Striking Distance
(1993/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: D Film: D
In the one film that may be as bad or worse than Hudson Hawk for Bruce Willis, Rowdy
Harrington’s awful would-be thriller Striking
Distance (1993) has Willis as a Pittsburgh Police cop demoted (again!) for
misconduct, but suddenly on the trail of a serial killer. Oddly, this film opens with a bad action
comedy sequence that is miles away from what the film thinks it is about. He is then joined by another cop (Sarah
Jessica Parker in one of the worst performances of her career; one of many but
way at the bottom) who thinks someone inside the department may be behind the
murders.
In the meantime, this muddled mess also wastes John
Mahoney, Dennis Farina, Brion James, Robert Pastorelli, Timothy Busfield, Andre
Braugher and Tom Sizemore in one of the most badly directed and badly edited
films any of them will ever do. It is
one of the biggest such messes in the last 30 years, the film rightly bombed,
but here is the Blu-ray for those who might care.
The film was in so much trouble that many reshoots had to
be done on soundstages elsewhere and that only made things worse. Originally entitled Three Rivers (a title
taken by a recent production), Harrington had gone to school in the city
featured, but you would never know it from seeing this mess. Thankfully, his career never recovered.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is on the
soft side throughout, looking like an older HD master (1080i?) and not looking
as good as the 35mm film print originally screened. The film’s idea of a visual Pittsburgh is
laughable and I can see why Sony did not redo this one. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is the default
highlight of the film with aggressive surrounds and sound effects, but that
also seems a desperate way to cover up how bad it is. At least it is not as harsh as too many
current digital mixes we have run into.
There are no extras, though BD Live interaction is available.
- Nicholas Sheffo
