September 22, 1993 -- ``Striking Distance,'' the latest film starring Bruce Willis to hit town is, yawn, fresh out of ideas and is not nearly as well made as his ``Die Hard'' films.

``Striking Distance'' bears a lot more similarity to another Bruce Willis film, ``Hudson Hawk,'' than it does to his more successful films. I'll be surprised if it continues to outgross ``The Fugitive'' as it did on its opening weekend because it is not in the same class as that film.

``Striking Distance'' is a police drama about a renegade Pittsburgh cop who is trying to find out who killed his father, also a cop. A number of logical inconsistencies make the film far from believable. The murder mystery is not hard to figure out. The plot twist at the end of the film is more annoying than interesting.

Willis has an undemanding role, similar to the character he played in the Die Hard films, and he does well enough with it. Sarah Jessica Parker is also good as the love interest. The trouble is, it's hard to work up any sympathy for all the surly, back-stabbing characters in the film. A strong villain is needed, but is not delivered. The villain stays hidden throughout 90 percent of the film.

When the villain does show up, he turns out to be straight out of loony tunes, laughably overwrought. When the shocking truth about the killer is revealed at the end of the film, my reaction was ``who cares, this is really boring.''

Not only was it fairly boring and loaded with distasteful characters, the film had a nasty streak of meanness and violence, especially toward women. This is a disappointing film. It rates a D, for dud.

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