Tonight’s thread is dedicated to Hudson Hawk, which is my go-to movie to bring up when the topic is how box office success and/or critical acclaim don’t necessarily correlate to how much you’ll like a movie. The general pop culture consensus on this film that I absorbed from the culture when it was released was that it was very, very bad and a complete failure. Years later, I saw it on cable and it became one of my favorite movies. It’s odd and cheesy in so many ways, but it’s a kind of cheesy that’s just catnip to me.
So much about it just screams “vanity project,” but I am just 100% of the opinion that Bruce Willis deserves this vanity project and it’s a joy to watch him get to make this weird movie where he gets to combine his Die Hard action hero image with his comedy smartass Moonlighting image, and also he gets to sing. It must have seemed so self-indulgent to critics, but I love having a movie where an unquestionably charismatic and entertaining performer gets to have this much fun.
It’s also the source of my favorite reaction gif to use in discussions of headcanon:
