Bad Movie Beatdown: Hudson Hawk (REVIEW) 

Originally posted in October 2010, this is a re-edited version that runs 1m 15s shorter than the original, most tightening up the pacing and the film clips, and upscaled into HD, re-posted to tie-in with the remake of Death Wish. If you're wondering how Spoony is in this review, the story behind that is that he was originally going to an episode on the film and the video game adaptation, but decided to cancel doing the movie, because his opinion on it had improved; I had picked up the film in Poundland and wanted to cover it, and asked his blessing and for a guest spot which riffs on the supposed animosity between us over my written reviews of Transformers 2 and Inglorious Basterds. If I have a regret, it's that I really skimmed over the behind the scenes stories of the film, which are arguably more interesting than the film itself - if you've not read the chapter in Richard E. Grant's With Nails, I highly recommend doing so, it very much paints a picture of how the film ended up how it did. Enjoy! UPDATE: I've since joined Oliver Harper to revisit Hudson Hawk for a feature-length commentary, where I drop plenty of behind-the-scenes gossip that I missed out on the first time! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZroCfRR7J_8.html

Oh the irony of Spoony's cameo XD

“What can I tell you, I’m the villain.” “No s--.”

I know I'm probably in the minority but I love this movie. I know it's objectively bad but it is so funny. There are so many great lines. It may be because this was the first R rated film I was allowed to watch in theaters but I think all the terrible jokes and musical numbers make this film infinitely rewatchable. Everyone I've ever told to watch this film has loved it. They all recognize that it's not a great film but it's still a hoot to watch. Again, there is a glut of one liners.

I kinda liked this. It’s not exactly perfect (that rape joke didn’t need to be there) but it had that kinda energy that nearly reminded me of Last Action Hero with how over the top everything was. It’s the best Lupin the 3rd adaptation we’ll ever get.

'"Back when he had a hairline to recede​." Ironic.

This is one of those "so bad it's good" movies for me. I can't really get mad at action movies unless they're offensive or tasteless. And Hudson Hawk is at least fun to me.

9:06 Was that a test tube rack full of uncapped, needle-end-up syringes? WHY WOULD THAT EVER BE A THING?!

So, maybe I'm crazy.... but I would love to see this as a Broadway Musical... it's absurd, it's crazy...

Remember when Spoony actually made videos? Neither do I

Hudson Hawk? More like "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!: The Movie".

I remember liking this as a kid. However, later I saw it for the mess it absolutely is. BUT, I can genuinely enjoy the mad acting of the Mayflowers (sometimes), the scene-overlapping cuts, the silly careless tone and whacky side characters.

I'm just going to say it. I think the time is right for Hudson Hawk 2.

Did you know? "Hudson Hawk" was Robert Kaufman's final feature credit as co-storywriter. Sadly, he died in 1993. RIP, Robert.

This movie is so idiotic, but I love it. I watched it for the first time as a child, when one tend to be more forgiving toward these sort of things. Plus, Willis is adorable and I absolutely love Richard E Grant (World... DOMINATION!!!).

Yea, if you have a drinking game where you drink every time someone gets knocked out in this movie (especially Bruce Willis), you'd need a liver transplant by the time the movie's done.

As for your comment about how comedy isn't Andie MacDowell's strong suit, she can do comedy really well... when she's given good material to work with like she was in Groundhog Day, and not when she's asked to play the damsel in distress who makes dolphin noises like she was here!

I love this movie.

Despite the legitimate hate it gets, it is still an entertaining movie, not ironically. Also, what hapoened to Spoony? I'm not joking, I seriously want to know.

10:49 Man, Richard E. Grant’s quote here can be used in so many things, be it in terms of villain intros or people just being hammy and crazy.

I would like to see raise movie remade, but done properly and actually good.

13:10 Aaaaaaand to quote Rocket Raccoon in the first GOTG: You've got issues Quill...

I’m surprised Tim curry wasn’t in this film.

I'm not Matthew Buck, swinging on a star!

I mean I know so much of the movie is “roll your eyes” jokes, but...it’s a fun, guilty pleasure for me. Not a top of the line guilty pleasure, but...well maybe.

Oof. The Bruce Willis hairline comment didn't age well

I really like this movie. It's part nostalgia and part the fact that I saw the german version, which made lots of changes to the dialogue to make it funnier. It's still no masterpiece, but that's where the nostalgia goggles come in.

How does Richard E. Grant end up in so many terrible movies?

