Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal are Chicago cops who are toying with the idea of retirement and moving to Key West to run a bar in the buddy-cop film Running Scared. Director Peter Hyams was coming off some success following 2010: The Year We Make Contact and recruited the actors for he film, and other chemistry is the best part of the film.

Ray (Hines) and Danny (Crystal) are getting tired of getting shot at, dealing with thugs like Snake (Joe Pantoliano) and drug dealers like Julio (Jimmy Smits), not to mention dealing with their captain (Dan Hedaya).

After a particularly rough run-in, their captain sends them on enforced vacation, and they learn to sit back, relax and enjoy the pace and style of Key West. So much so that they plan to retire and open a bar.

When the holiday is over, they are back in the cold and windy streets of Chicago, and find that Julio is still on the streets and causing problems. This time it’s personal, Julio grabs Danny’s ex-wife, Anna (Darlanne Fluegel) and holds her hostage until Danny and Ray get Julio’s drugs back to him.

Hyamns can be hit and miss, though for the most part, I’ve enjoyed a lot of his work, and pairing Crystal and Hines together is a lot of fun, because they come off as real partners and friends. They have a shorthand to their dialogue, and they just seem to click really well.

And they feel right. There’s an honesty to their portrayal, sure it’s a movie, and licenses are taken with reality, but there’s a reality of working-class guys here, they love their Chicago teams and love their nagging, and their bantering, and it all lends a nice feel to their characters.

The action sequences are fine, leaning more toward the comedic angle of things, allowing the actors to do their thing, and it’s never as ambitious as it could be, but it is fun. The Key West sequence is great, and it’s underscored by Sweet Freedom by Micheal McDonald which I just remember was playing everywhere for a while that summer. And yes, I had the soundtrack on cassette, and have presently reacquired it on LP, and man, the nostalgia this soundtrack brings back to me personally.

It’s a fun movie, it’s not a great movie, but it’s something to see all these very familiar actors showing up in a film. I like Hines, Crystal, Hedaya, Smits, Pantoliano, and Fluegel, so it’s great just to watch them all working together.