Hudson Hawk [DVD]

Someone once asked me to compile a list of movies that Id want with me if I ended up stranded on a DVD/Television equipted deserted isle. This was first on the list, strange as it may seem. Ive seen many a cult classic; Ive only managed not to fall asleep during the midnight showings of Rocky Horror once or twice, and the Kentucky Fried Movie can usually manage a few chuckles out of me. But I sit rivetted to this movie every time I plop it into the DVD player. From the songs to the wacky plotline and over the top acting, this movie is a complete and utter parody of the secret agent/cat burglar movies of the 1980s and 1990s. Grand villians, ever present and mysterious CIA agents, it is a summation of a genre that was far overdone. No, this is not an Academy contestant, but it is a solid film that you can watch over and over again (which is why you buy a DVD) and not cringe if the kids walk in. And when it is over, hopefully youll be just like me and have a nice smile on your face for the rest of the day.

I finally bought this when streaming it for the third time. Dont listen to the critics, judge it for yourself. Yeah, its stupid, because its supposed to be. Its also funny and charming, and just a pleasant way to spend an hour and forty minutes. Oh, and I never realized what a good singing voice Danny Aiello had until I saw this movie.

Very disappointed that adult language is censored and dubbed over and is not advertised as such. This movie is a classic and the bantering dialog makes the script. Five stars given for the movie but no stars given for the revised children’s version...

Blown away by the fast service, ordered it and received it the next day. Came in perfect shape, no flaws or scratches. So happy to be able to replace my VHS with a Blu Ray of a great movie.

Sit down with popcorn and enjoy

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.

Just a funny feel good movie. Highly recommend it.

Another welcome edition to the retro VHS Mill Creek series - sturdy cardboard sleeve (itll fit nicely in your bluray library) that perfectly replicates a well worn VHS tape. Good sound and HD picture. Optional English subtitles. Great price, too. Years ago, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars signed on to play the lead role in an adventure that found him running all over Europe seeking various items hidden in the work of Leonardo da Vinci, all while trying not to be murdered by members of a diabolical secret society. That scenario didn’t work out quite as well for Bruce Willis, however, as it later would for Tom Hanks. Hudson Hawk was one of the most notorious flops of the ’90s, still a bad-movie punchline over two decades later. And Willis, frankly, shoulders a lot of the blame—not just because he helped think up the crazy story, but because this movie arguably caught him at peak smugness, lazily coasting on his wised-up smirk. This was the Return of Bruno, Planet Hollywood, Demi Moore era. He belts out a few tunes, one a duet with Danny Aiello (the pizza parlor proprietor in Do the Right Thing). Also on board: the late, great James Coburn and pre - NYPD Blue/ CSI David Caruso. Not to rest on laurels, Frank Stallone co-stars. Thats entertainment! Hudson Hawk (like Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and Roadhouse) demands to be seen, if only because it goes places few studio star vehicles have ever dared. The screenplay is credited to Steven E. DeSouza, who penned the first two Die Hard films, and Daniel Waters, best known for writing the black comedy Heathers (directed, like Hudson Hawk, by Michael Lehmann). As that odd combination would suggest, it plays like the most extreme parody of an action movie imaginable, with every element cranked up to 11. Heist sequences are shot as goofy musical numbers. Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard (The King of Comedy), as the crazed villains, engage in a film-long contest to determine who can go further over the top, with. Andie MacDowell (Groundhog Day) impersonates a dolphin at length. It’s the kind of film viewers watch with mouth agape, unable to believe that hundreds of professionals spent months (and millions) working to make it. And taken in the right mood, a lot of it is genuinely pretty funny. Anyone can throw the hero out of an ambulance and have him barrel down the highway on a gurney, but it takes a cherishably warped sensibility to have him catch another driver’s discarded cigarette butt, take a puff, and then complain that it’s menthol.

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

A hidden gem in his fantastic career.