3:43 WHAT?? A 15th century scientist accidentally perfects alchemy and proclaims it a disaster? I don't care what he was trying to do, everything else would be irrelevant. (This was my legit reaction, BTW. We haven't even finished the intro and I already want to shout at this film. It's going to be a long one...) 4:55 ...fuck. THEY set up the date, and got it 10 years off. I thought you were telling me it's a period piece. Nope, they're just that dim 6:00 And... racial stereotype jokes! Man, this POS is batting 1.000.

People should play the driking game when they watch this movie

RIP Danny Aiello

Can you look at pumpkin head ?

Yo! This was my shit when it first dropped on Laser Disc!

“Go get a Adam’s apple of facial hair”.. well, he went bald, did that count?

this film's financial disaster is one of the all-time great Hollowood Mysteries. the finalized script was highly-prized and incredibly polished by the time pre-production began, and Bruce Willis famously demanded a small fraction of his massive salary due to the project being a passion project of his. also, the director was by then time an master professional craftsman renowned for his ability to bring in projects on budget and well on time. the film also tested through the _roof,_ and marketing had an incredibly easy job on its hands; male-dominated early '90s action movie audiences were well-known for their love of old-timey show-tune musical numbers and their incredible tendency to be patient and open-minded about stylistic atonality. wacky cartoon slapstick was what tough-guy macho audiences _craved,_ and that would again be proven just a short time later with the incredible and influential success of _The Last Action Hero._ we may never KNOW how or why _Hudson Hawk_ bombed. it's like _Hugo_ or _Blade Runner 2049_ . . . it had _everything going for it,_ but it seems the gods just hate quality entertainment.

When I was a kid I loved the Disney Channel movie “Don’t Look Under the Bed”. As I got older and would see Richard E. Grant very rarely, he always had a place in my heart as the Boogeyman. I now know why he did a Disney Channel movie... Because Hudson Hawk killed his career.

6:43 they look like they're going skydiving! 🤣🤣

True Nintendo didn't make the NES till 85, they _were_ making Game & Watch well before then.

I agree this is a bad movie but it is a guilty pleasure to like it. I found some of the comedy to be funny.

Another reason why the villains' plan is stupid: Most countries had abandoned the gold standard by the mid 1970s. All they'd succeed in doing is making gold a lot cheaper.

Hudson Hawk was all I expected it to be -- a lightweight comedy action movie. And on that basis, it delivers, so I have always enjoyed it and never understood why people slam it. I mean, for cryin' out loud, in the movie Commando Arnold Schwarzenegger was throwing sawblades like frisbees and hand grenades magically kill only bad guys, not the good guy standing next to them, and people loved it. My point being this was the era of schlocky over the top cartoonish action movies.

To me, it felt like they might have drawn some inspirado from Crimewave (which isn't as terrible as Sam Raimi thinks it is and is actually fun to watch) which nails that "live-action cartoon" style of madcap manic absurdism more better. 5:16 That's actually pretty good. Goat cheese rules!

Oh man this movie is so bad that I couldn't even finish this review... I love your Bad Movie Beatdown series(it's one of the best movie type shows on YT) but this is the only one I couldn't finish....good god and I thought those other movies were bad....ffs im out.

The great old days. I can't believe my first viewing of this review is as removed from the present as it is from the late 90's.

“Shut up Spoony” Filmbrain saying it half a decade before anyone else xD

9:06 Um...why were all the syringes sitting point up in a holder?

When the crindge is to strong....😵

“Won’t be attending that hat convention in July!” I don’t know I think that’s not too bad as one liners go.

Can’t remember if I noticed Mona’s eyebrows the only previous time I saw this film...

"How would you like it if I did all my reviews like this?" ... You pretty much do.

Earrings in left ear signifies he's gay. It's a shortcut a lot of film directors use.

It’s like Die Hard on acid, can’t really hate it, you know what it is going in, just a fun wacky movie like Austin Powers!

Yay, another BMB Reupload!

Sandra Bernhard isn’t a terrible actress, just watch King of Comedy, but holy fuckwaffle, her delivery at 15:02 is an Ambien OD table read

If the film was more competent it'd be shit, as it is it pushes it into being a joyous marvel, on a par with 1967's Casino Royale. What a movie!

This has to be set in 1989, that's when it probably was filmed despite being released in 1991. That's why the guy asks the other guy if he played Nintendo. If this was set in 1981, it would be "Atari", instead of "Nintendo". There was only two Nintendo games in 1981, Radar Scope and Donkey Kong. This looks like it takes place in 1989. I'm pretty sure the prelude takes place 508 years earlier. Saying "over 500 years later" would've made more sense or they really can't do math or got the exact year wrong, from the 15th century.

