Wuchak RELEASED IN 1991 and directed by Michael Lehmann, "Hudson Hawk" stars Bruce Willis as the titular expert cat burglar who has just been released from prison and intends on going straight, but he's blackmailed by the eccentric Mayflower couple (Richard E. Grant & Sandra Bernhard) into stealing works of Leonardo da Vinci for a gold-making machine that will destroy the world's economy. Danny Aiello plays Hawk's partner and Andie MacDowell his maybe babe. James Coburn is on hand as a top CIA agent.The film advertises right out of the gate that it's a goofy comedy, a parody of caper/spy flicks. The creators & cast bend over backwards to amuse the audience, but there are too few lulls to catch your breath. It's an almost constant barrage of over-the-top camp and comedy. I laughed several times, but too often I didn't. Still, it's a likable albeit curious throwaway comedy and should especially be worthwhile for fans of the cast. It cost an incredible $65 million (no doubt due to the costly globetrotting) and understandably flopped at the box office.THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 40 minutes and was shot in California, New York, New Jersey, Italy, Vatican City, Hungary and London. WRITERS: Story by Bruce Willis & Robert Kraft; screenplay by Steven E. de Souza & Daniel Waters.GRADE: C

grizzledgeezer "Hudson Hawk" is not so much a story about itself, but about other action-adventure films -- almost any one you can think of, but most significantly "North by Northwest" (with a bit of "It Takes a Thief" thrown in). * As its only purpose is to make self-aware references to other films, why should the viewer be interested? If the movie's creators don't take the material seriously -- why should we?"North by Northwest" is hardly a serious film. The climactic scene on Mount Rushmore is //intended// to be ridiculous, a parody of Hitchcock thrillers. ** It gets away with this silliness by doing a slow build in which the normalcy and predictability of everyday life are gradually stripped away. What ought to be absurd is accepted as realistic.You can't have a film that's ridiculous/absurd from the beginning -- unless it's an obvious farce ("Airplane!") or a Warners cartoon. "Hudson Hawk" is neither.There are moments of real humor, especially one involving a ketchup bottle. But these are too few and far between to even begin to save the film. (As Rossini said of Wagner... "Great moments, but terrible half-hours.")For what it's worth, Michael Lehmann's direction is superb -- perfectly paced and timed. It's hard to imagine this film being worse than it is -- but it could have been.* If this isn't obvious, note that James Coburn's character is named George Kaplan.** The working (tongue-in-cheek) title was "The Man in Lincoln's Nose". Roger Thornhill's matches bear the monogram ROT -- rot -- and Thornhill says the O "stands for nothing".

MCbirfday Hudson Hawk is Bruce Willis' pet project in which he plays a world renown cat-burglar. Fresh out of jail, Hudson Hawk is forced to do a job by the mafia with his best friend Tommy. This one last job however spirals out of control and leads the Hawk all the way to Italy. Here he steals the works of Leonardo Da Vinci and unknowingly becomes part of a world domination plot by the CIA and a wealthy family.I've never heard of this movie until last night. My friend had recommended it saying that it was one of his favorites growing up. Being a fan of most Bruce Willis movies I decided to give it a try. After shaking off that skeptical feeling I have to say that from the beginning to the end I was hysterically laughing. The acting is over the top, the dialog is awful, the script is plot-hole riddled, but it delivers an effect that keeps the audience laughing. It's like a movie that's playing with the Indiana Jones adventure style of film making and spoofing it. However, it's hard to tell if the filmmakers of Hudson Hawk made these jokes intentionally. It is questionable whether the movie is a self-parody, or just an action-adventure made very poorly. For example the character of Hudson Hawk is clearly the worst cat-burglar around, despite his reputation. He sings loud jazz music through heists, skateboards past guards and takes his sweet time to open up a safe. It's clear that Hudson Hawk is anything but a professional, and it is hilarious to the audience to see him act so outlandish. The film might be doing this on purpose, but sometimes it seems that it's not aware it's doing this at all. Is this is a clever spoof movie, or a movie that just went hilariously wrong and is great to poke fun at?

Mr-Fusion HUDSON HAWK is one of those movies you just have to see to believe ... mostly to believe it ever actually happened. It's like a movie version of Bruce Willis' The Return of Bruno shtick, but without the actor's natural charisma. It's an unlikable performance, which is surprising, seeing as he wasn't yet the complete prick we all know today. The idea of Willis and Danny Aiello timing their cat burglar heist to the length of a song was kind of amusing, but the movie needed more of that jackassery. Instead, there's a lot of forced comedy, Sandra Bernhard (agh!) and long stretches of ridiculous story that you wish would go somewhere. This movie was already pretty silly while we were still stateside, but once we land in Rome, it all goes whacko. But it's not the good kind, and this thing was a real chore to sit through.4/10