Nighthawks (DVD 2004)

Outside of the original Rocky, this is perhaps Stallone's best film and performance, as a NYC cop on the trail of a ruthless international terrorist (chillingly portrayed by Rutger Hauer in his breakthrough American performance - he followed this with his even more memorable turn in Blade Runner the following year). Stallone and his partner (Billy Dee Williams - The Empire Strikes Back) track down the elusive terrorist and a tense, exciting game of cat and mouse begins, with some terrific action set pieces and a superb gritty cop movie atmosphere remiscent of the best films of the genre such as Dirty Harry and The French Connection. Keith Emerson's score is tremendously distinctive, lending a real pulse-pounding quality to the film's best sequences, and providing a distinctive atmosphere throughout. Nigel Davenport (Knight Rider), Joe Spinell (Gazzo from Rocky) and Lindsay Wagner provide fine support, and director Bruce Malmuth keeps the suspense and excitement cranked up from beginning to end. An unfairly overlooked gem of a thriller, well worth checking out, though beware of altered versions of the film. The original pre-certification video release from the early 1980s (and a few rare international DVD releases) show the film as originally released, but most releases from the mid 1980s onwards for some inexplicable reason have altered the music during one of the film's best scenes: "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones plays in the nightclub scene as the cops finally track down the terrorist, and the music in this scene works brilliantly. But in most releases, for some reason, this entire scene has been re-scored with horribly cheesy, unmemorable 70s disco music which really takes the spark out of the scene (the dancers are now dancing out of time to the music and the music is out of time with the action and tension as it unfolds, truly ruining arguably the film's most memorable scene). So try and track down the original version if you can, it's a real rarity, and the original and best way to enjoy this cracking thriller.

Sylvester Stallone's Early Work & It Shows.

This is a typical '80's cop & robbers movie, yet now theres a terrorist ( Rutger Hauer ) involved, and Sylvester Stallone Plays the Hero Cop.

Story Is As Follows:

Sylvester Stallone is a urban street cop who is asked to join the a.t.a.c. squad to capture a international terrorist.
At first he refuses, simply because he does not approve of the methods they are using and does not want to become a assassin.
Yet Due to his friend he accepts and the hunt is on.
His Friend Got Hurt, but lives, then it's Rutger VS. Stallone.

In the end Stallone wins by using his old school cop tricks as posing as his ex-wife ( who rutger tries to kill ) .

All in all a good movie, wouldn't buy it, but renting it is good, or seeing it on TV.

This Is Stallone's early work though, so there are some parts where you can clearly see that he's faking a punch etc.