Nick Styles (Denzel Washington) is an up and coming beat cop who ends up taking down criminal mastermind Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow), thus skyrocketing his career. Years later, he's now a famous attorney with a family and life couldn't be better. That is until Blake escapes from prison, hell bent on revenge and terrorizing Styles.

On the surface, there's nothing about Ricochet that stands out from the countless other cop thrillers of the 80's and 90's, of which there were many. But it's the insanely talented production that kicks this many levels up above cookie-cutter. One of the first things you'll notice immediately is the killer score by Alan Silvestri. Immediately, you'll notice a very strong Predator vibe, and it only does wonders for a film that normally wouldn't warrant such a big and thunderous score. It's awesome. While Silvestri's score over the opening credits already have you in a trance, you'll start seeing names pop up that, if you're at all a fan of action, will kind of blow you away. The "story" is by none other than Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, Monster Squad), with the "screenplay" by 80's and 90's action legend Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard, 48 Hrs., Commando, Die Hard 2, The Running Man, Judge Dredd). It's produced by mega producer and action genre legend Joel Silver (Action Jackson, Predator, Commando, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard). Right there, it's just about an action fans dream. But add to that Russell Mulcahy's rather impressive visual eye candy, right at the peak of his creative talents, and everything just comes together so much more impressive than you would ever expect from a film like this.
I'll admit that it's been far too long since the last time I revisited this. I've always loved it, and have always considered it one of Mulcahy's best films, but it often gets lost in the flood of films I try to consume on a yearly basis. That is until I revisited Highlander II recently, reigniting my interest for some of Mulcahy's better films. Truthfully, you can count his best films out of his entire career on a single hand. Much like Renny Harlin, the best stuff was early in his career. It's hard to pinpoint why it happens, but there's always a "shift" in quality, a moment in their career where it all changes so drastically and it never recovers. It's happened to a lot of my favorites; Renny Harlin, John McTiernan, Albert Pyun, Stuart Gordon, and Mulcahy most certainly falls into that category. It's sad and frustrating.
Following this film Mulcahy gave us a forgettable heist film with Kim Basinger and Val Kilmer called The Real McCoy, and then The Shadow, a film that should have reignited his career and shot it into the big budget stratosphere with the big league boys, but as you know, that's not what happened. The Shadow, while not all that great of a film, didn't manage to muster up much interest and did poorly. Visually, The Shadow is pretty to look at, I'll give it that, but it just seems to be lacking substance, or anything to keep you really interested. It constantly feels like it's missing something, never going as far as you feel it should. After that he's pretty much stuck to television and direct-to-video work, with the occasional big budget film from time to time.
Ricochet isn't mentioned nearly enough as being an essential piece of Badass Cinema. Which is rather surprising when you take into consideration that every single person that I ask about this film loves it to death. So why is not considered more of a classic? I can't explain it myself. It's damn near a perfect cop action/thriller and just a great film all around. As of 2016, it's been 25 years since it's release and to date, we've only gotten a very bare bones and sub-par DVD release, where I believe the transfer was taken from a Laserdisc. It's grainy, old, and not in true widescreen, but rather a Letterbox crop. It's such a shame because the film itself looks incredible. It really begs a new cleaned up transfer and upgrade to Blu ray. Until then, you can get the DVD insanely cheap, and for now, that's the best we're going to get.
Yeah, this was a blind spot for me until a few years back. It's an insanely fun action film. My only criticism is that Lithgow goes too far over the top. I wished he reined it in a bit.
ReplyDeleteBonus fact: Mary Ellen Trainor plays reporter Gail Wallens in this film AND Die Hard. Meaning they are set in the same universe. I'm still waiting for my John McClane/Nick Styles team-up film!