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With: Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard, Donald Burton, Don Harvey, David Caruso, Andrew Bryniarski, Lorraine Toussaint
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Written by: Steven E. de Souza, Daniel Waters, based on a story by Bruce Willis, Robert Kraft
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Directed by: Michael Lehmann
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MPAA Rating: R for language
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Running Time: 100
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Date: 05/24/1991
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Gold Turkey
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Some of Hollywood's major money losers were simply the victims of bad timing, wrongheaded expectations, or a changing of public mood. Directed by Michael Lehmann and written by Daniel Waters on the heels of their cult classic Heathers, Hudson Hawk very simply made the mistake of being a Bruce Willis movie that wasn't Die Hard. Willis plays the title character, a master burglar and safe-cracker who gets out of jail and immediately finds himself embroiled in a bizarre scheme; two nutty villains (Sandra Bernhard and Richard E. Grant) wish to build a Leonardo da Vinci gold-making machine, but they need Hawk to steal several pieces of da Vinci art to make it work. The movie is totally goofball and plenty of fun — one sequence contains a burglary timed to the tune of "Swingin' on a Star" — and viewers wanted nothing to do with it. It received terrible reviews and earned only about $17.5 million on its $65 budget (a high price tag for 1991).
Kino Lorber released this film on Blu-ray in 2022. I'm not sure if it's good enough to find a following after all this time, but I still say it's fun and worth a look. Bonuses include a commentary track by director Lehmann, a featurette with Willis, an interview with Bernhard, a music video for Dr. John's theme song, deleted scenes, and trailers for this and other films. There are also optional subtitles.
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