The poster is so bad it’s good… almost.
France: Middle ages.
Ladyhawke is a love story for 80s teens in the same way The Princess Bride was and I guess the same way Twilight is now.
Only this is inescapably a product of the 80s, and as such is quite a ‘boy’s own’ adventure, with the romance pushed to the background for much of the film.
The core of the story is that two young lovers Captain Navarre (Rutger Hauer) and Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer) are struck down by a curse from an aggrieved and corrupt bishop – wait they can do that? This results in them being separated by something that I cannot reveal, but I might venture to say they find themselves kept apart like day and night.
Enter Phillippe ‘The Mouse’ Gaston (Matthew Broderick), a precocious and especially yappy young Frenchman who is for the most part the only person to converse with both Navarre and Isabeau.
He, Navarre and Isabeau together yet separately manage to conjure up a plan of their own to defeat the evil bishop and allow the lovesick dup to be together once and for all.
*SIGH*
Ladyhawke is some 25 years old but holds up because the bulk of the plot elements are timeless; lost love, swordplay, a curse and a little Pfeiffer near nudity are sure to get the pulse of any teen moving along, at least maybe two decades ago. I’m sure this all seems quite tame now.
Keep your assembly line Megan Fox’s, this is Perfection.
I would rate The Princess Bride as a far better example of the cinematic fairy tale than Ladyhawke, it is clearly funnier and better made, but that isn’t to say that Ladyhawke isn’t without merit. Rutger is obviously still new enough to the US movie scene that he even tries to act a bit in this, Pfeiffer was in her effortless and flawless prime, and Broderick looks about eleven years of age and manages to almost pull off the constantly nattering (in various accents I might add) Phillippe without making me hate him… almost.
Perhaps a little long at two hours, and while I might give the benefit of the doubt due to the time elapsed between release and the present day I can’t not mention the unbelievably sucky synth-heavy soundtrack, Ladyhawke is perhaps a worthwhile alternative to the Twilight-jaded pre-teens in your home. I’d rather 25 year old sappiness with Hauer and Pfeiffer than that crap.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. The Princess Bride might get all the kudos, but Ladyhawke doesn’t do too much wrong.
This was my favorite movie growing up…this and the Princess Bride. Isn’t Michelle in this movie the most beautiful woman ever! I literally can’t think of another woman with a face to match hers. I think the movie was original, but yes a bit too long and cheesy in places. The character Phillipe, while he didn’t annoy me when I first watched it when I was younger, annoys me a bit now. I feel some of the screen time would have been better spent on the lovers or even other characters to flesh them out a bit more. Oddly enough the music never bothered me….still doesn’t. Wierd.