely forgotten about it. Pay close attention to the opening sequence where the Party Crasher (Stephen Lang) nearly destroys half of his body and face and you will see what I mean. Woods is again in heart attack territory, swearing and breathing heavily, his eyes bulging from the blood that has rushed into his head, and at the end it looks like he is actually barely getting out of it. It looks very, very real.

The rest of The Hard Way is not all that different from the The Specialist either. Well, of course there is a lot more humorous material in it that allows Badham to deliver the crucial contrasts that define the cop’s relationship with Michael J. Fox’s movie star, but the attitude and tone are the same. For example, the profanity is an essential element of the narrative and when it flourishes it does so in the same casual manner the stars in The Specialist begin using colorful words to describe their triumphs and failures. Badham does not hold back on the action either. When seen through his camera, New York City simply lacks the chic panoramic shots to make it look as glamorous and vivid as Miami. When Woods and Fox go on the warpath, it is usually in rundown or overcrowded areas where the damage cannot stick out.

What prevents the film from being a genuinely wild and entertaining ride is the introduction of a weak romantic subplot that gradually alters the identities of the two male stars. A very needy Annabella Sciorra does her best to convince that her ideal soulmate is someone that looks and acts almost like Woods’ unhinged cop, so in a predictable fashion the object of her desire begins a transformation to meet her expectations. Fox also offers to help and, in the process, begins a completely different type of transformation as well. Needless to say, these forced character evolutions look quite illogical and only hurt the otherwise very entertaining mayhem.

*Woods once declared that his cop was one of the toughest characters he played because he had to appear perpetually angry. It is easy to believe that he wasn’t exaggerating. As noted earlier, his intensity before the camera is often stunning.

The Hard Way Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Hard Way arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an old master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. Unfortunately, it exhibits all of the typical shortcomings we have come to expect from the studio's problematic vault masters. For example, there are very obvious traces of sharpening adjustments that flatten detail and often produce very distracting smearing (see screencaptures #1 and 8). Daylight footage can be especially problematic because the sharpening also destabilizes many native highlights and exacerbates already questionable darker nuances. As a result, the footage can look unnaturally sharpened and because of the forced crushing uncharacteristically flat/crushed (see screencapture #3). A tiny amount of darker footage can hide some of these anomalies, but viewers with larger screens will still easily recognize them (see screencapture #7). Needless to say, grain looks manipulated and smeary, which is why some fast moving footage can look very, very problematic. The color scheme is convincing, but darker primaries are compromised. Image stability is very good. All in all, the current presentation simply does not have the proper organic qualities we expect to see when films are transferred to Blu-ray. My score is 2.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Hard Way Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the frame.

I thought that the lossless track was excellent. On my system the action footage produced some quite aggressive dynamics, plus the depth was as good as I expected it to be on a 2.0 track. Also, the dialog was crystal clear and stable, without any age-related anomalies. This being said, I think that the film deserves a proper 5.1 track as well. It has the the type of sound design that can greatly benefit from a 5.1 track, especially in terms of separation, so perhaps in the future Universal will deliver one.

The Hard Way Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - vintage trailer for The Hard Way. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 480/60i).

• Commentary - in this exclusive new audio commentary, director John Badham, producer/second unit director Rob Cohen and critic Daniel Kremer share a lot of interesting information about the production process, the visual style of the film (and especially the look of New York City), Jimmy Woods' electrifying performance and the energy of the action/film, the loose nature of the humor, etc. It is a very fine commentary with plenty of interesting 'small' stories, so if you enjoy the film find the time to listen to it in its entirety.

• Additional Trailers -
  
  1. The Secret of My Success
  2. Life with Mikey
  3. Cop
  4. Diggstown
  5. Jungle Fever
  6. Another Stakeout

The Hard Way Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The buddy-cop films ran out of tricks to impress a long time ago, which is why they have been trying to reinvent the genre only by introducing very special characters. Unfortunately, since Martin Lawrence and Will Smith's adventures in the first two Bad Boys films the genre has been on life support. The Hard Way is a decent reminder of how entertaining some of these films could be when they had the right pair of actors, but sadly I think that the fast and loose fun you see in it is very much a thing of the past. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from an old and unfortunately quite problematic master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. If you enjoy The Hard Way, find a way to rent it first before you commit to a purchase.