Everything feels off limits, as if the entire cast and crew had an entire sandbox to build whatever they please. The humour is slapstick and juvenile, but in a charming Carry On way.
This surreal absurdity always keeps the film engaging, though. At first, Andie MacDowell (playing a nun) seems comparatively subdued.
Willis and Aiello feel like Martin and Lewis mixed with Dick Dastardly and Muttley, a camaraderie that is built upon witty, slightly homoerotic banter (“Where’s the kiss? No tongue this time, I promise.”) Coburn proudly declares he misses communism, whilst surrounded by chocolate bar named henchmen. Grant and Bernhard are not merely chewing the scenery, but engulfing it prop by prop. Subtlety is non-existent in Hudson Hawk, as if Lehman, Willis and Waters had the Spinal Tap amplifier, turning everything up to 11. It feels closer to a live-action Saturday morning cartoon than the Die Hard clone it was falsely advertised as. The film is utterly ludicrous and preposterous, but is undeniably entertaining. It is even bookended by a storybook that adds to the pulpy mythos Lehmann and Waters are striving for. Much like Heathers, Hudson Hawk feels like a fairytale (though with a more light-hearted touch than the former). They find themselves entangled in the malevolent plans of the billionaire Mayflowers (Grant and Sandra Bernhard) and the CIA (led by James Coburn), who are attempting to use a lost Leonardo DaVinci contraption to turn lead into gold.Ĭonceived by Willis (his only writing credit) and his old music buddy Robert Kraft, it was brought to life by director Michael Lehmann and screenwriter Daniel Waters, the duo behind the scathing teen satire Heathers. Set between New York and Rome, Eddie “Hudson Hawk” Hawkins (Willis) and his partner Tommy “Five-Tone” (Danny Aiello) are a pair of wisecracking, music-loving cat burglars. However, an inventively goofy screenplay, inspired direction and appropriately over-the-top performances from its cast, make it entirely undeserving of its infamous notoriety. It is not without faults and its silly, cartoonish tone, will turn many off. A reputation that includes a $90m box-office loss and the Razzies nominating it as one of the worst films of the decade, Hudson Hawk is far too creative, and far too charming to deserve this lambasting.
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