Ricochet

1991 Directed by Russell Mulcahy

He's a cop accused of murder. And the only man who knows he's innocent is the killer who framed him.

An attorney is terrorized by the criminal he put away years ago when he was a cop.

Denzel Washington John Lithgow Ice-T Kevin Pollak Lindsay Wagner Mary Ellen Trainor Josh Evans Victoria Dillard John Amos John Cothran, Jr. Linda Dona Matt Landers Lydell M. Cheshier Starletta DuPois Sherman Howard Viveka Davis Jesse Ventura Mark Phelan Rielle Hunter Irene Cagen George Cheung

Alternative Titles

Verdetto finale, Rykoszet, Ricochete, Psykopat på fri fod, Рикошет, Ricochet - Harhaluoti, Visszakézből, Rikošet, Ricochet - besatt av hämnd, Ricochet - Der Aufprall, Sem Limite para Vingar

crime

109 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Todd Gaines ★★★ 37

Denzel Washington stars as a cop who strips down to his underwear, to catch crazy ass looney professional hitman, John Lithgow. It's all caught on camera, and Denzel becomes a local media darling and instant celebrity. Meanwhile, Lithgow is rotting away in prison, pissed, and swears revenge. Fast-forward a few years, and Denzel is now an attorney, workin' for the DA. He's livin' the American Dream, but it's about to turn into a nightmare. Lithgow escapes prison, and concocts an evil plan to make Denzel's life a livin' hell. Ricochet is a lightning-paced-cat-and-mouse action feast, where it's not always clear, who's chasing who.
It's hard not to like Denzel Washington. He's one of the most likable actors in Hollywood. He's…
Review by matt lynch ★★★★ 3

This is in essence the original DTV movie that somehow escaped to theaters, and still maybe the best one.
Discussed on Episode 7 of The Suspense is Killing Us.
Review by Steve G 🐝 ★★★★½ 17

The 80s and 90s Neo-Noir Project
Before I start this review I just want to give a shout out to my mate Dave for reminding me of the existence of this film, which in turn led to me prioritising a rewatch of this.
The early to mid 90s were a brilliant time for action films but the reason it was such a great period was not just because of the huge name actioners that appeared during that time. We all know True Lies, The Fugitive, Demolition Man, Terminator 2, Total Recall, Speed, Cliffhanger, The Last Boy Scout, Under Siege and so on were awesome and you don't need me to spell that out to you.
But they were great because…
Review by christian di leo ★★★½ 2

on par with face/off, con air and hard target when it comes to crazy action movies of the 90s
this thing is fucking NUTTY!!!
seek this out IMMEDIATELY!!!
Review by Andrew Jupin ★★★★ 3

Disgusted with myself that it took 29 years for me to see this beautifully insane film.
Review by Joe Lynch ★★★ 3

Man the late 80’s/early 90’s action fare was GNARLY. Lithgow chews scenes like he’s got chainsaw mouth, Denzel is vibrant and feisty and the HIGHLANDER-sequel prison fight is worth a look alone.
Review by Joe ★★★★ 5

The Naked Gun
This is a unique pleasure but it might be even more fun if it were even remotely possible to take seriously, its completely deranged anti-narrative instead begins to feel like an Exquisite Corpse-esque game of oneupsmanship on the part of the screenwriters, director, and actors. Russell Mulcahy gives this plenty of visual panache (would love to see it in its proper aspect ratio someday, but for reasons unknown to me it never even made it to DVD in that form), and Denzel Washington is bar none the best movie star of all time to play a hero being driven mad by powerful forces just outside of his perception, just as he would do again the following decade in The Manchurian Candidate. Ice-T's title song is also, naturally, one for the books, like War and Peace or the Bible!
Review by Timcop ★★★★ 3

