Review of Nighthawks (1981) by Max K — 25 Jun 2011

Evidently, I'm on a Sly kick and didn't even realize it. We'd rented "The Expendables" and woefully shut it off after a half hour. Unbearable dreck. I mean, you've got SO many high-octane badasses in one movie (Rourke!) and I'm staring at the ceiling. There's even a scene between Sly and Bruce and Arnold in a church. Those three together?? Are you KIDDING me?? I am not. And big surprise... the scene was so flat and uninspired and dopily tongue-in-cheek that I wanted to slap the shit out of those 3 stooges.

So we found "Nighthawks" on streaming Netflix instead. Now, I SO remember watching "Nighthawks" all the time late at night on cable with my mom growing up (she had hot panties for both Sly AND Pacino), and really loving it. Well, guess what: I really loved it today, too! It's gripping, it's well-acted, it's got one of the best (albeit, a little obvious) action endings in history, and best of all, it's got creepy RUTGER HAUER as a formidable foe named Wulfgar. WULFGAR!!

SPOILER: There's a KILLER scene where Detective Sly and his partner, Billy Dee Williams, walk into a NY nightclub (as they hunt their prey) to the tune of the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar". It was a little wannabe-Marty Scorsese, true... but, man, was it SO effective. SO much more interesting than pyrotechnics or giant bazookas.

I'm telling you... you could make 17 "Nighthawks" for what was spent on the first 30 minutes of "The Expendables" that I wasted and it was SO much better. SO much more compelling. And Billy Dee Williams was SO much stronger here than he was as that Lando. "You got a LOTTA NERVE watching all these Sly movies, Koch!".