Runtime: 104 minutes
Directed by: Walter Hill
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Belushi, Ed O'Ross, Peter Boyle, “Larry” Fishburne
From: Carolco
It's time for me to catch up here. This is the first of two movies I've seen the past two nights which were set and filmed in Chicago. The second review should be sometime right before midnight:
Recently, I discovered that there was a 4K stream of this on Prime. Soon after that was the even more surprising revelation that StudioCanal did this and in the United States, it was put on 4K disc by Lionsgate. Last night I watched that 4K stream. I know there's controversy over which 4k streams are “the best” or even if they are any better than a 1080p disc; it'd be best if I never go further down that rabbit hole. Instead, I'll mention that the picture at least looked real nice.
It is not the best movie from Walter Hill, Arnold, the buddy cop action/comedy genre... or even the highlight for Jim Belushi as a star. Even then, this was fine for me; that is including how implausible it is that Arnold is SOVIET police officer Ivan Danko. A drug lord in the area kills his partner (this is after Arnold kills that drug lord's brother in a bust gone wrong) and flees to Chicago. He gets busted and Danko goes to Chi-Town to extradite him. Of course that goes horribly awry also so he teams with a typical Jim Belushi character-meaning competent at his job but still a total wiseass-police officer to nab him and also get revenge.
A few moments do strain credulity; that said, for my tastes this was fine. There are some laughs, R-rated action in decent setpieces (some of which featured uncommon ideas or moments; this includes one bus chasing another), much sugar glass getting destroyed-no surprise for a Hill picture-and some familiar faces in small roles... from Kurt Fuller and Brion James to Gina Gershon, Sven-Ole Thorsen, and Mike Hagerty. “Larry Fishburne” plays an important supporting character. There's even some attempts at political talk as a jailed militant Black leader talks to Ivan about how both countries exploit various people, just under a different name.
Plus, this is the first movie from the West to film in Moscow's Red Square. Of course, much of the footage set in the Soviet Union was actually filmed in Hungary and Austria but at least this had a little more authenticity.... which does help in a movie that stars Arnold as a Russian.
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