{"id":3873,"date":"2024-09-06T14:19:39","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T14:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3873"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:24:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:24:30","slug":"hudson-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/06\/hudson-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Hudson Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hudson Hawk <\/strong>(1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, sexual innuendo)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Lehmann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steven E. de Souza and Daniel Waters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Kamen and Robert Kraft\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dante Spinotti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 24, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard, Donald Burton, Don Harvey, David Caruso, Lorraine Toussaint, Andrew Bryniarski, Burtt Harris, Frank Stallone, Carmine Zozzara, Doug Martin, Steve Martin, Leonardo Cimino, Frank Welker (voice), William Conrad (narrator).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $17.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like everybody else, I hated Hudson Hawk<\/strong> when it first came out. I saw it at a free advance screening and still felt ripped off. But I have this thing about notorious big budget fiascos like Heaven\u2019s Gate, Ishtar, Cutthroat Island and Hudson Hawk<\/strong>. I feel compelled to rewatch them, sometimes multiple times. I think it was my third viewing that made me a fan. It was then I realized it was more like a bizarre live-action cartoon with all the goofball humor, OTT characters and slapstick violence. Now I think it\u2019s great!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Michael Lehmann (Heathers), Hudson Hawk<\/strong> is a zany, convoluted comic caper with a plot that\u2019s all over the map, both figuratively and literally. Bruce Willis (Die Hard) stars a master thief who\u2019s forced by several different parties to steal priceless works of art by Leonardo da Vinci. Why? Complete world domination, of course.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After spending ten years in prison, all reformed cat burglar Eddie Hawkins (aka \u201cHudson Hawk\u201d, nicknamed after the cold winds off the Hudson River) wants out of life is a cappuccino. Not as easy as it sounds since it\u2019s 1991 and there wasn\u2019t a Starbucks on every city block yet. It\u2019s like the universe has conspired against Hawk starting with his parole officer (Harris, Q & A), who along with Mafia members Cesar (Stallone, Staying Alive) and Antony Mario (Zozzara)- the Mario Brothers, get it?- blackmail and threaten him into stealing a model of a horse sculpted by Da Vinci from an auction house. He and his partner, Tommy \u201cFive-Tone\u201d Messina (Aiello, Do the Right Thing), successfully pull off the job, but that\u2019s not the end of it. Far from it, actually. There are others involved. Like a team of young CIA agents, all code-named after candy bars, led by George Kaplan (Coburn, Our Man Flint) and Vatican representative Anna (MacDowell, Four Weddings and a Funeral). Behind it all are Eurotrash supervillains Darwin (Grant, Withnail and I) and Minerva (Bernhard, The King of Comedy) Mayflower.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what exactly is it that the Mayflowers want? How do they intend to achieve world domination? It\u2019s quite simple, really. Each piece of art that Hawk steals for them-\u00a0 the horse, Da Vinci\u2019s Codex and a scale model of a flying machine he designed- contains a piece of a crystal that activates a machine that turns lead into gold. With it, they hope to topple the world\u2019s economy. Okay, whatever. This illustrates just how silly Hudson Hawk<\/strong> is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think the reason it bombed so badly at the box office is that action fans went in expecting something along the lines of Die Hard, not a Looney Tunes remake of To Catch a Thief. It\u2019s a film that was ahead of its time. One point of contention and confusion regards Hawk and Tommy breaking into song while doing their break-ins. I heard so many people complain they didn\u2019t understand this particular plot device. For their benefit, I will explain. It\u2019s how they time their jobs. For whatever reason, they know the exact running times of several pop songs (e.g. \u201cSwinging on a Star\u201d, \u201cSide by Side\u201d). Whatever works, right? Plotwise, Hudson Hawk<\/strong> is a mess. It\u2019s all over the damn place. A person could get dizzy trying to keep up with it. That\u2019s part of the fun! Some call it confusing, I call it madcap.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love this cast! Grant and Bernhard are great as the comically, cartoonishly evil supervillains. What most people don\u2019t seem to get is that their characters demand the broad performances they deliver. Besides, how can you not like a pair of villains who employ the services of a butler (theater actor Burton) with blades up his sleeves? I\u2019m telling you, this guy should get a job at Benihana. Willis, who shares all of his screen time with his ego, is actually pretty good. Here, he\u2019s like a post-modern Cary Grant by way of Wile E. Coyote.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the things I like best about Hudson Hawk<\/strong> is the CIA team, especially Butterfinger played by fellow Philly guy Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake). The others are Snickers (Harvey, Die Hard 2), Kit Kat (Caruso, CSI: Miami) and Almond Joy (Toussaint, Dangerous Minds). They\u2019re just funny. Here\u2019s the thing, the whole cast looks like they\u2019re having a blast. Why shouldn\u2019t we as well?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hudson Hawk<\/strong> is riotously funny at times. Willis has some great side remarks. MacDowell is charming as Willis\u2019 potential love interest. Aiello is always great, he\u2019s one of my favorite character actors. The movie has plenty of action too. I\u2019m particularly fond of the sequence in which Hawk rides a runaway ambulance gurney on the Brooklyn Bridge. I understand why so many people dislike Hudson Hawk<\/strong>, but I don\u2019t agree. It\u2019s such a narrative mess and such an egregious waste of $65M that it surpasses bad and lands in the realm of the surreal. I mean that in the best possible way. In its own twisted way, Hudson Hawk<\/strong> is brilliant.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hudson Hawk (1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, sexual innuendo)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Lehmann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steven E. de Souza and Daniel Waters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Kamen and Robert Kraft\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dante Spinotti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 24, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard, Donald Burton, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Hudson-Hawk-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4970,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions\/4970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}