Police Officer Alex Kearney is a patrolman in Bryn Mawr, an affluent, plush suburb of Philadelphia—until he stops an important businessman and his account of the incident is not believed.

The scene where Anthony Edwards pretends to pull over Penelope Ann Miller is filmed on Yale Street, in Claremont, CA.

Hal Hinson of The Washington Post called the film racist for picturing "the inner city as an all-black criminal hell-town where the men who walk the streets are much less human than the people in the all-white suburbs.

[4] On 16 January 1990, Chicago Tribune wrote "lurches crudely and disruptively between sitcom flippancy, sickening violence, cartoonish physical comedy and oozing sentimentality.

"[4] On 17 January 1990, USA Today wrote "derivative, dull, dopey, degrading, dumb, deplorable", and panned Anthony Edwards as "so bland he makes Wonder Bread look funky"[4] "the wimp starts to toughen up, while the rebel becomes a sensitive, sharing, family man" — Adrian Martin, November 1992.