I can't believe Ebert and Roeper gave this two BIG thumbs up, the only reason I bothered to watch it in the first place. I couldn't stand Love The Hard Way. It made absolutely no sense. There was no chemistry between the Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna, despite two scenes during which she sticks her naked breasts into the camera, making this a horrible romance, and it was also an idiot crime thriller as well. The relationship between the two main characters had no motivation. The characters (most of whom just disappear after a while as if they were never important in the first place) never really get developed, and I'm talking even the main ones despite nearly two hours concentrating on them. Pam Grier floats around as sluggish as ever in a miscast role as a policewoman hot on their trail, I guess, I suppose, I really don't know actually. First Claire likes Jack and he just uses her, then she starts prostituting herself nearly to death and suddenly he cares, then he doesn't show up one night so she slits her wrists and we think she's dead, then two years later he gets out of jail and comes back to the same apartment, condo, squatter's crash palace or whatever the hell is still there waiting for him, and they get back together. WTF? Who cares? I actually stopped watching this about two thirds through because I was so bored but then finished it the next day just out of curiosity only to my disappointment. Blah!
Review of Love the Hard Way
