Hudson Hawk (1991) is a fascinating failure. The cast is great, the plotting is spot-on, the music gag is fun, the humor largely works... and then the villains come in out of a cartoon and the thing goes to hell. It's weird because it could work fine as a kids' movie, but they drop the F-bomb all the time, so it's not meant to be a kids' movie. Yet there are moments toward the end that are so ridiculously cartoony and corny that you just want to slap somebody. And it's all physical stuff, so you can't really blame the writers.

I came to think that the screenplay was quite good and that the director, Michael Lehmann, just completely failed on the execution (like Fran Rubel Kuzui messed up Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Lehmann also directed Heathers, Air Heads, and My Giant, which is quite a mixed bag.

Bruce Willis actually came up with the story with music producer Robert Kraft. Then the screenplay was written by Steven de Souza, who wrote the first couple of Die Hard movies, Commando, 48 Hrs, and The Running Man and—after, I guess, some sort of severe head trauma—went on to write The Flintstone, Street Fighter, and Judge Dredd. He was partnered with Daniel Waters, who wrote Heathers, Ford Fairlane, Demolition Man, and Batman Returns. That's a lot of absurdist high wire acts, most of which are corny failures.

The story involves a burglar who gets out of prison and is dragged right back into the criminal life by people who want him to steal Leonardo Da Vinci art pieces. There are secrets within these art pieces, tho, that lead up to a slam-bang climax. Andi McDowell is a pretty art expert, and Danny Aiello is Willis's old pal and partner. The big cast of bad guys includes James Coburn as the head of the worst CIA team ever and Richard E Grant and Sandra Bernhard as insane and ridiculous madmen bent on world domination.

The first half of the film is pretty well done, with good character work between Willis and Aiello and some fun heist shenanigans. It's the second half where the clownish villains ramp up the camp to absurd levels and it stops being fun or funny.

Shame.

Last edited by Zarban (2013-01-27 03:07:51)