“Did I mention that it was a big hit in Europe?”
Bruce Willis was flying high after the success of the Die Hard films and could make any project that he put a mind to. He decided to make this homage to cartoon violence based on a character he created, needless to say the critics savaged it.
Hudson Hawk (Bruce Willis) is an infamous cat burglar who has just been released from prison. He doesn’t want to get back into the business and is only interested in finding his friend Tommy Five Tone (Danny Aiello) and having a good cappuccino. However, the devilish millionaires Darwin (Richard E. Grant) and Minerva (Sandra Bernhard) Mayflower force Hawk into their service.
They’re forcing him to steal several Leonardo DaVinci artifacts in that the old boy invented a machine that would turn lead into gold. But the old bugger hid several parts of an important piece of the machinery in several of his artifacts. So the devious Mayflowers want Hawk to swipe them all.
However, he also has to contend with the Vatican DaVinci expert (Andie MacDowell) and love interest and a team of CIA operatives led by George Kaplan (James Coburn).
Hudson Hawk came at a time when Bruce Willis was the tops at the box office. He had the idea of the cat burglar Hudson Hawk when he was a schlep like you and I. So now that he had the power he decided to get his personal project off the ground. The problem was that this project was like nothing that he did on the screen before. So different in fact that the critics had a field day tearing it apart.
Everyone knows that when you’re the king of the hill (singing – the top of the heap) that they’re looking for a chink in your armor and Hawk was that chink at this point in his career. It would seem that his career nearly went kaput over Hawk. The problem was that nobody seemed to get what Willis was trying to do with the film – that is to make a roadrunner/coyote type cartoon but with real people.
I didn’t have on the ole Internet critic hat at the time, but I got it. I won’t say that’s the film is some sort of lost masterwork, but it does have cult film written all over it. The whole thing is a mad cartoon and if you understand that you’ll fare the better for it. Not to mention that anything with James Coburn, the king of cool, is always worth a look.
A DVD release of Hudson Hawk was marketed near a year ago and then pulled. Most likely because it now comes out with Live Free or Die Hard when the Willis press will be fast and furious.
Hudson Hawk is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director Michael Lehmann, which was on the previous 1999 DVD release. A new addition to this disc is a trivia track that can be activated to play during the film. 5 minutes of deleted scenes clear up exactly why Coburn has a picture of a monkey stuck to his head during the finale.
The 11-minute “My Journey to Minerva” has Sandra Bernhard giving a reading about her loony character. The 30 minute “Story of Hudson Hawk” has Willis and executive producer Robert Kraft sitting down in 2005 to discuss the film and sing a few songs.
Next is the 4-minute music video the “Hudson Hawk theme” by Dr. John. Finally there’s a collection of trailers for other Sony releases, but no trailer for the Hawk.
Hudson Hawk isn’t exactly a film that would be called a classic, but it has its fans. It’s more of a cult film and is therefore somewhat of an acquired taste. This new version adds some new special features but the picture quality seems to be on par with the previous release.
Hudson Hawk (Special Edition) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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