HUDSON HAWK

OUT 15 october / cert 15 / 100 mins

A film that was supposed to hit as big as

Die Hard 2 had the year before, Bruce Willis’ 1991 cat-burglar caper Hudson Hawk was a notorious critical and box office flop. And a gloriously entertaining one, at that. The base idea is charming — a cappuccino-loving thief (Willis) who times his heists by singing swing songs as he works is coerced into stealing a series of Leonardo da Vinci-themed relics — but the slipshod production, where any idea was a good one, even the bad ones (especially the bad ones), meant the budget ballooned, the shoot overran and the finished movie is a mess of over-the-top performances and knucklegnawingly awful jokes. But, as with Last Action Hero, the enjoyment comes from watching the madness unfold in front of you — the crazier it gets, the worse it gets, and (ultimately) the better it gets. The phrase “so bad, it’s good” was invented for disasters like this.