This film works as well as it does because it concentrates not on its one-joke hero, but on James Woods, who gives another startling and complex character study in a film that doesn't really deserve it, as a fascistic cop in the 'Lethal Weapon'-mode, whose petty corruption never makes life easy for himself, and who is as anti-social as the killer he seeks. Badham cleverly contrasts the chaotic, pulsating mass of New York with this symbol of order, the cop, and asks which is the more disruptive.
The final third falls apart, trying to tie up a plot that has long since served its purpose, but the observations on acting, on role-playing in life as well as on screen are properly worked out. The film is a lot of fun, always about to burst into violence - I loved most the gender-playing bar scene with Lang pretending to be Susan; and the subway hold-up, with farce turning into terror, Moss freezing the thug with his cobra eyes.
The final third falls apart, trying to tie up a plot that has long since served its purpose, but the observations on acting, on role-playing in life as well as on screen are properly worked out. The film is a lot of fun, always about to burst into violence - I loved most the gender-playing bar scene with Lang pretending to be Susan; and the subway hold-up, with farce turning into terror, Moss freezing the thug with his cobra eyes.