Hudson Hawk [DVD]

This is one of those movies. You either love it or hate it. I heard bad things about it and wasnt expecting much when I first saw it years ago. I bought the DVD years ago and just bought the Amazon stream for my iPad. I love this movie, not for everyone but it fits my sense of humor so 5 stars from me.

Hudson Hawk is a film like no other. Hilarious at times, head-scratchingly absurd at others, this is a film that will capture your interest and never fails to please when seen by a group of people. The premise is simple: an ex-con is black-mailed into stealing Leonardo da Vincis greatest treasures so a corrupt businessman can use them to turn lead into gold and ruin the worlds economy. If that sentence alone doesnt hook you in, then stop and read no further because this movie is not for you. Bruce Willis is endlessly charming in this and the rest of the cast is flat out awesome. Take a chance, ignore the critics, and be prepared to watch a movie that isnt afraid to have fun.

Good Action, Good Comedy and Good Story. One of Bruce Willis First Films outside of TVseries “MoonLighting”

Just a funny feel good movie. Highly recommend it.

I couldnt find my DVD so I had to purchase the digital version. Quirky comedy, fantastically goofy.

The movie actually starts off pretty well and I must confess to be slightly surprised with Willis’s comedic capability. Then the plot begins to mold into something completely ridiculous. I suppose if one doesn’t take the plot that seriously, they would enjoy it but it was too ridiculous for my liking.

I watched this movie as part of my pilgrimage through all of the terrible films covered by the How Did This Get Made? podcast, and it has to be one of the most memorable disasters Ive seen. What makes it really stand out to me is that it actually makes the full transition from tolerable to despicable to so-bad-its-good territory over the course of the runtime. I found the few opening scenes in Renaissance Italy and Willis release from prison tolerable, even charming. Then things become both very complex and confusing, yet incredibly stupid. The movie almost redeems itself in the third act, though, when Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard deliver such insane performances (even Nic Cage would be in awe) that they almost save the movie. At the end of the day, this movie doesnt have the charm of a sincerely made movie that is accidentally hilariously bad. Its a comedy that fails spectacularly at being funny or charming. It is somewhat funny, just not in the way the maker intended. I mean, a developmentally delayed man makes a rape joke in the middle of the movie. (I had to go back to make sure I didnt imagine it. Its there.) Bruce Willis is so smug its almost intolerable. I dont know who this movie is for. The humor is cartoonish and lame, but theres too much swearing and throat-slitting for this to be a kids show. Its almost a heist-movie musical, but they dont really commit to the singing and Danny Aiello is the only one who actually sings well. This is a movie that thinks its hilarious, and the only real pleasure to be had is in beholding how badly almost every joke falls flat. Anyway, here are some movie suggestions if you either liked this mess for some reason, or you want to see what it looks like when its done better. -Do you want a completely insane power couple driving the action in a fever dream of a movie? Check out Nic Cage and Laura Dern in David Lynchs Wild at Heart. (Just be aware, youll have nightmares about Willem Dafoe for months afterwards.) -Do you want a time-traveling crime caper, but with humor that actually works? See Time Bandits. You cant go wrong with Sean Connery, the Monty Python gang, and a gang of time-traveling criminal dwarfs. -Do you like globe-trotting, over the top action flicks featuring henchmen who like to slice and dice their enemies? Go watch The Kingsman. I hated the humor in that movie too, but Colin Firth is ridiculously charming and the action is innovative and exciting. -Do you want an action-comedy where the hero is an ex-con who is reluctantly roped back into a life of crime? Go see Ant-Man, or better yet, The Blues Brothers. In fact, just go watch the Blues Brothers. Youll be better off.

The conventional wisdom on this 1991 film is that it was a colossal bomb which derailed Willis career. It got terrible reviews, true, and it flopped at the box office, but Ive never been convinced that Hudson Hawk was the awful stinker that its reputation would have you believe. The comedy in this film is certainly off-beat, at times silly, and its easy to understand how the style and tone of this film failed to appeal to film critics. Id agree that Hudson Hawk isnt for everyone. But theres also a slightly surreal, almost absurdist quality to this movie, lurking just behind the surface, and I think that if you accept that not everything in this movie makes literal sense-- or is even intended to make literal sense-- the experience of watching Hudson Hawk is a lot more fun. Relax, switch your brain out of literal mode, and enjoy this bizarre panoply of characters. Youll be glad that you did. The sardonic 90s wit of young Bruce Willis is amusing, and Andie MacDowell is a breath of fresh air. The candy bar gang is hilarious. Sandra Bernhard, in particular, is delicious in her role as the oversexed villainess. If you look at Hudson Hawk as a crime caper, yes, the ending will probably fall flat. If, instead, you look at it as an Alice-in-Wonderland quest for the perfect cup of cappuccino, you wont be disappointed.

Good quality

Hudson Hawk is movie about Eddie Hawkins, famed cat-burglar the Hudson Hawk, who after serving 10 years in prison, finds himself blackmailed into stealing the works of Leonardo Da Vinci to recreate his gold transmuting machine. Sounds like a generic action movie, until you find that Eddie and his old and fattening partner Tommy are as unconventional as thieves can be. Singing songs to time their actions, using flair and creativity and mocking the use of gadgets, like a watch. Then we find that the blackmailers include inept mobsters, sardonic and insane CIA agents, and two Billionaires that are such over-the-top lunatics that the action and dialog begin to seem like a comic book. Despite, or because, all this the story holds together and still evokes a laugh. The last action sequence does come off as somewhat silly, and a second of censor editing left in for unknown reasons that chops a wity one-liner in half(half liner?) disrupts the movie slightly. But overall the movie is fun and enjoyable. And the last line of the movie made me go back and watch it again, to see the truth for myself. The REAL plot of the movie: Eddie is trying to get a cup of coffee.