Hudson Hawk

Hudson Hawk ~ I have never seen this flick until quite recently. I have never really believed its reputation for being a terrible movie. As someone who loved John Carter, David Hasselhoff's Nick Fury, most recently After Earth, and I even liked Temple of Doom, I thought, hey, how bad could it be?

Reading up a few months back on subgenres of science fiction, I came across the term 'clockpunk' and specifically Hudson Hawk as an example. Clockpunk is posited as steampunk but with its origins more in the Renaissance rather than the Victorian era, along the lines of "Da Vinci's Demons," which I love. So I decided it was time to see the flick. Sadly, this aspect is barely background in the movie.

Bruce Willis plays a just released from prison cat burglar supreme known as the Hudson Hawk who is swept back into business by baddies seeking components of Da Vinci's accidental alchemy device. In this crazy cartoon reality, Willis is David Addison on speed, and unless you're in on the joke from the start, it's hard to catch up. I really want to see if "Moonlighting" holds up after all these years now.

Camp, slapstick, and downright ridiculous, the movie is riddled with bad performances and a plot that barely holds up. James Coburn and his candy bar henchmen are fun though, and I loved heisting to "Swingin' on a Star," but there's little else to recommend here. I think it may really just be as bad as its reputation.

After Earth

After Earth ~ M. Night Shyamalan has taken a lot of heat in recent years. He's no longer the critics' darling, and a lot of folks have given up on him, but I haven't. Still, I haven't seen his last few efforts in the theaters, waiting for home video to see them. That doesn't mean I still don't enjoy his work. Such was the case with After Earth, which he co-wrote and directed.

The science fiction flick was better known as a father/son vehicle for Will Smith (it was based on a story by him) and Jaden Smith more than anything else. With no credits at the start of the film, many folks didn't even know it was an M. Night movie. It works well for the Smiths, being a two-man acting tour de force, but honestly it wouldn't have been as good without M. Night's touch, at least in my opinion.

One thousand years in the future, a father and son crashland on a mutated, abandoned, and evolved Earth. The father is a genetically altered war hero with no fear who's been crippled and can't move. The son, the only other survivor, has find the beacon to call for help, with the remote guidance of his dad. They have a distant relationship, complicated by a lost sibling and a failure to be a ranger like dad.

Father and son must see eye to eye in a mission of survival and a race against time. The father and son theme is as strong as the boy becoming a man and facing his fears, but at its core, After Earth is a story of survival. I wonder if it was just the science fiction trappings or M. Night's name that kept it from not only being successful, but also this year's Castaway or Life of Pi.

In my opinion, it's another strong film from M. Night, visually stunning, good story, and well worth watching. Check it out.