Where then, if the cast is good and the notion behind the film intriguing does the thing falter? Ostensibly, the film is supposed to be about the search for the new killer, but the search never really gets going. There is no mystery that unravels, the film just proceeds until the final scenes, where, miraculously, the killer is revealed. To that point in the film though, there are almost a half-dozen different people who could have been the killer, it almost feels as though the writers – Harrington and Marty Kaplan (The Distinguished Gentleman) – just chose a name at random and then did the big reveal explaining how all the pieces fit together. The film clocks in at just under one hour and forty-five minutes, and feels as though had they shot for a full two hours the filmmakers could have concocted a far more satisfying, deep, story. That, however, may have lowered the percentage of the film in which there are chases, curses, shoot-outs, and/or explosions.
The Blu-ray release of Striking Distance, just like the plot, is a bare-bones affair. There are no special features included, and while it looks and sounds good, there is nothing about it that is truly memorable. The print is free of imperfections, the black levels good, and the 5.1 channel audio crisp-sounding and well-mixed. Some may complain about the amount of grain visible in the print, but I choose to see that as an attempt at giving the movie a "gritty" feel as opposed to an issue in transfer.
In the end, I find myself leaving Striking Distance exactly where I entered – it's not god-awful. One could go out and see better movies, but one could also go out and see far worse. The cast is good, everyone delivers a decent (or better) performance, and searching out a serial killer can make for an interesting film. In the case of Striking Distance, it should have made for a far better one than it did.
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