A man is framed by two corrupt cops for drugs. After he gets out of prison, he comes after them.A man is framed by two corrupt cops for drugs. After he gets out of prison, he comes after them.A man is framed by two corrupt cops for drugs. After he gets out of prison, he comes after them.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMany of the film's prison scenes were filmed at the old Hamilton County Jail in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Jail, also known as the "Cincinnati Workhouse", had been permanently closed prior to the location filming of the movie. It had been built during the Civil War to house enemy troops and was still in use by Hamilton county and Cincinnati area police agencies as a jail as late as the 1970s. It was closed due to being "inhumane, cruel and unusual" by modern jail standards.
- GoofsAt the end of the film, one of the bad detectives goes to prison and is marched into the middle of the general population. No prison in the United States allows former police officers to be sent into the main prison; such persons are always sent directly to protective custody.
- Quotes
Kate Rainwood: [Kate is visiting Virgil in prison] I'm here because we don't know what else to do. It's like they haunt Jimmie. And after they came to the house... we need your help. I mean, Jimmie's already introduced me to Malcolm, but he can only do so much.
Virgil Cane: Those assholes have been riding high so long they think the only thing that can take them down is kryptonite. Of course, they are peabrained, dickless shitheads.
[Kate laughs]
Virgil Cane: Which is definitely in our favor.
[laughs]
Virgil Cane: Definitely!
Kate Rainwood: You've been hoping for something like this, haven't you?
Virgil Cane: [smiling] Let's just say it makes my decade.
[turns serious]
Virgil Cane: I'll get exactly the information that you need and I'll reach out to you real soon.
Kate Rainwood: [impressed] You're just like Jimmie described you... a schemer and a charmer.
[Virgil smiles]
Kate Rainwood: Thanks for everything you did for him, Virgil.
[they stand up and shake hands]
- Alternate versionsNetwork television version used several alternate takes of scenes, with milder language.
- SoundtracksWhen the Night Comes
Written by Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance and Diane Warren
Performed by Joe Cocker
Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.
By Arrangement with CEMA Special Markets
Earlier in 1989 we had seen the release of Sly Stallone vehicle Lock Up, a film, that for all its many faults, was a dream come true to the action movie fan who also has a bent for any piece involving incarceration. So up steps Tom Selleck, who after recently showing himself to be a more than effective light entertainer in films such as Three Men and a Baby and Her Alibi, is looking to break out into other, more rounded genres (he also made the quite excellent Quigley Down Under in 1989). For the most part it's a good fit for Selleck and the casting director. The role of Jimmie Rainwood calls for someone charming, elegant and reeking of pure homeliness. That's Selleck without doubt. But the problems for many observers have been, and will be for first time viewers, the transformation of homely Tom into cocksure daddio prison geezer. Thrust into a world of violence and male rape, Rainwood simply must shape up or face a few years of brutality and a stripping of his soul. We know this, and once he starts to be guided by Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham adding a touch of class to a stereotypical role), the film for the rest of the prison sections is sign posted for us. And it's hard to swallow, even for someone like me who is a fan of the film!
As for the other elements in the film, the various sub-plots hold few surprises. Rainwood's wife (Laila Robins) is loving and crusading for her man's release, but writer Larry Brothers has her very much by the numbers. As he does for Badja Djola's Internal Affairs investigator, John Fitzgerald. The latter of which is a real shame as Djola holds his scenes very well and is aching to put more meat into the character. Then there is of course our dirty cops played by Richard Young & David Rasche. Young's Danny Scaliese is the calm thinking one, Rasche's Mike Parnell is the aggressive and borderline psychotic one. It's hard to tell if Rasche is playing it for ham or really attempting to layer the madness lurking within? Either way, it's very entertaining, if ultimately miles away from the brilliance that was his Sledge Hammer! TV series. These cops are of course in desperate need of a fall, the question is if the makers here are merely reverting to formula or do they have some tricks up their sleeves? Well it's directed by Peter Yates and the writer is hardly an inspired scribe, so you do the maths. And lets face it, Selleck is no Stallone - a better actor for sure, but when it comes to shanking and shooting who you gonna call? Rambo or Magnum?
I do like the film a lot, but I love the genre it belongs to anyway. And I literally will watch Abraham in anything. So take my 7/10 rating purely with a pinch of salt and call it a 6/10 time filler if you not be singing of the same page as myself.
- hitchcockthelegend
- Apr 23, 2010
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Hard Rain
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $20,047,604
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,700,000
- Oct 9, 1989
- Gross worldwide
- $20,047,604
- Runtime1 hour 53 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1