Remember when turning comedians into action stars was a thing?

OK, you still see it with regard to superhero movies, but once upon a time it worked. Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Billy Crystal in Running Scared.

You heard me.

The story is simple. Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines (who gets top billing) are two plain clothed Chicago cops. Long time partners, they are at that point where they are a bit too comfortable at their job. Legal niceties are ignored to get the bad guys, resulting in lots of lawsuits, but get the bad guys they do, all while enjoying themselves. A bust of drug dealer Jimmy Smits goes a bit wrong, and our heroes are forced to take a vacation in Key West... where they discover retiring might be a pleasurable option. Returning, they decide to take one more crack at getting Smits before heading south. But, as old Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy used to say, once you talk about retiring, you are retired. They become cautious. They... are running scared.

But, forget all that.

This movie lives or dies on the chemistry between Crystal and Hines, as two old friends who honestly like each other. It is thus more of a Butch and Sundance relationship than most cop films. They wisecrack, run scams, and generally know the system well enough to do what they want. Those who oppose police over reach will not like this film For the most part, it works. The jokes are good, with some especially good lines (on re-watching it, I discovered it to be the source for one I use often at hockey games: "Hey, no autopsy, no foul!"). The actions scenes are fun, including a car chase on Chicago's elevated tracks. The ending, too, is not quite what you expect, as the expected beat is nicely stepped around.

All is not perfect in this Peter Hyams film, though. The plot is mostly dealt with by having someone come up to our heroes, giving a few lines of exposition telling what the new development is. None of it makes much sense, and Smits is not a real character. Also, while most of the improv in the movie is great, the two leads having good chemistry, I really wish the director had reigned in Crystal a bit. A couple times he goes into silly voice mode. These are characters from his Saturday Night Live days, and stuck out as a bad idea back in the day. Nowadays, maybe, they'll work better as you youngsters probably haven't seen those bits.

I will say Crystal and Hines make good cops. Crystal in particular looks the part, and even physically seems in good enough shape. I really wish he had kept doing these type of roles, either sequels to this or just more action movies in general. It looks like this was his first staring role, so a more successful box office could have easily sent him off in that direction. Imagine, no Harry Met Sally, but instead Running Scared 3: Still Running!

In closing, it's a minor classic that is well worth watching.