Tom Hardy comes from a long line of Pittsburgh cops with a commitment to the truth. However it is this commitment which gets him demoted to the river police, when two years previous he publicly announces that he believes a policeman is responsible for a string of murders, as well as being killer of his father. Even his demotion from homicide detective doesn’t stop him investigating the case which leads him into conflict with his new partner. When more girls turn up dead, Hardy’s desire to solve the case gets even stronger when he discovers that he knows all the victims...

Striking Distance (1993 - 1 hr, 41 min, 44 sec) is an action thriller directed by Rowdy Herrington who co-wrote the script with Marty Kaplan.

The film is a problematic proposition, given the stellar cast that has been assembled, all Herrington can come up with is a film which feels like a made for television movie. The plot is pedestrian and not particularly coherent, especially the logic in demoting a supposedly alcoholic ex-detective to drive a police boat. Although the main action happens two years on from his father’s death, you have to wonder how he got away with drinking and punting for so long. Nor is it realistic that his new female partner would jump into bed with him so quickly. Even the title of the film appears to have been constructed for its dramatic impact rather than for any relevance to the plot.

The film opens on an interesting note as a police car, which we assume is real, is revealed to be a toy which the serial killer taunts his victims with, whilst playing "Li´l Red Riding Hood." It is an atmospheric moment which promises much, however the film fails to live up to its initial promise of ingenuity.

Bruce Willis practices the persona which would serve him so well in the Die Hard films, though Striking Distance lacks the humour of its more successful cousin. Sarah Jessica Parker is badly miscast as his new partner Jo Christman, her character adds little to the story except to provide the last line of the film with meaning.

There is a lot of Willis acting tough as the maverick cop, but we never really get to know him as a person, so it was difficult to sympathise with his plight. Worse still was the ending, which made almost no sense as the photograph of the three boys was never really explained, so its significance slid quickly into insignificance. What could have been a nice psychological moment is just discarded.

Unsurprisingly enough the film has little in the way of extras over and above the trailer for Sony Blu-ray films. Seems like nobody, including the director, was proud enough to add a commentary. There is the option for BDlive, but at the time of writing there was no extra content available. There are three Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio tracks for English French and Spanish, as well as English, French Spanish, Arabic, Dutch, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Portuguese and Swedish subtitles.

I guess it might appeal to Willis fans wanting to complete their collection, otherwise this is a very pedestrian film and a poor Blu-ray package.

5

Charles Packer