Nighthawks Reviews

Even with the brilliant role of Rutger Hauer, this film gradually loses its effect. The beginning in the Bronx is very strong indeed, but at the end of the movie, you feel they ran out of ammo. I still think this is a pretty good police movie. Jamie Gillis is a sleazy fashion house manager in a brief scene, and Joe Spinelli can be seen in what could be described as a late Spinelli typecasting: a police chief giving orders via phone in an overcoat.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer, I thought I should give it a try. Eventually, even though it was not bad, it was still not really convincing either. Basically, it is an awkward mix between the 70s' gritty thrillers and the 80's buddy cop action flicks and even though this mix was intriguing, it didn't work very well. As a result, you get an endless set-up and since the movie was rather short (just above 90 minutes), the 2nd half felt really rushed. Still, I liked the grim look of the whole thing, the dialogs were pretty rough and Stallone and Hauer were both really charismatic. Back in those days, Stallone was still trying to make it as a legit actor, even though except for his 'Rocky' movies, all his other movies were flops and, for Hauer, it was his first American production and, basically, this movie became basically the blue-print of what he would do for the rest of his career (the psycho bad-guy). To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, it was not bad after all and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

This is a classic transitional 80's action cop drama starring none other than Sly Stallone. Battling an international terrorist on the streets of NYC is no easy task but being the one-talent actor that he is, Stallone summons up the will to take down Wulfgar. There are some great quotable lines.