Sylvester Stallone. Billy Dee Williams. Rutger Hauer. Smooth-talking terrorist versus tough-as-nails NYC detectives. Stallone in a night club. Billy Dee in a knife fight. Hauer gets a face lift. With such ingredients, it’s a given that Nighthawks is, at the very least, a decent action flick. The question is, does it strive to be greater than the sum of its parts—does it do something more? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Some nice action setpieces aside (in particular a solid subway tunnel chase, and an impressive hunter-becomes-hunted closing sequence), the film never reaches the level of a nail-biting thriller, and doesn’t live up to its dream of presenting a riveting chess match between two powerful intellects.
Although the cat and mouse games are intriguing, particularly Stallone’s DaSilva attempting to hone his profiling skills and anticipate Wulfgar’s next move, we never get deep enough into the terrorist’s devious psyche to appreciate either the intensity of his evil, or Stallone’s efforts at stopping him. And we never get to know Stallone’s character well enough to root for him. Ultimately, Hauer steals the show as the soulless Wulfgar, with his grandiose delusions of becoming an instrument of worldwide revolution, and yet the most entertaining scenes come early on, before the actual plot even gets moving, with Stallone and Williams taking down a dope operation, dressing up as old ladies, and cursing loudly at their superiors.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Comcast On Demand Feature
16 Aug 2007 11:57 PM | Submit Comment
