Striking Distance – Jagoff Cops

Striking Distance is a fairly stereotypical 90s cop movie, but with a twist: Bruce Willis' hairline! From scene to scene it shifts dramatically.

Balding Bruce, which we must assume is the Bruce from the original shooting, transforms into toupee Bruce multiple times throughout the movie—sometimes from one cut to the next. It's astounding.

The wig—despite its omnipresence—is not the hook of the film, though. Striking Distance follows the downward trajectory of former homicide detective Tom Hardy. He's now a river rescue cop.

Why? Well, he sold out his partner, and was shunned by the other boys in blue.  Ok, but what's the rest of the movie about? Oh, there's also a serial killer—the Polish Hill Strangler—who murders girls and dumps them in rivers.

Yes, this movie is a hot mess; and was apparently also one behind-the-scenes. Hence, it was drowned by critics (17% on Rotten Tomatoes with 24 reviews); and died hard at the box office, grossing just $24 million domestically ($77 million worldwide) on a budget of $30 million.

Willis—who was such an a-hole on set that he was dubbed "Orson Willis"—disowned Striking Distance in the early 2000s. The wig, however, still feels its his finest performance.

Now sit back, toss back a few Iron City Lights from Pittsburgh Brewing Co., and be on the lookout for barge pirates! I, the Thunderous Wizard (@WriterTLK), Capt. Cash, Mayor McCheese, and Chumpzilla are vying for the title of "best cop"!

This Week’s Segments:

• Introduction/Plot Breakdown – They shouldn't have put him in the water, if they didn't want him to make waves! (00:00)
• Lingering Questions – The Double Turn Podcast challenges us to a "Toupee on a Pole" match and then we debate what, if anything, could've saved this movie. (52:40)
• The "Let Me Rephrase That" Trivia Challenge – We hear from our brothers in beer at Hop Nation USA, and then Capt. Cash hosts trivia about the movie. (1:05:25)
• Recommendations – We offer our picks for the week and next up: We finish "Hops and Hometown Flops" in the mean streets of Cleveland with Kill the Irishman! (1:17:49)

And, as always, hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to check out all the interesting factoids—the slew of behind-the-scenes issues and more—from this week’s episode!

You can find this episode of Hops and Box Office Flops on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Acast, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Vurbl, and Amazon Music!

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