I first caught this odd movie around 3am during a long stretch of Unemployment, World of Warcraft and Insomnia. Regardless of how obscure this movie really is, Ladyhawke was actually nominated for 2 Oscars. Don't worry though, this movie is still chock full of dumb shit well worth making fun of.
Our tale of mideval heroes and shapeshifting B-List actors starts out with Matthew Broderick escaping from the sewers, where his career would end up again anyway after making the Godzilla remake in the mid 90's. His character is called 'Mouse' due to his abilities as a thief and an escape artist. The main antogonist of this movie is the Bishop of the church.
Mouse is the first person to escape the Bishop's prisons and has a handful of angry knights hot on his tail. The Bishop's men catch up to Mouse, but are foiled by 'Navarre,' a stately knight dressed in black.
Yes that's right - Rutger Hauer has a hawk that obeys him. Bad-ass! This is one of those rare films where Rutger Hauer isn't a crazy robot chasing Harrison Ford in his underwear or a homeless guy shooting people. He actually plays the hero for once. This movie is pretty much a total stinker, but Hauer's performance is still worth watching (at least once). Anyhow, Navarre used to be the leader of the evil Bishop's guards. Amazed that the Mouse was able to escape from the castle, Navarre implores Mouse to help him sneak BACK IN to the castle in order to kill the Bishop. Broderick begrudgingly accepts, much like I'm sure he did when saying "I do" to that donkey-faced hooker from Sex in The City.
As if Matthew Broderick's life as a thief with a terrible haircut wasn't already difficult enough, things get really weird during his trek with his knight friend; at night, Navarre turns into a scary wolf... and his hawk turns into a young Michelle Pfieffer.
"Meoww!... Oh I mean.. CA-CAWWW!!"
I kid, I kid. Anyway, the Bishop decides that the best course of action to take is making a pact with Satan to curse Isabeau (Pfieffer) and Navarre (Hauer), causing Isabeau to live as a Hawk during the day and Navarre as a Wolf during the evening... forcing them to always be unavailable to both take human form at the same time. Furthermore, neither can remember what they do during their hours in their animal form. Yeah... that definitely seems like alot of extra, unnecessary work, don't you think? Why didn't the Bishop just have them executed? Or poison them or something? Why make a pact with freaking Satan? That shit never works out!
So as I'm sure you probably already figured out, this movie inevitably concludes with Rutger Hauer making his way to the Bishop and slaying him. As expected, this lifts the curse between Navarre and Isabeau - finally allowing them both to stop banging their partner in Hawk / Wolf form. Love prevails again. It's good that this film only ever comes on in the middle of the night... because I wouldn't want to be caught watching this thing by someone during the daytime.
THE END.
you're overreacting, is a cute and romantic movie! music is not the best but the story is woow! and it has very good actors.
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