Ladyhawke (1985)

Sorry, this movie sucks

I wanted to but couldn't!

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Philipe 'The Mouse' Gastone (Matthew Broderick) is a thief. He escapes the dungeons of Aquila through the sewer. The Bishop (John Wood) refuses to accept any escape and sends out Captain Marquet with his guards. When Marquet catches up to Gastone, Etienne Navarre (Rutger Hauer) comes to the rescue with his hawk. Former captain Navarre and Isabeau d'Anjou (Michelle Pfeiffer) are lovers cursed by the jealous Bishop. He turns into a wolf during the night and she turns into a hawk during the daylight. Navarre plans to kill the Bishop with help from Gastone to sneak into the castle. Monk Imperius gives him a different plan to break the curse. Meanwhile, the Bishop sends Cezar (Alfred Molina) to hunt for the wolf. Broderick is fun. Hauer is fearsome. Pfeiffer is loverly. I love their interactions. Broderick's time with each side is great. The story is compelling and solid fun high adventure. I saw it in the theater and had fun with the adventure movie. There seems to be some complaints about the synth score in more recent reviews. It does date the movie back to the 80s. Of course, it doesn't fit the medieval time period. It didn't throw me off the story back then. Rather, it amped up the intensity and the joy in the action. It's just fun.

Richard Donner directs a masterpiece with actors Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.Captain Etienne Navarre (Rutger Hauer) has been cursed to room the nights as a wolf while the woman he loves, Lady Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer), is cursed to roam the sky as a Hawk in the day. Each of them being Human when the other is not. Mix in the young thief, Philippe Gaston (Matthew Broderick), and you have a story of love and romance, of curses and revenge, set in medieval times.There are some spectacular visual images and sometimes the musical score just fits. This movie like Princess Bride is destined to be a classic that can be enjoyed by all ages.

It's a medieval fantasy with a great story. A curse is placed upon noble knight Navarre and his lady love, Isabeau. Navarre is a wolf at night and Isabeau is a hawk in the day. They essentially never see one another. It's always just out of reach for these star crossed lovers. Navarre enlist the help of the thief, Gaston played by Mathew Broderick.Sounds great right? But the sound track stinks. This movie is 1985 and the music sounds 1985. What I mean by that, is that it sounds like the same type you would hear in any Molly Ringwald movie from the 80s. I mean this is a medieval fantasy. Totally unsuitable music. It ruins the mood. Very distracting. Could have used some Joe LoDuca or the late great James Horner.Then we have the cinematography. Nothing special. In fact it looks like the director phoned it in. Super-bright sunny scenes. No shadowing, or filters to set the tone. Nothing. Finally the accents. Broderick, sounds English at first, but then drops completely into American. Michelle Pfeiffer didn't even bother, it was American all the way. Rutger Hauer, I'm not sure what the hell he was doing. He's from the Netherlands, but was doing some American thing that wasn't quite working. It's medieval France. These accents are distracting and sounded stupid. Broderick's character bordered on funny to downright annoying. It was the babbling. Very awful. Michell Pfeiffer was beautiful and serene, but really nothing special. Rutger was the most handsome I'd ever seen and he was dashing and likable.The story was there, but it seems everything else failed. I'd like to see it remade someday. Even an animated version might be great. If they had just fixed these things, it could really have been something. Not a recommended fantasy movie.

From the director of "Lethal Weapon", Richard Donner gives us movie that truly spells Ridley Scott. "Ladyhawke" is a layered movie that relies on more than one genre. It's a film filled with love and romance backed up with a fantasy story with medieval setting with witchcraft and animals where evil curses are prominent thanks mainly to jealousy brought on my a man of the cloth trying to keep young lovers apart from each other. In other words it feels like "Romeo and Juliet" romantic story with a fairytale theme behind it.Right from the beginning, the first thing that will stun you is the tantalizing visuals. The Italian landscapes are real visionary treat and the historical settings are what makes this movie more historical in details. Everything looks real in terms of locations, the castles, the towns, the ruins and the courtyards all look and feel authentic. The visuals all groovy looking as every shot has a postcard image that will make your eyes water. The dawns and dusk of the Italian countryside will likely take your breath away.Of course the beautiful setting has a weakness and that is the setting looks too immaculate. Granted this is a fairytale and nothing has to be real, however being that this is a medieval period piece film, I expected some rough roads, bumpy trails and maybe a little bit of mud. Everything looks too pristine, the buildings look way too maintained and for a rural area, the countryside looks way too clean, even the costumes look prim and prop. I am a neat freak in real life, but for a medieval picture I was expecting a bit of filth to match the period.Another big turn-off is the musical score selection that Donner provides is quite odd. I would of expected like a symphony orchestra background that would go well with the setting of the movie. Instead, Donner gives us a 1980's sounding score complete with synthesizers and electric guitars almost like what Ridley Scott did with the movie "Legend". It just doesn't sit well compared to the authentic backdrop of the settings and loses the effect of the story marginally.The casting choices are virtually spot on, especially the casting of Rutger Hauer and a young Michelle Pfeiffer. Hauer was best performer in the movie. He looked really awesome in that Jedi like robe along with a traditional heroic costume and a red lining and a black steed to ride on making this man look and appear like he's well off. Hauer was quite handsome in his costume.Pfeiffer is quite convincing for the time period with her milky white skin complexion, her gorgeous blonde hair, and the most gorgeous blue eyes to ever hit the screen. She has the physicality of an angel that fits right with Hauer's knightly appearance. They make the perfect couple and they seem very believable that they could transform into a wolf and a hawk (Ladyhawke...need I say more?) The biggest miscast in this movie is the casting choice of Matthew Broderick. He was the major Achilles heel in this movie. His demeanour is annoying along with that mousy squeaky voice and constant nervous ramblings is more appalling than nails on a chalkboard. I just wanted to wanted to ring his neck for every time he made those stupid facial expressions.The plot needs time to adjust. I mean Navarre (Hauer) is a wolf at night and Isadeau (Pfeiffer) is a hawk by day, leaves little for explanation. There are no strange transformations and the characters just fade into their animal forms which is quite captivating in its low-key perspective. I thought the plot was overdo because the story is very thin, it's really about Navarre getting revenge on the Bishop (John Wood) for putting an evil curse on him. That being said I think that in this two hour film, there's a substantial amount of padding when there really didn't need that much and it can be mundane at times making it feel all style and no substance at times. Which isn't bad but some editing could've been needed in some areas.Overall it is a gorgeous movie with a picturesque setting and all the Italian landscapes are very sublime. It might be too clean at times but that's just me nitpicking. The performances were pretty good especially from Hauer and Pfeiffer and look and act like the fit the time period of this movie. Nobody would expect this to be a Richard Donner film.