At first, I wasn’t even going to review “Striking Distance”. I just found it to be ridiculous and retrograde.

It then occurred to me, “If this was a Chuck Norris movie, I would love it.” Why? Well, you just kind of expect Norris’s work to be ridiculous and retrograde.

So I thought, “What if I take the view that Bruce Willis was to the 90s what Chuck Norris was to the 70s?”

Well, not only did that reframe my view of “Striking Distance”, it helped me develop a plan for world peace and a cure for cancer.

(It’s amazing how effective this kind of reframing can be!)

So what’s the plot here? Willis’ character, Tom Hardy, has testified against an abusive cop who is also his cousin. As a result, all the other cops hate shim, even after his dad is murdered during a crazy car chase. A couple years later, Tom is some kind of river cop, pulling over drunken teenagers speeding on motorboats etc. He gets a new partner in the lithe form of Sarah Jessica Parker. The bodies of women start washing up, and it turns out they were all former flames of Tom. Someone is out to get him, and he has no shortage of suspects.

The movie proceeds with some twists and turns to an ending that I kind of saw coming, but wasn’t obvious.

The opening car chase is a blast, but must have violated about a million traffic safety rules. There’s no way cops could drive like that without killing dozens of innocents.

I’ve long said Willis is underrated in what he brought to action characters. The characters played by actors like Norris or Arnold Schwarzenegger were kind of unstoppable, which was fun but sucked out any drama (we know they’re going to win.) Willis, on the other hand, is no juggernaut. He’s fit but not intimidating.

I noted these various features of Willis’s characters years ago in a review I did of “Last Man Standing” (which is FANtastic!)

~~~The film also fermented in my mind Willis’ place as the king of schlep heroes. Balding and lumpy, he’s no athletic Van Damme or handsome Will Smith. He doesn’t win the day because he’s a highly trained fighter or commands James Bondian gadgets, but because he knows how to draw strength from hatred … And he simply has more willpower than the guy he’s facing. (Beneath almost all of Willis’ recent films, be it 12 Monkeys or the Die Hard series is an epitaph that could fill a Hallmark card – “Never Give Up!”) ~~~

Another part of Willis’ appeal is that beneath the tough guy exterior, he can be a whiner and a crier.

(Not to give anything away, but this was the comedic conceit behind his appearance on the sitcom “FRIENDS”.)

All this makes me genuinely saddened as to what has happened to him in real life.

As a piece of action kitsch, “Striking Distance” is all right.