Is this movie some kind of amazing anti-comedy work of art?

I'd forgotten that you reviewed this turd. You were spot on that the actors( particularly Willis) are mugging through the unfunny movie, really trying to act funny. It doesn't work.

Should have had Paul Verhoven direct this

God i want a time machine now

@4:15 What do you mean? lol Its 500 years exactly.

Richard E Grant, fire your agent!

5.16 Mr. Willis clearly thought “Reindeer goat cheese pizza” was funny. He repeated the same joke verbatim in his next film, The Last Boy Scout.

I've never seen this movie, but it appears that the producers were trying to create their own Indiana Jones style franchise.

I actually really like this movie

Plot seems similar to North by Northwest in some ways.

I profoundly hate this movie, but I've found out something interesting: If you watch any other movie and it seems awful, just watch Hudson Hawk afterward -- the other movie will seem so much better by comparison. Incidentally, there's a video somewhere of Bruce Willis and the producer talking about the movie while singing and playing the piano, respectively. It's interesting because they're both incredibly in denial of the films flaws, instead choosing to believe that it was "ahead of its time." If you ever want to go down the rabbit hole of Willis's ego, that's the video to watch.

Good acting from bruce Willis Danny ailoe and James Coburn

What's the real reason this movie went so horribly wrong? You guessed it. 3:38 Frank Stallone

what a embarrassment of a film

i have to admit it because it is the truth i loved this movie when it came out i found out like just a few years ago it was considered bad i dont understand it to this day i thought it was funny as hell still do

12:35 that's reference

this is my older brothers favorite bruce willis movie he hates the die hard movies he thinks Hudson hawk should get 4 sequels

Wow I'm watching this trash tonight 😭

How old are you? I was 12 when this came out and this movie is hilarious. Danny Aiello has an excellent singing voice, did you notice. And, reindeer goat-cheese pizza is a national treasure, but you are a foreigner, so you just don't get it. That is all! xD

I like this movie. It's supposed to be stupid.

We need more BMB. We can do with a few less Projectors so we can get a review once in a while

I miss sponnyone

I immediately loose interest in the film at the beginning.

"Reindeer goat cheese pizza?!?" That sounded like a "wah-wah-wah" should've played after that.

time for another bad movie beatoff.

How long does the intro have to be

Actual review starts at 2:07

Review striking distance, whole 9 yards, lucky number slevin, and bonfire of the vanities.

I'd rather watch Nothing but trouble. At least Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd try and be funny.

This movie is so stupid it circles back to being good.

Movie has a lot of Nintendo jokes? No wonder it is cult classic.... Also, that auction guy was in Professionals, screw Coronation Street. And man, James Coburn still could overshadow Bruce Willis easy. That is old-school Hollywood charisma right there.

You're not correct. Thanks for your time. Your review is disappointing.

One of the best movies ever made and ironically one of my favorite , Ive GOT tHe Power !!!

In not a fan of

Does anyone else watch these videos and think it's like Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf doing reviews?

I like the movie

why does anybody care about gold? it's just jewelry and whatever. why isn't regular dollars and whatnot more valuable? gold is only "valuable" because you spend THOSE to BUY the gold. you can't go buy a car or a house or something with gold bars, you have to sell the gold to get the normal money before you're rich. and people only give you lots of regular money because we've all decided gold is special for some reason, even though it's virtually useless for absolutely anything except wedding rings.

Spoony king of irony

Assasins creed 2 has a better plot then this

davinci was jesus! Leonardo DaVinci. LD rhymes with JC. #qed

spoony great but he ego ruin he career

Film Brain, what ever your name is, don't know, don't care. What are you actually looking for in a fantasy based film, is it documentarial, historical, geographical or factual, because all of the afore mentioned can and will be included in a fantasy production. I have just viewed your review on "Hudson Hawk" for starters its a fantasy film and in my own opinion one of the most enjoyable films made, comical as well as intriguing, with a happy ending, a movie you could let the kids watch and enjoy. It seems to me you have a mindset unworthy of being a film critic. (no hard feelings)

Already 2 minutes in and already the channel seems like a joke

The movie was intentionally bad in a tongue in cheek way. This review however, was trying to be clever and failed. I submit the question, which was worse? At least the cast of Hudson Hawk got paid, right?