Nighthawks Details

Not one of Hauer's better films

I've cued up a bunch of Rutger Hauer films without bothering to inquire into their quality. Judging by Nighthawks I perhaps should have been a bit more circumspect. Hauer is Wulfgar, an international playboy terrorist obviously modeled on Carlos the Jackal. Sylvester Stallone is Deke DaSilva, a maverick New York cop teamed up with - of course - a slightly calmer black sidekick (this film predates Lethal Weapon by a few years) and given the task of tracking Wulfgar down. The film jumps between international locations in an obvious attempt to demonstrate how glamorous and high-budget it is (New York, London, Paris... but not Munich, hah). The film appears as if it might be a comedy. It opens with an attempted mugging of a solitary woman... who turns out to be Stallone in drag. There are some mildly amusing moments later on (such as the oh-so-obvious fate of the 'expert' on counter-terrorism), but most of them seem to be unintentional. Perhaps Shane Black saw this film and worked out how not to write an action comedy. Not one of Hauer's better efforts, I'm afraid.

[Highly rated reviewer]

New York Nocturnal Nightmares

This film has a good cast who make a believable story of two dedicated Detectives dealing with an International Terrorist and all round bad guy called Wulfgar played by Rutger Hauer.

Detective Sergeants Deke DaSilva and Matthew Fox (Stallone and Billy Dee Williams) are forced to join the anti-terrorist Squad coached by International Cop Peter Hartman (Nigel Davenport) and they make it obvious that they would rather be watching paint dry.

Then Wulfgar strikes, aided by the gorgeous Shaka Holland (Persis Khambatta - the bald beauty from Star Trek The Motion Picture) and eventually upsets the dynamic duo enough to make them want to wreak revenge.

Yes it is dated, but what I liked about it was the fact that the characters were human and fallible, not super sleuths or malignant mega-maniacs.

Well worth a watch, particularly the kidnap and grand finale scenes.