Prison guard: "I hope you remembered to floss."
John Lithgow: "I did...with your wife's pubic hair."
Unbelievably lurid and insane action movie/psychological thriller with Denzel and Lithgow essentially trying to top each other in craziness throughout, like Lou Reed and John Cale trying to drown out each other's instruments on "Sister Ray". They even left room open in the script for Kevin Pollack's famous Shatner impression.
Be careful or else you'll fall into one of Denzel's multiple shirtless thirst traps.
Review by Geoff T ★★★½

A fairly obscure revenge-themed action-thriller, Ricochet is one I've digged into before, but it recently entered my mind again so I thought I'd give it another spin, and I don't regret it one bit. This early Denzel Washington vehicle won't be mistaken for high-art in any way, but this is one that never fails to entertain me just because of how utterly bonkers it is.
A young Washington of course plays Nick Styles, a district attorney who has been living the good life since he put psychotic hitman Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow in full-on psycho mode) behind bars a decade ago as an LAPD rookie. Unknownst to him, Blake (along with his scrawny little partner-in-crime Kim) has plans of…
Review by Jacob Knight ★★★★ 2

“Pork, back off or else she's gonna need a paper bag over her head when her boyfriend fucks what's left of her!”
King Heel Lithgow Forever.
Review by Brian Formo ★★★½ 5

Major (and unexpected) grindhouse. Selected highlights are an absurd and unexpected and violent jailbreak AND the line I bet he shit his pants, I can’t wait to look. This ludicrous potboiler has Denzel Washington face off against John Lithgow in his skivies, sex tapes AND in claustrophobic close ups. The amount of surprises in this just keep piling up.. even if they’re crazy silly it’s jaw-to-the-floor wildness.
Tight score, quality camera angles, conspiracy television, Ice-T, and Denzel in a pink bathrobe with chlamydia!
Review by Colin the dude ★★★★

Hm, that was one bald-faced exercise in trash, yet an endlessly amusing watch all the same. Denzel and Lithgow are devouring so much scenery that it cannot be denied that there is merit to this film. Ice-T brings his fair share of ham as well, and the levels of vulgar theatricality from all are scarily watchable. This needs to be seen by consumers of pure, shameless excrement disguised as movies.

Recent reviews

Review by Kaleab Taye ★★★

Denzel is doing ALOT in this movie.....and it’s incredible. This is the closest Denzel has ever gone to making a comic book movie.
Review by Bradley Baker ★★½

Black Die Hard, but way worse, but also better.
Review by Kirk Balopoulos ★★★★

This movie is dumb as shit and I love it. We get a phone-book-armor prison sword fight in the first thirty minutes and it just gets progressively more crazy from there.
+ 1/2 star for Denzel in his undies
Review by Tyler D ★★★½

Hell yeah. You had me at prison escape power tool massacre and kept me all the way through to electrifying Watts Towers. Dekker/Silver to the nines.
Review by welovedfilms ★★★

A nice 90s Denzel Washington film that my mom told me to watch. And I don’t regret it
Review by Mash ★★★★

It's not good but I enjoyed it
Review by jergonza13 ★½

Went down a Denzel rabbit hole after watching Training Day, and I gotta say probably should have picked something else. The movie starts with young Denzel dunking on someone in a playground pickup game while wearing a crop top, and it’s all downhill from there
Review by KC ★★½

NUTS
Review by mebweezy ★★★

this is fucking insane
Review by AnonymousCoward ★★½

bizarre
Review by Blake Johnston ★★★★ 1

This is pure 80's transitioning to 90's adrenaline and it's really fun and pretty clever for an action thriller. Washington and Lithgow's performances are equally over the top and eccentric, but it oddly doesn't clash and keeps a thoroughly entertaining pace throughout. It's not too drawn out, very short and sweet. This should up there with LETHAL WEAPON and DIE HARD, but it seems to have gotten left behind and forgotten with many other undervalued action thrillers. Worth a watch!
Review by J.R. Crawford ★★★½

uhh, are there other movies in the die hard universe i need to know about?